TCD's Halloween 2011 Trip Report

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Thank you for posting this pic it shows that TCD is breaking the rules. He using the common area

That's not common area, that's my backyard!

Because of how my site was angled, I had no room at the front of my site for any decorations, so that is where they had to go.

I even had one of the Rangers stop by my campsite for a visit, and he didn't say a thing about my decorations.

Andrew,

Great to see another report from you so soon from the last one. I guess you snuck this one in early today and missed getting on the first page. I'm glad you liked your site number. We always get worried about getting one of the sites that back up to the main road with our little ones. Luckily that hasn't happened yet. It does stink that you pay extra for a premium site and get asphalt on 3 sides of you. I guess if the site was reversed you would be battleing with site 617 as best site on property...lol We will be there Thanksgiving week. Hope to see you there and maybe actually take in a beverage this time.

Yes, at least our patio area was not right on the road. I did end up liking the site, but I personally would rather have been a few sites further into the loop.

I hope to be around the Fort for part of Thanksgiving week, so hopefully we can have a beverage together. Will Herbie be back in operation by then?

Page 3 - that's better than my last several attempts. Like other sad fiends, I couldn't make it for Halloween, but I sure am glad to be able to read all about what happened in my absence. Bring it on!

Hey Leslie!

Thanks for stopping by.

I will bring it on!

I hate that work is crimping my Fiend activities. I didn't make it in until page 3. But, another week of work and then I'm off for 12 days! What should I do with that time??

Wow!

Just one more week of work!

Awesome.

I hope this report will be done before you leave.

Hey! That's not right! Are you taking a jab at me?

I tried to end the TR after a month but they all kept singing that dang song!!! AND posting their own photos.

Anyhoo....that one is finally over and we can get to the real TR. So there.

No, that's not a jab at all. Your most recent trip report was fantastic and a lot of fun. It was also long and neverending. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

Page 3 already?? Man I am slacking!

You are off to a great start!

I bet you forgot what it was like having a little one around the campsite. And Nicholas looks so innocent, there's no way he got into any mischief.

Can't wait for more.

Hey, Tom, at least you're here!

Thanks for checking in.

TCD

[Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo..Karla 77]

It's wonderful to see another TCD report.

Missing Rocky... ... thought you'd bring him so he could be in the pet contest.

Aiden and Nicholas would have gotten along very well...sorry we missed them.

How is it you always seem to find mysteries at the Fort to solve?

Looking forward to the mystery in this report.

Hope to meet you someday...we'll be back in January (adults only this time!).

[dblr....Rennie 224]

Boy it sucks getting called into work early, I only made it on page 3 but it was great to come home from work and find a TCD trip report. All the trip reports from Halloween have been great really have to make it soon.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

It's wonderful to see another TCD report.

Missing Rocky... ... thought you'd bring him so he could be in the pet contest.

Aiden and Nicholas would have gotten along very well...sorry we missed them.

How is it you always seem to find mysteries at the Fort to solve?

Looking forward to the mystery in this report.

Hope to meet you someday...we'll be back in January (adults only this time!).

Karla- I've got to say that not meeting up with you and your crew has to be the biggest negative for this trip. I know you were right there in the first site on 400, and we drove by your site many times, but you were always on the go!

We shall see about January. It's time for the TCD twins to tour colleges, and we may be doing that with our weekends in January.

But, I'm sure we will meet up one of these days.

You also mentioned the only other real negative on this trip- that Rocky was not back to defend his best of show title for the costume contest. But, we just couldn't swing it- we planned on being on the go a lot on this trip, and Rocky really would not have liked that.

I have a great idea for a new costume for Rocky, and based on this year's competition, which we will be looking at in just a bit, I would say Rocky has a pretty good shot at pulling off another victory.

Boy it sucks getting called into work early, I only made it on page 3 but it was great to come home from work and find a TCD trip report. All the trip reports from Halloween have been great really have to make it soon.

Thanks. And you're right-there are so many great Halloween trip reports! Just goes to show you that this site is by far the best site anywhere in the universe for Fort Wilderness information.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

OK, I think I am caught up on the comments, so now it's time to move this thing along.

