Sunday, June 9:
Last night the Blackhawks won with about 3 minutes left in the 2nd overtime period. I guess they go on to meet the Bruins for the Stanley Cup Championship. First game is Wednesday.
We got up and drove over to Fort Wilderness for breakfast at Whispering Canyon with Chad, our favorite cast member. The plan was to go to Wal-Mart after breakfast, however we realized it was Sunday and we just don't go out in the "Real" world on weekends. So we went back to Alf. Alf has had some magnetic covers over the furnace registers that were just plain white - boring! So,we bought some Disney stickers and began decorating our registers. Below are 3 of the 6 covers we did.
At 2:00 it was time for the Canadian Gran Prix. It was a fairly uneventful race. After the race was time for dinner. Since we didn't have any plans we took a chance and went down to Trail's End for their buffet. We both had shrimp (Jane had a big baked potato, I had some really good maple glazed salmon). The afternoon rain still hasn't come, maybe the cycle is broken. Just watched some "regular" TV.
Al, Chad & Jane at Whispering Canyon
Monday, June 10:
The morning dawned cloudless! We thought it would be a good day to rent a pontoon boat and cruise around the lakes. It was beautiful! Light breeze, no clouds and smooth water. While we were on the lake we noticed that the Iron Man monorail was running to MK. So, when we got back to the campground we took the boys for a walk and went back to the dock and caught a boat to the Contemporary for some monorail viewing. We snuck onto the bridge leading to the Contemporary Vacation Club tower. This is a great vantage point. We waited a short time for the Iron Man monorail and shot some photos. As I mentioned before when Disney releases a new feature movie they "dress" one of the monorails accordingly. In addition to the Iron Man version there is also a Monsters University monorail. All of the "paint" is actually a huge wrap! After getting our photos of Iron Man, we rode the monorail to the Polynesian Resort, where we discovered they have a Dole Whip machine at Captain Cook's snack bar. Dole Whips are basically a pineapple smoothie. They are awesome!! I wish we had known this earlier. We are going to have to go to the Polynesian Resort more often.
Iron Man monorail, finally
These are Dole Whips!
After our Dole Whips we headed to the monorail again to take the short ride back to the Contemporary Resort so we could catch a boat back to the campground. As we were leaving the Polynesian they were having a hula lesson in the lobby.
By now it was almost 2:00, time for the afternoon showers. It didn't rain! After a short rest period, it was dinner time, hamburgers and Bratwurst. There is no hockey tonight so we just surfed the channels until bedtime. The boys are our alarm clocks - at 4:30 it is dinner time, at 10:00 it is bedtime.
Hula lesson
Tuesday, June 11:
It was supposed to be real nice today so we decided to go to EPCOT, do some shopping and have a late lunch at LeCellier. We took the boys for a long walk in the morning and saw Rickie sunning on our side of the canal! We were told last year that if you see one on our side of the canal to just shoo them back in - I don't think so. Even though Rickie is only about 2 feet long we decided to just let her be. We took the car down to the bus stop (just in case it rains) and headed off to EPCOT about 12:30. We stopped in at Art of Disney to see if anything new had come in. It had! We ended up getting some Christmas ornaments. We then went to MouseGear with a short stop at the Pin Station. The new Oz movie is released today and I wanted to see it it was available at MouseGear. It was, so I grabbed a copy and met Jane at the checkout counter. She added to my purchases, surprise! (we are doing our best to boost the stock prices). We continued on to the Canada Pavilion to see if we could check in early for lunch. We couldn't, so we went up to the shop to see if we could buy some Ketchup Potato Chips. Some of our hockey friends got us hooked on them and this is the only place we can get them (besides Canada). We wondered if we could buy a case (28 bags). It turned out that we could. So we told them that we would take 2 cases and come back after dinner to get them. No problem. It was still too early for lunch so we went to see the O'Canada circle vision movie. It has some beautiful film of Canada (especially Western Canada). Finally it was time for lunch. LeCellier is kind of a dimly lite restaurant so imagine our surprise when we opened our menus and they are backlit! Pretty cool. Our waiter said that these are ONLY used on one of the cruise ships and here. I expect they will sprout up in more places as time goes on. After lunch we went up to pick up our Chips. They had 3 cases ready. Said that they had 3 available and if we wanted them we could have them. We took them! We headed back to the Fort and home. We are glad we left the car at the bus stop since it is raining again. We are wondering where we are going to put them. Decided to leave them in the car until we leave. Into the trunk they go. The plan was to have some dinner and watch "Oz". Good plan, but the movie is Blue-Ray and the player in the RV is only DVD, so it didn't recognize the Blue-Ray. No movie tonight!