But first, I forgot to mention something about Friday night.

As we were headed down to Trail's End to order our chicken, we looped around the 600 loop, and ran right in to Lou, Gail and Buddy! Meeting Lou at the Fort is NBD. But Gail and Buddy are what we call "rares." It was good to see them both. And, it was good to see Lou, too. Lou told me that he and Gail had finally gotten to sample a Giddyap and Go. So that is some big news to report.

And while I am at it, I will go ahead and mention the other "rares" I got to meet on this trip -

Memphis.

And

Lucy_Love.

Memphis I have met before, but he keeps it on the DL at the Fort.

Lucy_Love/Ashley, I had not met before- it was good to meet you, Ashley!

Now, back to Saturday morning. . .

Nicholas had survived me watching him for a little while. And, as S70 has already astutely observed, 90% of his fingers had survived in good shape.

And, he had splashed in the lake puddle next to our waterfront site.

And, he had made his first Halloween craft.

And he had even met a very droopy vampire Mickey.

This poor kid needed to have some fun!

And I had just the thing!

Mummy Wrap!

Woo Hoo!

Who doesn't like a good Mummy Wrap?

And, as far as I have seen, these are the first (and maybe the last?) photos that have been posted from the great 2011 Fort Wilderness Halloween weekend Mummy Wrap.

Now, before you get too excited, I have to tell you that I have attended the Mummy Wrap at the Fort for the last four Halloweens, and not once has there ever been a Mummy there.

The truth of the matter is that it's just a bunch of kids playing with toilet paper.

You would think one of these days they would stop going on the cheap and bring in a real Mummy.

What am I saying?

Stop going on the cheap?

I must be drinking some of S70's punch.

Sorry.

So, if you're hoping to see some real live Mummies, then you probably want to skip this post.

But, if you want to see a bunch of kids wasting perfectly good toilet paper, then this is the post for you.

There- you can't say I didn't warn you.

So, here we are.

In the Meadow.

We got there about five minutes late, and the relay teams had already been picked for the first game.

That's right, I said first game.

They really milked this thing this year.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

The first event wasn't very impressive.

It looked like the plan was to wrap a couple sheets of toilet paper around yourself and then run for it:

I know what your thinking:

Mummy Wrap is boring!

And those are the sorriest excuses for Mummies ever!

I've seen more TP on shoes of the drunk Hoop Dee Doo guests coming out of the Pioneer Hall restrooms

But, don't go away just yet.

I got a bit bored myself so I looked around at the spectators.

And I saw something cool.

Right there!

Here you go:

Look at that moustache!

That's a real beaut!

In fact, this guy won the TCD Best Facial Hair Award for this trip.

And, that award doesn't get awarded every trip.

Congratulations, Sir!

We salute you!

So that first relay ended.

And, for that I was grateful.

I thought we could then return to our campsite and find something fun to do.

But, I was wrong.

The castmembers made up new teams.

And, they then had each team work on wrapping one team member up.

Now, this is more like it!

I think they gave the teams ten minutes to accomplish the wrapping.

Which was about 8 minutes too many, if you ask me.

But Nicholas enjoyed it:

The team you see in this photo came up with a system. Their leader was a castmember named Forest, and he had each team member take a roll of TP and walk around their victim Mummy. It was a genius plan:

When I get around to the Sunday night part of this report, I have a funny story to tell you about Forest.

If I forget to tell that story, one of you please remind me.

So, anyway, to me it was quite obvious that Forest's team is going to run away with this one:

But, this is Disney.

So the Castmembers announced that it was a tie- everybody would get a prize!

Nicholas thought that was awesome.

But, what kind of lesson is that to teach a kid?

That you can do a half-a**ed job wrapping your Mummy and still get paid?

I am going to write a letter to management complaining about that!

Well, the second Mummy wrapping event was better than the first, and I was glad that Nicholas would get a prize and we could get out of there.

But, I was jumping the gun.

Again.

You would think there was nothing more that we could do with that TP.