This is one of Jane's favorite stores
LeCellier lighted menu
(cel phone photo - low light)
Wednesday, June 12:
Woke up this morning and it was a beautiful day. We decided to go to the pool before it got crowded. It was really nice until it got hot and the crowd began. fortunately,these two things happened about the same time. So we left to let the boys out and do some shopping at Wal-Mart (they have really soft toilet paper). We got a couple of other things, too. On the way home we decided to go to Earl's for lunch. Got two sandwiches to go and came home. While we were out we got an email that this coach had just checked in, so we hopped in
our borrowed golf cart and went to look for it. We went through
all the loops (about14of them) looking for it. Didn't find it.
We thought maybe our friend from Canada (Gary) that sent
the email might be pulling one over on us. We later found out
that these folks had purchased a used coach and completely
gutted it and did all the paint themselves. They say it is a
work in progress. We also found out that they left this morning.
While we were touring the loops we ran across a couple of
the big sewer vacuum trucks. We have had so much rain and
there is so much standing water they are sucking alot of the
standing water up into these big tanker trucks. They said on
the news this morning that normal rain fall for June is 4.75"
and we have had 7.5" all ready and it is only the 12th! We had
left overs from LeCellier (steak and mushrooms). Then it was
about time for game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Chicago vs
Boston. It has been 34 years since 2 of the "original six" met
in the finals and this is the first time that Chicago and Boston
have played for the Cup. This is going to be some series!
Awesome custom paint job on an older Winnebago
Thursday, June 13:
Well, after three 20 minute overtimes, the Blackhawks finally won last nights hockey game at 1:00 this morning. Next game is Saturday in Chicago. We got up early this morning for an 8:30 trail ride. The rides are about 45 minutes long and go way back in the woods. We did see a little fawn along the way. We had never done this in the past so it was something new. We may wait until they get padded saddles to do it again. After the ride we went back to Alf, changed clothes and took the boys for a long walk. It is sunny and hot so we wanted to do it before it got too hot. We then went back to Fantasy of Flight (www.fantasyofflight.com) in Polk City. This is the largest private collection of aircraft in the world. The owner of all 150+ aircraft in this collection is Kermit Weeks and today he is off to Texas to purchase another airplane (one of Howard Hughes planes). All of the planes in the collection are in flyable condition amd most do fly regularly. If you are a fan of aircraft, this is the place to be in Central Florida. It is just a short (20 miles) trip west on I-4 exit 44. The little resturant also has the best hot dogs I have had in a long time (even better than Casey's, Gary). We will definately be going back to Fantasy of Flight (we have to, we bought annual passes).
Ford Tri-Motor
That was once TAT (TWA)
Just a few of the 20+ zero hour (never been run) Allison engines available for aircraft
Art, one of the tour guides.
"Rosie the Riveter" does a talk on the original "Rosie"
After lunch we headed back to Alf to let the dogs outbefore the afternoon rain. Yes it had clouded up again, right on time, 2:00. Since it hadn't started raining, we sat outside for a while, until it got too hot. then we came in and started making dining reservations for the next trip. We are trying to eat someplace new each trip. reservations made we watched a little TV and then it was off to bed.
The wonderful B-17 diorama with a walk through B-17
Friday, June 14:
We had reservations for lunch at Yak & Yeti in Animal Kingdom. So we just stayed around Alf in the morning. We took the boys on a long walk and looked for Rickie. No sign of Rickie this morning - we think she only comes when it is sunny in a particular spot. We caught the bus to Animal Kingdom and were off to lunch. Our bus driver was very entertaining - pantomiming the bus announcements (you had to be there to see it).
We have never been toYak & Yetti before so didn't know what to expect. Yak and Yeti doesn't look like much from the outside, but inside it is totally different. Very nice. Jane had the tempora shrimp, I had the salmon - both were very good. We will be going back in the future.
Yak & Yeti - exterior
Yak & Yeti - interior, 2nd floor
After lunch we headed to the Lion King show. This is an amazing "stage show" that is one of the most popular at WDW and one of our favorites. The theater was packed and we thought that we might not get in. It was very hot and humid so we were very happy that we did get in (air conditioning). The show hasn't changed in years, but it is always entertaining.
The Lion King - Animatronics
Lion King cast finale
Some of the cast
After Lion King we headed back to the campground to get the car and went on a quick trip to the grocery store for some basic supplies like Coke (Coke is $8:00/6-pack at the Meadow Trading Post on property). Watched some TV and went to bed.
Saturday, June 15:
Got up early this morning to overcast skies. There is a big car show at Pleasure Island this morning and since it looks like rain we thought it best to go early. When we got there it was sprinkling just a little so many of the cars were covered. We hungout under some cover for a while until it stopped raining. While we were waiting for the rain to stop we saw Chip Fosse (Chip is a very well known and talented car customizer). We went over and asked if we could take a picture with him and he agreed. There were some beautiful cars, old and very new, stock and highly modified. There were 3 gorgeous Cobra replicas that were immaculate.
Jane with Chip Fosse (lens is a little fogged over)
Factory Five Cobra replica
Packhard town car - daily driver!
Jane with Mike from Monsters, Inc
Jane with Sully from Mosters, Inc
Lightning McQueen
Tow 'Mater
After seeing all the cars (and drooling) we went down to Earl's for some breakfast. We did a little shopping while we were there. Skies started looking stormy so we headed home. We got home and got the dogs out just before the rain started (again). It looked like it was going to be an all afternoon rain so we put a couple of Disney movies in the DVD player and settled in. We watched Cinderella first then Brave. it is very interesting to see the advancements in animation in 60+ years. After the movies it was getting close to pizza time. We have one more pizza from Minsky's, we made a couple of changes to the way we baked it and it was wonderful!!! After pizza it was HOCKEY TIME game two of the Stanley Cup series. I hope this one doesn't go into overtime.
Sunday, June 16 (Father's Day):
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to any dad's reading this. This morning we took the boat to Fort Wilderness Lodge to have breakfast at Whispering Canyon with Chad. Great breakfast (we both had the Chocolate Chip pancakes). After breakfast we came back to the campground for a little while and sat in the sun for a while. About 4:00 we decided it was time for a Dole Whip run to the Polynesian. The boat captain on the Polynesian boat told us that at one time there was a wave machine on one of the islands that created waves to wash up on the Polynesian beach. It has since been removed - it eroded the Polynesian beach too much. Then we took a short trip through the gift shop before heading back to Magic Kingdom. We had to make a quick stop at the MK Guest Relations window to get my annual pass replaced. I had some how bent the first one. We also picked up some Party (Halloween and Christmas) tickets for future trips. While we were at MK, since we were there, we had to do some shopping at the Emporium on Main Street. I got to see the lowering of the American Flag at 5:00 - very inspiring with the Main Street Band playing the National Anthem. Just as Jane finished shopping it started to rain - again. We decided we were going to get wet anyway so why hurry to the boat. Just as we were getting to the boat we saw a beautiful rainbow (the photo doesn't do it justice). Once we got back to the campground we made a short stop at the Settlement Trading Post for desert - ice cream and pie. Once we got back to Alf we got the boys out just in time to beat another downpour that lasted all night. Had some dinner and watched some TV before hitting the sack.
Rainbow over the Contemporary Resort
Monday, June 17:
Today was supposed to be a Studio day, but when we got up the sky was gray and foreboding andJane was feeling a little under the weather so we decided to stay close to home and wait for the rain. We didn't have to wait long for the rain and it rained most of the day. Fortunately there were occasional breaks for the dogs to go out - no long walks today. In the afternoon the boys helped me make more cookies for them. They sampled the end product and approved. After dinner it was time for game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals. Blackhawks and Bruins are tied with one win each. Blackhawks were shut out!! Bummer. Tomorrow we will try to get to the Studio. As I am writing this I am watching a TV show on Extreme RV's - I want one, but the cheapest one is over $1,000,000.