But, you would be wrong for thinking of that.

Because we next had to participate in the TP toss.

It looked a little something like this:

I can't tell you how much I wanted to throw one of those rolls up in one of the tall pines there next to the tennis courts.

But, I behaved myself.

And, then, thankfully, the Mummy Wrap was over.

This all took less than half an hour.

It just seemed a lot longer.

For his efforts, Nicholas was awarded a nifty rubber bat on an elastic string. Complete with suction cup. Awesome. The string broke off within 30 seconds of that bat getting in his busy little hands. Awesome. The bat with no string wasn't so cool. Fail.

So, that's a wrap on the Mummy Wrap for 2011.

Now you know.

And in case any of you think that any of this was a good thing, let me tell you that for the rest of the weekend, you had to check before doing any business in the comfort stations to make sure there was TP on hand. For some reason there were a lot of empty rolls around the Fort. Remember that if you ever visit around Halloween.

Next up, time for a transportation adventure. . .

Or, as we called it:

Bus! Boat! Monorail!

Yay!

TCD

[stefa70 205]

Great job on the mummy reporting. It seems I missed a lot of the festivities that happened over the weekend.

I am sure glad that I did not win the TCD Best Facial Hair award!

I LOVE Nicholas's boots. Do you think he would hand them down to me when he outgrows them?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Great job on the mummy reporting. It seems I missed a lot of the festivities that happened over the weekend.

That darn punch!

I am sure glad that I did not win the TCD Best Facial Hair award!

Well, now that you mention it, I did notice.

Silly me, I thought you would prefer that we not mention your moustache.

I think with a little grooming you could be in the running for an award next time.

I LOVE Nicholas's boots. Do you think he would hand them down to me when he outgrows them?

Sure thing.

I guess they would be a little big on you, but maybe you could stuff some TP in the toes?

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

So really late for me but finally I am here. Love the Mummy Wrap. Had I have been there you would not have been the only one trying to repress the desire to toss some TP into the tress......

[anolefan 8]

OK, I think I am caught up on the comments, so now it's time to move this thing along.

Here you go:

TCD

Rollie Fingers! Awesome!

I didn't know he visited the Fort. Between him and Keith Stone the Fort is becoming a celebrity hangout!

Great update by the way.

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

I LOVE Nicholas's boots. Do you think he would hand them down to me when he outgrows them?

Going to use them as hip waders?

[Total Joker ... TJ 203]

Anyhoo....that one is finally over and we can get to the real TR. So there. :raspberry2:

OVER?? Really?? I Dont Think So!! :raspberry:

[stefa70 205]

That darn punch!

Yeah, that may have been the reason.

Well, now that you mention it, I did notice.

Silly me, I thought you would prefer that we not mention your moustache.

I think with a little grooming you could be in the running for an award next time.

Thanks, but it's ok, we're all friends here. I have no shame. I'm aspiring to look like Rollie, but that may take some time.

Sure thing.

I guess they would be a little big on you, but maybe you could stuff some TP in the toes?

Great idea! Did you bring any TP home from the mummy wrap competition?

TCD

Going to use them as hip waders?

You're killing me Ed!! And for the record:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

OVER?? Really?? I Dont Think So!! :raspberry:

I was surprised to hear Kim say that it was over, too.

How can the neverending trip report be over?

Then it wouldn't be neverending, then, would it?

You're killing me Ed!! And for the record:

Fun size?

I'll agree with that!

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

After all the fun we had at the Mummy Wrap, it was time for us to do some looping.

My sister and Nicholas live in Ocala.

My brother-in-law used to be in the horse business, and he and my sister owned horses. But that was before Nicholas was born.

But, being from Ocala, Nicholas has been around a lot of horses.

We decided that he would like to check out the horse barn.

So that's where we headed next.

We used to visit the horse barn on every visit.

Now, it's just an occasional thing.

This is TCD twin #1 with Bob:

Her hair must have reminded Bob of hay, because he sure wanted to take a big bite:

Here is a shot of the cousins. Note that everyone is keeping a bit of distance from Bob:

Bob still tried to get a little bite:

Nicholas liked Bob just fine. And Bob didn't try to eat Nicholas' hair:

After the horse barn, we returned to camp.