Licese plate we spotted on one of our outings -
Ya think Disney has some clout in Florida?
Tuesday, June 18:
Today was a day of lines. We got up and went to the Studio early to catch Toy Story again. Waited in line for Toy Story (the sign said 75 minutes, but I don't think it was that long). The plan was to do Toy Story, get a Fast Pass for another ride and then go to Lights, Motors, Action at 1:20. Plans are meant to be changed, right? We did get the Toy Story done, got the Fast Pass (good for 4:20-5:20 in the afternoon) and then we took a "walking tour" of "The Legend of Jack Sparrow" (another line). Then it was lunch time so we decided to ride the boat to EPCOT and have lunch at the new French cafe (a short line). On the way back to the boat to return to The Studio we met Mary Poppins and while waiting for the boat we talked to one of the captains and his very friendly (if he had a peanut) squirrel friend. By the time we got back to the Studio it was too late for the Lights, Motors, Action show and we didn't want to wait around for 3 hours to use our Fast Passes for Toy Story, so we gave our Fast Passes to a mom and her daughter that rode over on the boat with us. We got a bus back to the campground (long wait), let the boys out, and watched the rain. We have dinner reservations at Be Our Guest for 8:55 tonight (long wait, they lost our reservation). Be Our Guest is in the new Fantasyland and is the largest restaurant in the Kingdom. It is based on the castle from Beauty and the Beast. It just opened in December so we thought we would give it a try. Interesting menu, food was good and awesome deserts. We usually don't take pictures of food, but the presentation of the deserts was fun. We had been told about "The Gray Stuff" that is only available to folks having a "special day", so we cheated and got anniversary pins. We got the Gray Stuff and it was interesting, hard to tell what it was made of, it was kind of a mousse, but apparently a very special desert. After dinner we met The Beast for some photos. As we were leaving the restaurant we discovered a very special place. On the "bridge" to Be Our Guest is the very BEST place to watch fireworks!!! Gary, are you reading this? You get to see fireworks from The Beast's castle and behind Cinderella's Castle - it was AWESOME! After the fireworks we headed back to the boat to come home, but it was just about time for the Celebrate the Magic show. This is a new show that is projected on the Castle, again Disney Magic leaves you wondering "how do they do that"? It is just fantastic!
After that we again started to head for the boat. Made a quick stop at the Main Street Bakery/Starbuck's and got a blueberry muffin for Jane's breakfast. Then it was off the the boat. A really long line. One of the docks was out of service so all of the boats to the campground were using one dock. finally got on a boat and had a very entertaining "first mate" that filled us in on some Disney Trivia. For instance, The Fort Wilderness Lodge was designed to resemble a bear from the lake (this is especially evident at night when there are lights on), and there is only one place, at one park where you can see another park. If you are in EPCOT in front of the Mexican pavilion, look across the lake to Morocco and behind Morocco you can see the back of Tower of Terror at the Studio. The back of the Tower has been painted to blend in to the Moroccan building so you hardly notice it, unless you know to look for it! We finally got home, let the boys out and went to bed.
MaryPoppins
Boat Captain & "Friend"
Be Our Guest deserts
The Gray Stuff
Jane, The Beast, Al
Wednesday, June 19:
This morning dawned sunny and clear. we decided to go EPCOT and do some returning. We took the boat to MK, transferred to a ferry, boarded a monorail and we were at EPCOT. It is great knowing the Disney Transportation system. On the way to MK I decided to take a photo of the Wilderness Lodge to examine the view from the lake, is it a bear? Using your imagination, you can see two eyes and a nose. I will take a night time photo with lights on, I think it will show up better. As we approached MK we noticed that they were running an additional ferry boat (3). The norm is 2 ferries. The lake gets really busy with 3 ferries going. We got to the dock just as the ferry was starting to load so we got right on and were at the TTC in no time. Short wait for the EPCOT monorail. When we got to EPCOT we went right to MouseGear to to some returning of a couple of purchases with no problem and then we went over to the Electric Umbrella for some lunch. Another new eating place. Since it was lunch time it was very busy, but the lines moved fairly fast, Jane found us a table in a quiet corner. After a good lunch we decided to check out another of the Disney trivia things that we learned the other day. You can see Tower of Terror from Mexico. It is true! You can see the back of Tower of Terror under the star in the photo. We then went to The Seas to see the Turtle Talk with Crush show. This is an amazing interactive show that features Crush interacting with kids in the audience. Whoever the current Crush is, they are much better than previous Crush's. After the show we walked
around the the aquarium that is part of the Seas. We saw a rare
"natural" formation on the bottom of one of the tanks and we "found" Nemo. By now it was time to head back to the Fort, so we
Can you see the"Bear"? Two eyes and a nose. Night time photo to come later
Tower of Terror
Turtle Talk with Crush
Natural formation?
Nemo found!
did it in reverse. When we got back we took the boys for a long walk before the anticipated afternoon rain. It was still pretty wet along the dog path, but we managed a long walk. We saw Rickie sunning on our side of the canal. Since she is still fairly small, we let her be. I figure she is just staking out a good sunny spot and when she gets bigger she will be relocated if she continues to like "the people" side of the canal. We took the advice that we were given on an earlier trip and let her be, I approached about one step and she went right back into the water. I am thinking that when she gets bigger that might not be a smart thing to do. We got back and cooled off. I had to make a run to Walgreen's so I wanted to go and get back before the storms (clouds are really building to the north). We thought that since it is nearing dinner time Earl's sounded good for dinner. I thought that since it was dinner time that Downtown Disney would not be very busy - WRONG! It took forever to find a place to park. Finally got home, had our dinner and got ready for game 4 of the Stanley Cup. Bruins are leading, 2 games to the Blackhawks 1. Hawks have to win this one! Well, score was tied 5-5 at the end of regulation play which meant another OT game (3 of the 4 games have gone into OT). Blackhawks finally won! Back to Chicago for game 5.
Thursday, June 20:
We woke up to a weather forecast of even more afternoon storms so we decided to try and get to Be Our Guest for lunch.
When we went over to MK on the boat it was fairly sunny and getting hot. While walking up Main Street we came across a quartet of musicians with some unusual instruments. The line at Be Our Guest was fairly short, only about 20 minutes. However, it was hot and the line was in the sun. As soon as we got in we were led to a room with 6 kiosks where we placed our lunch orders and were given a "Rose" to put on our table and lunch would arrive shortly.
Main Street musicians
The "Magic" Rose at Be Our Guest
The Rose has some kind of Disney Magic in it. It is used to place your order and then you place it on your table and shortly a server arrives with a cart and your lunch. It has got to be Magic. The server and cart just find you in this huge restaurant. The meal was good, maybe better than the dinner from a few days ago. It was crowded, but it is probably the biggest the biggest resturant on property. The walls are decorated with huge paintings of the Beast and Belle. A couple of the paintings have hidden Mickey's in them.
Hidden Mickey in the Bubbles
Hidden Mickey in the "cookies"
Hidden Mickey in "axe" head
After lunch we thought we should ride the Ariel's Grotto ride since it was just around the corner. The wait was 70 minutes long, but having nothing else to do, we waited, in the sun. The skies were mostly clear, but clouds were building. We thought we could do the ride and maybe It's a Small World and still get back to the campground before the rains hit. By the time we got out of the ride the line to It's A Small World was pretty long and the weather was looking more threatening so we headed to the boat. It was looking very dark towards the campground and when the boat left they were not seating anyone in the front because of the threat of lightning. Our first stop was Fort Wilderness Lodge and when we got there the captain was told to hold until the storm cleared. All boats were stopped, the launches, the cruisers and even the big ferry. We waited for about 20 minutes. The wind was pretty strong, there were even white caps on the lake (we have never seen the lake that rough). We finally got going and arrived at the campground and it still wasn't raining. got back to Alf, let the boys out and waited for the storm. It rained a little, but not the storm that was predicted. Watched a little TV and hit the sack early.
Another Hidden Mickey on Main Street
Friday, June 21:
Today is a fairly relaxing day. We took the boat overto the Contemporary Resort to get some accessories for the Magic Bands. Magic Bands will eventually replace the annual pass for park access. The marketing guys at Disney are pretty clever, build up hype for the Magic Bands, introduce a ton of accessories for the bands and THEN market the Magic Bands. They make a ton of money before the bands are even released. We got our accessories and some last minute shopping and went to the dock to wait for the return boat to the campground. While waiting, Jane noticed a lake patrol boat at the entrance to the passage to the big lake with it's flashing lights on. Shortly one of the ferries came through heading to the boat yard area.
The ferries are the biggest boats on the lake and are not much narrower than the passage canal so all boat traffic is stopped when a ferry comes through. It isn't everyday we see the ferry on Bay Lake, or so I thought.
I did a little research and discovered that the ferries go to the boat yard every other day for fuel, so one of the three ferries should be making the trip every day, it is just a matter of timing if you see one. Our boat finally came and we got back to the campground - no rain yet. We took the boys for a long walk (didn't see Rickie this trip). After the walk we gathered up our outdoor rugs, hosed them off and left them out in the sun to dry. It has been so rainy that they are pretty dirty and one of the is showing signs of mold. Major rug cleaning when we get home!! We have tickets to the 3:00 Monsters University movie at the AMC Fork and Screen theater on Pleasure Island. Not raining yet!! Movie was good,
Ferry on Bay Lake
....and disappearing into the boat yard
lunch was good, service sucked! After the movie, it was raining - again. We had a baby gift for a friend, the son of our investment banker. He is a server at Ragland Road and was scheduled to work at 5:30 so we went to the bar, got a drink and waited for him. finally, at 6:00, we learned that his schedule had been changed and he wouldn't be in until 6:45. So we left the gift with the manager and went home. It was still raining, so it was a quick trip out for the boys and we settled in to watch some TV and then to bed.
Saturday, June 22:
This has been the typical lazy day! No plans, no reservations. Several weeks ago we vowed not to go to a park or go off Disney property on the weekends. That is the time that the locals do Disney and all their other errands. It is safer to just stay in. We did some rearranging in the couch and watched alot of home improvement show. We did take the boys for a long walk, dog path is very soggy, but we did manage a long walk. About 3:30 Kellie L. called and arranged to meet her and her daughters at Panera's for dinner. Kellie and I worked together in my former working life at Burns & McDonnell. She and her daughters are going on a girls cruise tomorrow on the Disney Dream. After dinner we went to Publix for some basic shopping, mostly water, milk, and Starbuck's. The traffic leaving Publix was horrible, probably a 2 mile backup, so we got adventurous and turned around to find another way to get home. We kept turning right and we were home in about 10 minutes! We found a new route to Publix. It may be longer, but it is alot quicker than our previous route. We got home just in time to unload the groceries and let the boys out before Game 5 of the Stanley Cup. After only 3 regular periods of play the Blackhawks won! On to game 6 in Boston on Monday
Kellie, Al & Jane
(Kellie, Greg will probably want donuts for this when you get back)
Sunday, June 23:
This morning we thought we might break on of our "rules". We are going to the Studio on a weekend! After we all woke up and had a little sustenance we caught the bus to the Studio to try and make it for the 1:20 "Lights, Motors, Action" stunt show. This show is kind of a behind the scenes look at how Hollywood does auto stunts in the movies. The show takes place in an old French fishing village and the audience is seated in a huge stadium. While the audience is waiting for the show, they show a series for automobile movie trivia. The stunt show has lots of action, jumps, and fire. It is an interesting show that changes peridically to update the cars. One year Herbie was the feature car, this year Lightning McQueen is a featured car. In addition to chases there are jumps and fire. After the show, we took in the Backstage tour an hoped the rain would hold off. On the tour we saw another one of Disney's car star's - Herbie!!
With all this action we were a little hungary and couldn't decide where to eat, finally decided to take the boat up to The Boardwalk and have a late lunch at
One of the trivia questions
Truck to truck jump
Finale - jump through fire
Lightning McQueen - star of Cars
Herbie - star of several Disney movies
the ESPN club. We each had Ruebans and some desert. We did a little shopping after lunch and since the weather was looking more stormy as time went on we decided to take a cab back to the campground. It still hadn't started raining so we took the boys for a long walk and saw a couple of deer across the canal. Then it was home for some TV and off to bed.
Monday, June 24:
This morning was great, sunny and low humidity. It was a great day to go to the pool so we did. It did get hot, but it was nice not having all the clouds and the crowds were not at the pool yet. It was so nice to see the sun again. At about noon it was getting realhot so we came home and let the boys out. We cooled of with a cold drink and then went to Downtown Disney for lunch at Earl's. Jane continued to shop at Downtown Disney and I went to Walgreen's and Winn-Dixie. I went home to sit with the boys and Jane continued to shop. About 4:00 she called for me to pick her up at Port Orlean's - Riverside. She had taken the boat from Downtown to Riverside (an excuse to shop at Riverside?). We had some dinner and settled in to watch Game 6 of the Stanley Cup. Blackhawks could win it tonight (but probably won't - they play in Boston tonight). With a goal in the last few seconds of play the BLACKHAWKS WIN THE STANLEY CUP!!The second time in 4 years the Blackhawks are NHL champions!! Tomorrow I go to the speedway to drive a Porsche!
Tuesday, June 25:
This morning was a beautiful morning, again. We went to the Speedway for a 10:00 Exotic Drive - Porsche 977S. When we checked in I was told that the Porsche was still on the road somewhere between Atlanta and Orlando. It had been at the Atlanta Speedway for a while. I was told that I could drive the Nissan GT-R or the Aston-Martin Virage. Hmmm, it took about half a second to pick the Aston-Martin (the James Bond car). This is a VERY nice car, very comfortable and very powerful! The drives are 6 laps and 1 familiarization lap around the road course, my times did improve and were okay with a top speed of 99 mph (remember that speeds are down to about 35-40 mph in the slalom section). After my drive we went over to the Shades of Green Resort to check it out for Chris and Amber (friends from home). Shades of Green is a Disney Resort for active and retired military personel.
On the track
Concentrating on the slalom section
Al with the Aston-Martin
We picked up some information and looked around Shades of Green for a while. It is a very nice resort, and it is the only Disney resort that has a parking garage! By now it was about time for something to eat. It was time to make a decision. We wanted to go to the Polynesian for Dole Whip so we headed there (it is across the road for shades of Green). While there we decided to get lunch at the Kona Cafe then get Dole Whip! We had a good lunch and desert then Jane took the boat to MK to do some last minute shopping and I took the car to Walgreens to get some last minute drugs and then to Winn-Dixie to get some beer for Andrew back home.
We met back at Alf and took the boys for a walk. We have dinner reservations at the Yachtman's Steak House at the Yacht Club Resort for 5:55 p.m. About 3:30 we decided we weren't going to be hungry enough to do Yachtman's and canceled our reservations there and made new ones at Whispering Canyon for 8:00. We took the boat over and had a very nice dinner - Whispering Canyon is such a fun place.
After dinner we took the return boat back to the campground and settled in to watch some regular TV - no more hockey until fall :(. Tomorrow is a sad day - loading up to go home.
Al at the Polynesian
Wednesday, June 26:
This is our last day here (until August)so it is going to be a busy day packing and putting things away. We drove over to Whispering Canyon for breakfast to see Chad one more time. They have the best chocolate chip pancakes.
After breakfast we went to Publix for some last minute grocery shopping. Then it was home to get started packing. What normally would take 2 hours to do took about 4 hours since we had to stop and cool off inside because of the heat, it was 99 degrees with no cloud cover or breeze. We were kind of glad we were not in one of the parks today. We had to take a break about 3:00 to return our rental car to the Dolphin Resort. From there we were going to split up. We both took the boat as far as the Yacht Club Resort where I got off and got a bus to Downtown Disney and Jane continued on the boat to EPCOT for a last minute run through of MouseGear. I went to Earl of Sandwich to get dinner for tonight AND Thursday night. I then got a bus back to the campground. Jane was going to take the monorail from EPCOT to TTC and then to MK. However, the monorail was not running from TTC so she had to take the ferry to MK and catch a boat to the campground. We had our dinner and continued packing and checking ALF's tire pressures and fluid levels in preparation for leaving in the morning.
Thursday, June 27:
Today dawned bright and clear, naturally, we are leaving this morning. We got up kind of early and finished putting things away. We took the boys for one last long walk, didn't see any of our "friends", no squirrels, no Rickie, no deer. Oh well, have to wait until August. We got away about 8:30 and made a quick stop at the Meadow Trading Post for a paper, and then off to Emerald Beach for the night. As we were leaving the campground we saw a baby armadillo running across the road being pursued by some guests trying to get its picture. It was a pretty funny sight. Weather is good, no rain. Roads are good with little traffic. The drive across the Florida panhandle on I-10 has got to be the most boring drive in the world (more than driving across Kansas, I know that is hard to believe). I-10 is bordered by a solid forest of pine trees about 30 feet off the pavement for 200 miles. At least going across Kansas you can see the horizon and an occasional farm or town off in the distance. We got to Emerald Beach about 3:30 and were ready to head into a beach front site. The last time we were here it was so nice to wake up in the morning, raise the windshield sun screen and look out at the gulf. When I checked in we got a beach front site, but I was told all the beach front sites were now back-in only, so much for the view of the gulf. They do still have the best beach we have seen. Will have to see how it goes tomorrow. We had sandwiches from Earl's for dinner, I am pretty tired, this is the longest leg of the trip - 456 miles. At least it didn't rain and it wasn't too windy.
Friday, June28:
We are staying at Emerald Beach RV Park all day today. After yesterday's long drive, a day of rest in the sun is in order. Emerald Beach has the nicest beach we have seen on the coast. All the other parks are back in also, strange. It started out sunny and very warm so we hit the beach. After an hour or so, it was time to go inside for a while. While we cooled off, we went to the office and changed a few of our reservations for August and December, changed site numbers. If we can't see the gulf out the front window, then we will see it out the side window! We went back to the beach in the afternoon until it started to cloud up. The wind really picked up and the clouds looked worse, so we decided to settle in for the night. The wind got worse and really rocked the coach. It was a little unsettling.
Gulf storm in the making
Saturday, June 29:
This morning it was still overcast, so we decided to leave as soon as we were ready. Left about 9:00 and made a quick stop at Publix for a few things. On the way out, we stopped at a new RV park to check it out. All the sites are back in and they have virtually no beach. Emerald Beach is looking pretty good. One more stop for gas and we were on our way to Clanton, AL. It is a short day, only 200 miles. Weather is good, not too windy. Traffic is kind of heavy going south, I guess everyone is going to the beach for the weekend. We got to Clanton (Dandy RV Park) about 2:00. Made a quick stop at Shoney's on the way in for a take out lunch. Then we registered at the park and settled in. The folks here at Dandy are very nice and helpful. They have a storm shelter here and invite you to take your pets in if necessary, very pet friendly. I would like to find a RV park about half way between Paducah and Navarre.
Sunday, June 30:
This morning is a little overcast, but not raining, yet. We got a bit of a late start, we had to watch the British F1 race (we have our priorities). It was a very exciting race, tires blowing up (same tire, same left rear corner of the car). We finally got going, it is going to be a long day (380 miles). I have got to figure out how to balance these trip legs out. we have learned that Birmingham, AL has the worst highways in the country. 80 miles of construction, with no significant progress in two years! As we continued on I came to the conclusion that our Interstate highway system needs major help! The roads are terrible. We got to within 20 miles of Paducah, KY and came to a dead stop. This is Sunday and no one is working, but we are at a dead stop. We inched along for 15 miles with no sign of any work being done. Finally got to Paducah and it started to rain. The boys did get to go to Max's Big Back Yard for a run to stretch their legs then it was back inside to get dried off and supper. It had been a long day so we hit the sack early. It is another long day tomorrow.
Monday, July 1:
HAPPY CANADA DAY! to all our Canadian friends. Got up and got a fairly early start. Since there is still construction on I-24, we went around most of it by going through downtown Paducah. It is an old river town, most of the business has moved out to the interstate while the old part of town appears to be dying. Started out raining, not hard, just enough to be annoying. It rained off and on for most of the day, then it got VERY windy (always a cross wind). The boys seem to know that we are almost home. Everytime we stop, he is the first one to jump back in his crate ready to go. We finally rolled in to Blue Springs about 4:30 and went straight for dinner - at Minsky's. Not unloading Alf tonight, just going through some mail and going to bed.
Only 53 days until we go back!!!!!!
First stop - Minsky's