It was getting to be lunch time.

My sister had heard tales of Dole Whip.

She wanted to see for herself.

So, the twins and my sister took off with Nicholas to the Polynesian.

Nicholas wanted to ride a Disney bus, and the boat again, and the monorail. So, that is what they did.

I stayed back at camp.

I wanted to put up the rest of our decorations, and get the rest of our campsite set up.

So that's what they did, and that's what I did.

There are some great photos of Nicholas with Dole Whip. My sister posted them on Facebook. I don't have those photos yet, but I will get them, and post them when I do. I know that at least Dave would want to see Nicholas' Dole Whip.

So, while the girls had a nice lunch with their Aunt and Cousin, I got the site decorated.

This is how it looked before the wind:

This photo is taken from across the street in front of the Meadow Trading Post, looking in to the 900 loop:

If you look closely in the background of this photo, you will see a poncho on a clothesline and the official TCD hammock securely lashed to two trees:

You will note that I covered both the University of Florida as well as Florida State University with the decorations. The Gators were playing Georgia on that afternoon. I left the Gators up even though they lost. A lot of people still stopped and had their photos taken with them. Gator Nation will rise again. Don't worry about that.

After a while, I got a text that the gang was returning to the marina, so I headed down to get them.

As luck would have it, they arrived back just in time for the Terrible Tattoo activity at the pool.

We headed straight there.

There was quite a crowd.

I guess free Terrible Tattoos are popular.

Here's a shot of the line waiting for the tattoo application. That's Jenna there to the right, and my sister in the orange shirt looking at the camera:

There were a lot of folks enjoying the pool and slide on this fairly warm Saturday afternoon, but it was nowhere near as crowded as it gets in the summer:

From here, it was back to our site briefly.

Because the next event was the Pet Parade.

And there is no way we were going to miss that!

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Love the pictures of TCD twins, nicholas and bob! The more TRs, the more i can see the differences in the twins. But I will say those girls have fun!

[stefa70 205]

TCD

There's that look of "Oh boy, I could get myself into trouble if no one was watching me!"

I never did make it to the horse barn this trip, and I usually do.

Looking forward to pet costume contest, uhh....missed that too!

Carry on! :)

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Ahhhhh. a TCD report. Just what I needed! Thanks!

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

There were other activities going on at the Fort? i only heard about the "punch" drinking contest. :rofl2: I put in a pretty good effort with that one. :rofl:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Love the pictures of TCD twins, nicholas and bob! The more TRs, the more i can see the differences in the twins. But I will say those girls have fun!

Yes, they have distinct personalities.

But, for the record, they are both taller than S70.

And you are right, they do have a lot of fun.

But not more than their dad!

There's that look of "Oh boy, I could get myself into trouble if no one was watching me!"

I never did make it to the horse barn this trip, and I usually do.

Looking forward to pet costume contest, uhh....missed that too!

Carry on! :)

Yep.

Twin #1 is the one we have to keep an eye on.

She knew the Red Solo Cup song, and knew about Hunch Punch, even though I had not heard of either.

You missed the Pet Parade, too?

It was practically in your back yard!!!

I am seeing a theme develop here.

Ahhhhh. a TCD report. Just what I needed! Thanks!

Good, I'm glad that you needed this, and that it is here for you.

Enjoy!

There were other activities going on at the Fort? i only heard about the "punch" drinking contest. :rofl2: I put in a pretty good effort with that one. :rofl:

That punch is Da Devil¹, I tell you!

TCD

1. This is a reference to Adam Sandler's mother in The Waterboy.

[stefa70 205]

There were other activities going on at the Fort? i only heard about the "punch" drinking contest. :rofl2: I put in a pretty good effort with that one. :rofl:

I'd give you a solid Silver medal! I believe with the "size to punch consumed" ratio, I took home the Gold.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Second isn't too shabby. :rofl2:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Well Saturday just flew right on by, and before we knew it was 5 o'clock and time for the pet costume parade.

The TCD dog, Rocky, won best in show at the pet parade last year.

We wanted him to come back and repeat this year, but it just was not in the cards.

So, this year we were just spectators.

For the past three years, at least, the pet parade has been on the morning of Halloween.

This year, the fort managers mixed it up and put the parade on Saturday evening, October 29th.

I thought maybe that would keep people away.

I thought wrong.

I would say the crowd was a little lighter than last year, but there was still a crowd.

Here we are at the dog park:

Those are all of the contestants in there waiting for the parade to start.

Last year, they had us walk the dogs past the judges, and then around the perimeter of the dog park. That way, folks could line up along the fence and see.

They changed that this year too.

The judges were in the dog park, but the dogs would not be walked along the fence. They would just head out and walk around the 300 loop.

I snapped photos of a few of the contestants. Here's a cowgirl with a cow and something else, I'm not sure what:

There was no list of winners posted anywhere, and we did not stick around to here the winners announced, but I heard that this dog placed in the contest.

Here you can see a princess and a baby dog. My girls thought the puppy was adorable, and I agree with them:

Here's a shot of the crowd:

You can see a poodle in a skirt and the poodle's owner in a poodle skirt in this photo:

Here, you can see that Dave's favorite princess was also here. You can also see our friend Forest in his red jacket in the right of this photo:

We couldn't see much from where we were along the fence, so we headed over to the 300 loop playground, because we knew the dogs would eventually parade by there.

The playground was getting quite a workout this afternoon:

We picked a place right here along the fence and waited for the dogs to come on by:

And here they come!:

Our friend Amanda led the way with the mobile sound system:

The two most interesting contestants - the Poodle Skirt Lady and Snow White- seemed as if they were together. You can see them heading our way here:

Snow White was probably my favorite:

A lot of witty things have come to mind for me to say about this next photo. But, I'm sure that this lady is someone's wife, mother, and possibly grandmother, and that she is a delightful person, so I will choose to just not say anything. A picture is worth a thousand words anyway:

OK- I can't help myself. I'll just make one comment- this lady probably is someone's wife, mother, and grandmother- couldn't somebody have stopped this from happening?

OK- no more.

Let's move on . . .

There were plenty more contestants to come:

Nicholas liked this puppy:

How about just a few more?:

According to my information, the folks with this wagon also placed:

Check out Nicholas in this photo. He got tired of watching the dogs, and found something more interesting:

It's a stick! How fun! He quickly tried to whack a couple of dogs with it. Just as quickly, my sister jumped in to stop him. What a funsucker she is!:

So that was it for us.

We didn't hang around for the dogs to come back to the park and for the winners to be announced.

We heard that the winners were the Poodle Skirt lady, the Cowgirl, and the Wagon Lady.

We did not hear the order of the winners.

All I can say is that if Rocky had been here, he would have won again.

Too bad.

That's all I have for you on the pet parade.

But, there was still a lot of our Saturday left.

I'll tell you about that in my next post.

TCD

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

I am somebody's wife, mother and grandmother,I agree with you somebody should have stopped her

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I am somebody's wife, mother and grandmother,I agree with you somebody should have stopped her

And one more thing I forgot to say:

If Disney sells Snow White dresses in that size, they shouldn't.

That's all I am going to say about that.

TCD

[kampfirekim 260]

And Nicholas looks so innocent, there's no way he got into any mischief. :)

Nicholas is a TCD relative.... mischief is implied. ;D

No, that's not a jab at all. Your most recent trip report was fantastic and a lot of fun. It was also long and neverending. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

TCD

;D Awww... gosh... ( I knew you were kiddin'. )

OVER?? Really?? I Dont Think So!! :raspberry:

I was surprised to hear Kim say that it was over, too.

How can the neverending trip report be over?

Then it wouldn't be neverending, then, would it?

TCD

:facepalm: I have a feeling it's started again. :rofl2:

Second isn't too shabby. :rofl2:

Heck, from what I've heard just entering took nerves of steel. :heart: :rofl2: