American Roadtrip

The Great American Roadtrip

2003

Date Location Comments

5-5-2003 WDW
Epcot
Epcot is one of my favorite places. First, I like the rides there. They are not simply entertaining, they are educational, and I love to learn, so, I went on the Universe of Energy and Cranium Commandos. The first takes you back 220 Million years in time to the age of the dinosaurs, and the second into the head of a 12 year old boy. Both are very scary places, but Disney does them so very well.
I find Epcot to be a goldmine of opportunities for photography. There's the modern structures at the front of the park and tons of interesting buildings in the World Showcase. Also, there are any number of performers (like the space alien acrobats whose photo I snapped) that make great subjects. Granted, there were times during the day when all I wanted to do was stand in a nice air conditioned store to cool off, but I got outside a fair amount.

I ate a late breakfast and a later lunch at the Norwegian area of Epcot. Waffles with strawberry jam for breakfast and cold meats and potato salad with chocolate mousse for desert for lunch. I just love the food there, and would probably eat there every day I was here, except for the fact that I want to explore other areas of the park (and at 28,000 acres, it's a BIG park).

It's about 95 degrees here, but the humidity, while admittedly awful, is nowhere near as bad as it was in New Orleans, so I am surviving quite nicely. Had a known that the bugs are not bad here in May, I might have left the "Florida Room" at home. I really haven't needed it.

I really like the Fort Wilderness camp ground. Notwithstanding the odd placement of the electrical hookups, Disney keeps the facilities nice and clean, and while there are buses to take you from one end of the campground to the other, I've found that it's a nice walk in the evening.

The only other big news is that somewhere between home and here, PeeWee lost a hubcap. My poor baby, and he's been putting so much effort into making this trip a success. I will have to make a point of ordering him a new one the second I get back.

5-6-2003 WDW
Fort Wilderness
I took today to do laundry, catch up on some work, and write cards home. I'm also planning to pull out the vacuum and straighten up PeeWee's living quarters a bit. It's a bit expensive to do the wash here ... $2.00 for a load of wash and $3.00 to actually get a load of wash dry. However, I scrounged up enough quarters to do two loads and hooked up the water so that I can do the dishes tonight. Housework, one of the realities of RV camping.
I realized at some point that I screwed up when I made my reservation here. I have a 10 day "Park Hopper" ticket, but I'm going to need a few days of working and a few of just relaxing to make my stay complete, so I'm going to pray that they can extend my Fort Wilderness stay by maybe four days. That way I won't be stressing out trying to make full use of my ticket.

Ooops. I screwed up. My Park Hopper ticket that I purchased online is apparently the kind that expires and can only be used during the number of days it was purchased for. So, I blew the first day of the ticket just driving here and another day of it doing laundry today. Here I got the ticket called the "Ultimate Park Hopper" thinking that would give me the most flexibility ... that I would have ten days to see the park within the 14 days I thought I might stay. But noooooo, the "regular" ticket is the one that doesn't expire while the "ultimate" is the one that does. Ok ok ok ok ....

5-7-2003 WDW
Disney-MGM
It's interesting to see Disney's take on Hollywood since I lived in the general area for many years (Westwood, Silverlake and Glendale to be precise). As they point out on a sign near the entry, this is a Hollywood that never really existed ... too true ... the real Hollywood was never this clean.
Naturally, I have a favorite restaurant in Disney-MGM, namely "Mama Melrose." So, my day went something like this ... "Sounds Dangerous" (a show showcasing sound effects), "Star Tours" (ride), "Muppets 3D" (a show, and one of the funniest multimedia productions ever), lunch at Mama Melrose, then the "Tower of Terror" (ride).   I have a very healthy fear of heights, but as long as I keep my eyes closed, I have a lot of fun on the Tower of Terror -- and the special effects on that ride are amazing to say the least.

The sun was so very intense today that I found myself in the midst of an early afternoon crash and burn, so long about 2:00 I went back to the campground, napped, and went for a swim. That felt so good after baking in the sun all day.

I don't know what they use to clean the bathrooms here, but at every other campground, no matter how clean they were otherwise, there was always mildew on the walls of the showers. Not a hint of mildew here, not even the merest suggestion of mildew.

And, to guarantee that your camping experience is perfect, there are any number of cute bunnies and squirrels capering about on the grass. They aren't tame, but I suppose they know from experience that no one will bother them, because they will come up to within a few feet of you and just sit there looking absolutely adorable.

I've had several people tell me that there are gigantic biting horse flies that prowl the air in gangs of between 3 and 6 members and attack people. However, I have not seen any and have certainly not been bitten by anything, so I can't comment. I suspect, but cannot prove, that word got out among the bug population of my bloody encounter and triumphant victory over the Monstrous Mosquitoes of San Antonio, and they are simply avoiding me.

5-8-2003 WDW
Animal Kingdom
When the revenge of the San Antonio mosquitoes came, it was swift, painful, and at the hands of the Lake Buena Vista horse flies. As of tonight, I have about 20 swollen and itchy bites on my legs and feet.   I swear, I could hear the little buggers yelling "Remember the Alamo" as they attacked me.
For all that, today was fun. I went to the Animal Kingdom park and spent the entire day exploring and watching the animal shows. I took 198 photos, however, the link between my photo adapter and the computer is acting buggy, so I may be awhile downloading them to the PC. Surviving the day there is a little easier than at the other parks for two reasons; first, most of the walkways are shaded, and second, there seem to be more benches.

Whoever mixes the music for Disney is a genius. Somehow they got Slavic inspired music to sound African (I know this because I recognize tracks from Boheme by Deep Forest). Also, I love the way they change lyrics. Listening to "Iko Iko", I can't help but notice that they removed the line "Bet you five dollars he can kill you dead." Understandable, I suppose, since it's not a very Disney sentiment.

The animals are so incredibly beautiful, and seeing them without a barrier (on "safari") was worth the entire trip. With all this heat, it was really easy to imagine myself in Africa and on a real safari.

I also caught a few shows and pretty much wore myself out. In any event, I was there until about 5:30, at which time a particularly nice bus driver (who didn't even have Fort Wilderness on her route) picked me up and drove me all the way to the Settlement (so I could get one of these great berry flavored drinks made with Crème de Cassis) ohhhh, yum.

5-9-2003 WDW
Magic Kingdom
This morning started out with a little problem. My LPG leak detector/alarm failed. Which meant that it suddenly began to shreak at me even though the propane valve was closed tight and nothing using propane was on. I called an RV repair place, but was told that, if I wanted them to fix it, I would have to pull it out and tell them how many wires were used to connect it so that they could order the correct one and then they would come out "later this afternoon" to replace it. After that conversation, I decided it would be easier to unload all the stuff packed under the bed and just remove the fuse. However, because I couldn't run the air conditioning until I got the fuse removed (not unless I wanted to bust an ear drum anyway), I was drenched in sweat by the time I finished. I checked the temp ... and it was 95 degrees in the shade at 10 in the morning. Lovely.
Between that minor disaster and a little bit of reorganization and cleaning, I didn't get to the Magic Kingdom until about 3:00 in the afternoon. However, I was just in time for a great parade, and the park was pretty much empty, so I didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes for any ride.   All of which meant that as I write this, I am pretty much fried. I was going to post this tonight, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow.

5-10-2003 WDW
Magic Kingdom
Realized this morning that I must have left the kitchen scissors back by the fuse box when I was pulling out the fuse to the gas detector, and that they are now buried underneath the bed. Hmmm ... how badly do I need those scissors??
Spent today back at the Magic Kingdom, it was hot enough to make me feel a bit odd, so once again my photos didn't come out as nicely as I would have liked. However, the day wasn't a total loss. I watched the fireworks show from the beach at the campground and purchased about a dozen t-shirts. I have no idea why I packed as many t-shirts as I did. I should have known that I would buy one at just about every stop ... and at least 100 at Disney World.

Thought the little girl who kept chasing after the birds yelling "Here kitty kitty!" was most likely from another planet. Then there was the girl of 6 who went up to a boy (also 6) that she clearly liked and said "What are you doing, and can I do it too?" (Almost certainly her first summer crush.)

5-11-2003 WDW
Downtown Disney and Disney Quest
I am one of those people that has clear memories going back to very early childhood. To be exact, my earliest memories are from 16 months old. At about 18 months of age, I started my "Stupid Things Grownups Say to Children" list, to which I added one yesterday and two today while at Downtown Disney.
From yesterday we have "Pirates of the Caribbean is EXACTLY like It's a Small World." (To a small girl who said she was scared of pirates. Now, there's one parent that will have zero credibility from now on.)

Today gave me "No you can't go to the potty. Remember our rule about going to the potty?" (Said to a child who, when asked if he wanted something to drink, said yes, but that he needed to go to the potty first. What kind of insane people have rules about when you can and can't go to the potty??)

Then we had the show-stopper ... "You don't need sunscreen. Just run faster and the sun won't catch you." (Just send your folks the hospital bill when you get melanoma, kid.)

As for me, I spent the day at Downtown Disney and at Disney Quest. Disney Quest is the interactive theme park. Lots of computer games, virtual reality, and simulations. I did rather well fighting comic book villains with a laser sword, hunting for Inca treasures, and as a gunner for a pirate ship plundering other ships for gold.   Yo ho, yo ho, it's a virtual reality pirate's life for me!! I also designed and rode in my very own roller coaster, shot the rapids in a rubber raft, fought aliens, and played at drawing and animating.

Oh and I shopped. Total damage, two more t-shirts, a jacket (on sale ... great price), an enamel and glass cat pin, a CD of Waterbone Tibet, and a CD of Andres Segovia (I so rarely see any of his recordings re-released on CD, so I had to buy that).

5-12-2003 WDW
Epcot
I finally did the math this morning, and the answer to the burning question is .... I am getting 12.058 miles to the gallon on this trip (so far).   The generator has only been run once for about an hour, but that shouldn't change the numbers much at all.
I did a little research on Horse Flies this morning, and discovered to my horror that there are no repellents that work on the little blood sucking monsters. About the best you can do is to wear light colored clothing (including long pants and light baseball caps), since they attack dark colored and shiny things. This explains why most of my most recent bites have been near my black Teva sandals. The experts just recommend putting anti-itch creams on the bites to keep you from opening them up further and having secondary infections become a problem. Oh well, bother. They don't bite in air conditioned areas, however, so I haven't gotten chewed up in the rig (which makes PeeWee my "safe zone").

Back to Epcot I think .... I want to check out some of the other hotels too.

My plan to check out the hotels died an early death. It simply takes too much time to get from one to another, and you can forget about taking photos ... most everything is locked off unless you are a guest at that particular hotel. Good for security, but bad for the casual photographer.

So, I did indeed wander back to Epcot where I toured the House of the Near Future, went into the Imagination and Living Seas exhibits and got a gold medal in Monster Orientation. (I am particularly proud of this last one, since it was a little hard on the feet.) Last, but not least, I stayed for the Illuminations show. While it's only 15 minutes long, it is spectacular. You watch as a huge globe spins showing you the people, land and animals of the various countries. While this is happening, the most inspirational music ever plays and a massive fireworks display goes on. As it happens, I was in one of the best places to watch the show (right across the lagoon from the American pavilion) simply because I was too tired to move and more or less collapsed there about an hour and a half before the show.

5-13-2003 WDW
Epcot and

Magic Kingdom
Days just don't get any better than today. First, the weather was perfect. The temperature dropped about 10 degrees overnight and the humidity went way down too. The end result was glorious comfort the whole day.
I spent most of the day wandering around the World Showcase, as I did on my first day, but not feeling as drained by the heat. The park was relatively empty, and at one point I lay down on a bench at the Chinese pavilion and, surrounded by jasmine and magnolia, took a nap. It was heaven.

Had a long conversation with the lady manning the "Kid Stop" over at the American pavilion. We compared fly bites and discussed the life cycle of the horse fly, deer fly and something she called the "yellow fly." She told me that this bunch of biting flies came in with the flower festival (which makes sense since the males are all nectar eaters ... only the females eat blood), and that the festival is over at the start of June. So, she's hoping that the flies haven't established a breeding population here and that they leave town with the flowers. I'll second that.

Because it was so temperate, my appetite came back, so I tried some funnel cake (a donut gone horribly wrong), and some yakatori (basically chicken teriyaki) .... a smidge of this and a little of that. An international food fest if you will. I also bought more books and t-shirts, including several with a dragon motif (born in the year of the dragon dontcha know). I bought a few gifts as well (but I can't mention any here because you never know who might be reading). I spent any time waiting by reading a wonderful book I purchased on the Civil War. Since I'll probably go by Fort Sumter and some other historic Civil War sites, I thought it might be a good idea to bone up on the subject. (The only quibble I have with the book so far is that the author clearly knows nothing about the causative agent of brucellosis ... which is not from cows eating poisonous snake root plant any more than malaria is from breathing "bad air".)

In the evening I went over the the Magic Kingdom to see the "SpectroMagic" Parade. It was amazing, better than the Electrical Parade, more lights and tons of color and characters. Large crowds were there to see it, but I managed to get a nice spot on the terrace of the train station overlooking Main Street. Just when I hopped off the boat back here at camp, the fireworks show went off, so I watched it from the dock.

I'm getting the itch to get moving again, so although I have a reservation through the 18th here, I'm likely going to hit the road on the 15th and head out to Cape Canaveral and St. Augustine. So tomorrow will probably be laundry, organize and pack and maybe spend the afternoon at Typhoon Lagoon drifting around in circles draped over an inner-tube.

5-14-2003 WDW
Typhoon Lagoon
Typhoon Lagoon (a South Seas themed waterpark) was relaxing and fun. I didn't eat much of anything, so I was very surprised when I woke up at 1:00 in the morning horribly ill. PeeWee has a lot going for him, but there is not enough room in the bathroom to be sick. Plain and simple, your legs have nowhere to go. So, I ran across to the "Comfort Station" only to find that my card key would not work. Called the front desk in a panic and they sent someone right out to let me in.
That was fine, until I realized that I would have to stay in the bathroom until I was certain I was ok. Otherwise I'd be calling the front desk every few minutes all night long. It turned out that I stayed in the bathroom until about 2:30 am.

That gave me ample opportunity to study the stone floors in the bathroom ... and you know what (?), they aren't real stone. Shocking, I know. After about a half an hour of close study, I realized that there were only about 12 different types of stone on the floor (not counting color variations). I started naming each type .... there was boot, Utah, Idaho, five point ... and so on like that. It kept me entertained while I was stuck in there.

The whole experience left me a little drained today, so I think I'm going to stay one more day and go to the other water park, Blizzard Beach, and catch up on the sleep I missed last night. I was so wound up when I finally got out of the can, that I didn't go back to sleep until about 4:00, and even then I had nightmares. Eeeech, what a night.

5-15-2003 WDW
Blizzard Beach
The theme of Blizzard Beach is well ... imagine that Jamaica mounted a successful invasion of Switzerland. There are chairlifts going up to the water slides and skis poking out from the ground ... palm trees and pine trees. The music is sort of Reggae-Christmas. The water slides are different than those at Typhoon Lagoon, but both parks have a great tubing creek. Which is where I parked my butt pretty much solidly from 1:00 to 5:00 today. It was blissfully uneventful.
Tomorrow I move on. I never thought it could happen, but I'm all Disneyed out.   I'm ready for some real on the road adventures again. Bring on the empty ditches!!

Date	Location	Comments
5-5-2003	WDW Epcot	Epcot is one of my favorite places. First, I like the rides there. They are not simply entertaining, they are educational, and I love to learn, so, I went on the Universe of Energy and Cranium Commandos. The first takes you back 220 Million years in time to the age of the dinosaurs, and the second into the head of a 12 year old boy. Both are very scary places, but Disney does them so very well. I find Epcot to be a goldmine of opportunities for photography. There's the modern structures at the front of the park and tons of interesting buildings in the World Showcase. Also, there are any number of performers (like the space alien acrobats whose photo I snapped) that make great subjects. Granted, there were times during the day when all I wanted to do was stand in a nice air conditioned store to cool off, but I got outside a fair amount. I ate a late breakfast and a later lunch at the Norwegian area of Epcot. Waffles with strawberry jam for breakfast and cold meats and potato salad with chocolate mousse for desert for lunch. I just love the food there, and would probably eat there every day I was here, except for the fact that I want to explore other areas of the park (and at 28,000 acres, it's a BIG park). It's about 95 degrees here, but the humidity, while admittedly awful, is nowhere near as bad as it was in New Orleans, so I am surviving quite nicely. Had a known that the bugs are not bad here in May, I might have left the "Florida Room" at home. I really haven't needed it. I really like the Fort Wilderness camp ground. Notwithstanding the odd placement of the electrical hookups, Disney keeps the facilities nice and clean, and while there are buses to take you from one end of the campground to the other, I've found that it's a nice walk in the evening. The only other big news is that somewhere between home and here, PeeWee lost a hubcap. My poor baby, and he's been putting so much effort into making this trip a success. I will have to make a point of ordering him a new one the second I get back.
5-6-2003	WDW Fort Wilderness	I took today to do laundry, catch up on some work, and write cards home. I'm also planning to pull out the vacuum and straighten up PeeWee's living quarters a bit. It's a bit expensive to do the wash here ... $2.00 for a load of wash and $3.00 to actually get a load of wash dry. However, I scrounged up enough quarters to do two loads and hooked up the water so that I can do the dishes tonight. Housework, one of the realities of RV camping. I realized at some point that I screwed up when I made my reservation here. I have a 10 day "Park Hopper" ticket, but I'm going to need a few days of working and a few of just relaxing to make my stay complete, so I'm going to pray that they can extend my Fort Wilderness stay by maybe four days. That way I won't be stressing out trying to make full use of my ticket. Ooops. I screwed up. My Park Hopper ticket that I purchased online is apparently the kind that expires and can only be used during the number of days it was purchased for. So, I blew the first day of the ticket just driving here and another day of it doing laundry today. Here I got the ticket called the "Ultimate Park Hopper" thinking that would give me the most flexibility ... that I would have ten days to see the park within the 14 days I thought I might stay. But noooooo, the "regular" ticket is the one that doesn't expire while the "ultimate" is the one that does. Ok ok ok ok ....
5-7-2003	WDW Disney-MGM	It's interesting to see Disney's take on Hollywood since I lived in the general area for many years (Westwood, Silverlake and Glendale to be precise). As they point out on a sign near the entry, this is a Hollywood that never really existed ... too true ... the real Hollywood was never this clean. Naturally, I have a favorite restaurant in Disney-MGM, namely "Mama Melrose." So, my day went something like this ... "Sounds Dangerous" (a show showcasing sound effects), "Star Tours" (ride), "Muppets 3D" (a show, and one of the funniest multimedia productions ever), lunch at Mama Melrose, then the "Tower of Terror" (ride). I have a very healthy fear of heights, but as long as I keep my eyes closed, I have a lot of fun on the Tower of Terror -- and the special effects on that ride are amazing to say the least. The sun was so very intense today that I found myself in the midst of an early afternoon crash and burn, so long about 2:00 I went back to the campground, napped, and went for a swim. That felt so good after baking in the sun all day. I don't know what they use to clean the bathrooms here, but at every other campground, no matter how clean they were otherwise, there was always mildew on the walls of the showers. Not a hint of mildew here, not even the merest suggestion of mildew. And, to guarantee that your camping experience is perfect, there are any number of cute bunnies and squirrels capering about on the grass. They aren't tame, but I suppose they know from experience that no one will bother them, because they will come up to within a few feet of you and just sit there looking absolutely adorable. I've had several people tell me that there are gigantic biting horse flies that prowl the air in gangs of between 3 and 6 members and attack people. However, I have not seen any and have certainly not been bitten by anything, so I can't comment. I suspect, but cannot prove, that word got out among the bug population of my bloody encounter and triumphant victory over the Monstrous Mosquitoes of San Antonio, and they are simply avoiding me.
5-8-2003	WDW Animal Kingdom	When the revenge of the San Antonio mosquitoes came, it was swift, painful, and at the hands of the Lake Buena Vista horse flies. As of tonight, I have about 20 swollen and itchy bites on my legs and feet. I swear, I could hear the little buggers yelling "Remember the Alamo" as they attacked me. For all that, today was fun. I went to the Animal Kingdom park and spent the entire day exploring and watching the animal shows. I took 198 photos, however, the link between my photo adapter and the computer is acting buggy, so I may be awhile downloading them to the PC. Surviving the day there is a little easier than at the other parks for two reasons; first, most of the walkways are shaded, and second, there seem to be more benches. Whoever mixes the music for Disney is a genius. Somehow they got Slavic inspired music to sound African (I know this because I recognize tracks from Boheme by Deep Forest). Also, I love the way they change lyrics. Listening to "Iko Iko", I can't help but notice that they removed the line "Bet you five dollars he can kill you dead." Understandable, I suppose, since it's not a very Disney sentiment. The animals are so incredibly beautiful, and seeing them without a barrier (on "safari") was worth the entire trip. With all this heat, it was really easy to imagine myself in Africa and on a real safari. I also caught a few shows and pretty much wore myself out. In any event, I was there until about 5:30, at which time a particularly nice bus driver (who didn't even have Fort Wilderness on her route) picked me up and drove me all the way to the Settlement (so I could get one of these great berry flavored drinks made with Crème de Cassis) ohhhh, yum.
5-9-2003	WDW Magic Kingdom	This morning started out with a little problem. My LPG leak detector/alarm failed. Which meant that it suddenly began to shreak at me even though the propane valve was closed tight and nothing using propane was on. I called an RV repair place, but was told that, if I wanted them to fix it, I would have to pull it out and tell them how many wires were used to connect it so that they could order the correct one and then they would come out "later this afternoon" to replace it. After that conversation, I decided it would be easier to unload all the stuff packed under the bed and just remove the fuse. However, because I couldn't run the air conditioning until I got the fuse removed (not unless I wanted to bust an ear drum anyway), I was drenched in sweat by the time I finished. I checked the temp ... and it was 95 degrees in the shade at 10 in the morning. Lovely. Between that minor disaster and a little bit of reorganization and cleaning, I didn't get to the Magic Kingdom until about 3:00 in the afternoon. However, I was just in time for a great parade, and the park was pretty much empty, so I didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes for any ride. All of which meant that as I write this, I am pretty much fried. I was going to post this tonight, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow.
5-10-2003	WDW Magic Kingdom	Realized this morning that I must have left the kitchen scissors back by the fuse box when I was pulling out the fuse to the gas detector, and that they are now buried underneath the bed. Hmmm ... how badly do I need those scissors?? Spent today back at the Magic Kingdom, it was hot enough to make me feel a bit odd, so once again my photos didn't come out as nicely as I would have liked. However, the day wasn't a total loss. I watched the fireworks show from the beach at the campground and purchased about a dozen t-shirts. I have no idea why I packed as many t-shirts as I did. I should have known that I would buy one at just about every stop ... and at least 100 at Disney World. Thought the little girl who kept chasing after the birds yelling "Here kitty kitty!" was most likely from another planet. Then there was the girl of 6 who went up to a boy (also 6) that she clearly liked and said "What are you doing, and can I do it too?" (Almost certainly her first summer crush.)
5-11-2003	WDW Downtown Disney and Disney Quest	I am one of those people that has clear memories going back to very early childhood. To be exact, my earliest memories are from 16 months old. At about 18 months of age, I started my "Stupid Things Grownups Say to Children" list, to which I added one yesterday and two today while at Downtown Disney. From yesterday we have "Pirates of the Caribbean is EXACTLY like It's a Small World." (To a small girl who said she was scared of pirates. Now, there's one parent that will have zero credibility from now on.) Today gave me "No you can't go to the potty. Remember our rule about going to the potty?" (Said to a child who, when asked if he wanted something to drink, said yes, but that he needed to go to the potty first. What kind of insane people have rules about when you can and can't go to the potty??) Then we had the show-stopper ... "You don't need sunscreen. Just run faster and the sun won't catch you." (Just send your folks the hospital bill when you get melanoma, kid.) As for me, I spent the day at Downtown Disney and at Disney Quest. Disney Quest is the interactive theme park. Lots of computer games, virtual reality, and simulations. I did rather well fighting comic book villains with a laser sword, hunting for Inca treasures, and as a gunner for a pirate ship plundering other ships for gold. Yo ho, yo ho, it's a virtual reality pirate's life for me!! I also designed and rode in my very own roller coaster, shot the rapids in a rubber raft, fought aliens, and played at drawing and animating. Oh and I shopped. Total damage, two more t-shirts, a jacket (on sale ... great price), an enamel and glass cat pin, a CD of Waterbone Tibet, and a CD of Andres Segovia (I so rarely see any of his recordings re-released on CD, so I had to buy that).
5-12-2003	WDW Epcot	I finally did the math this morning, and the answer to the burning question is .... I am getting 12.058 miles to the gallon on this trip (so far). The generator has only been run once for about an hour, but that shouldn't change the numbers much at all. I did a little research on Horse Flies this morning, and discovered to my horror that there are no repellents that work on the little blood sucking monsters. About the best you can do is to wear light colored clothing (including long pants and light baseball caps), since they attack dark colored and shiny things. This explains why most of my most recent bites have been near my black Teva sandals. The experts just recommend putting anti-itch creams on the bites to keep you from opening them up further and having secondary infections become a problem. Oh well, bother. They don't bite in air conditioned areas, however, so I haven't gotten chewed up in the rig (which makes PeeWee my "safe zone"). Back to Epcot I think .... I want to check out some of the other hotels too. My plan to check out the hotels died an early death. It simply takes too much time to get from one to another, and you can forget about taking photos ... most everything is locked off unless you are a guest at that particular hotel. Good for security, but bad for the casual photographer. So, I did indeed wander back to Epcot where I toured the House of the Near Future, went into the Imagination and Living Seas exhibits and got a gold medal in Monster Orientation. (I am particularly proud of this last one, since it was a little hard on the feet.) Last, but not least, I stayed for the Illuminations show. While it's only 15 minutes long, it is spectacular. You watch as a huge globe spins showing you the people, land and animals of the various countries. While this is happening, the most inspirational music ever plays and a massive fireworks display goes on. As it happens, I was in one of the best places to watch the show (right across the lagoon from the American pavilion) simply because I was too tired to move and more or less collapsed there about an hour and a half before the show.
5-13-2003	WDW Epcot and Magic Kingdom	Days just don't get any better than today. First, the weather was perfect. The temperature dropped about 10 degrees overnight and the humidity went way down too. The end result was glorious comfort the whole day. I spent most of the day wandering around the World Showcase, as I did on my first day, but not feeling as drained by the heat. The park was relatively empty, and at one point I lay down on a bench at the Chinese pavilion and, surrounded by jasmine and magnolia, took a nap. It was heaven. Had a long conversation with the lady manning the "Kid Stop" over at the American pavilion. We compared fly bites and discussed the life cycle of the horse fly, deer fly and something she called the "yellow fly." She told me that this bunch of biting flies came in with the flower festival (which makes sense since the males are all nectar eaters ... only the females eat blood), and that the festival is over at the start of June. So, she's hoping that the flies haven't established a breeding population here and that they leave town with the flowers. I'll second that. Because it was so temperate, my appetite came back, so I tried some funnel cake (a donut gone horribly wrong), and some yakatori (basically chicken teriyaki) .... a smidge of this and a little of that. An international food fest if you will. I also bought more books and t-shirts, including several with a dragon motif (born in the year of the dragon dontcha know). I bought a few gifts as well (but I can't mention any here because you never know who might be reading). I spent any time waiting by reading a wonderful book I purchased on the Civil War. Since I'll probably go by Fort Sumter and some other historic Civil War sites, I thought it might be a good idea to bone up on the subject. (The only quibble I have with the book so far is that the author clearly knows nothing about the causative agent of brucellosis ... which is not from cows eating poisonous snake root plant any more than malaria is from breathing "bad air".) In the evening I went over the the Magic Kingdom to see the "SpectroMagic" Parade. It was amazing, better than the Electrical Parade, more lights and tons of color and characters. Large crowds were there to see it, but I managed to get a nice spot on the terrace of the train station overlooking Main Street. Just when I hopped off the boat back here at camp, the fireworks show went off, so I watched it from the dock. I'm getting the itch to get moving again, so although I have a reservation through the 18th here, I'm likely going to hit the road on the 15th and head out to Cape Canaveral and St. Augustine. So tomorrow will probably be laundry, organize and pack and maybe spend the afternoon at Typhoon Lagoon drifting around in circles draped over an inner-tube.
5-14-2003	WDW Typhoon Lagoon	Typhoon Lagoon (a South Seas themed waterpark) was relaxing and fun. I didn't eat much of anything, so I was very surprised when I woke up at 1:00 in the morning horribly ill. PeeWee has a lot going for him, but there is not enough room in the bathroom to be sick. Plain and simple, your legs have nowhere to go. So, I ran across to the "Comfort Station" only to find that my card key would not work. Called the front desk in a panic and they sent someone right out to let me in. That was fine, until I realized that I would have to stay in the bathroom until I was certain I was ok. Otherwise I'd be calling the front desk every few minutes all night long. It turned out that I stayed in the bathroom until about 2:30 am. That gave me ample opportunity to study the stone floors in the bathroom ... and you know what (?), they aren't real stone. Shocking, I know. After about a half an hour of close study, I realized that there were only about 12 different types of stone on the floor (not counting color variations). I started naming each type .... there was boot, Utah, Idaho, five point ... and so on like that. It kept me entertained while I was stuck in there. The whole experience left me a little drained today, so I think I'm going to stay one more day and go to the other water park, Blizzard Beach, and catch up on the sleep I missed last night. I was so wound up when I finally got out of the can, that I didn't go back to sleep until about 4:00, and even then I had nightmares. Eeeech, what a night.
5-15-2003	WDW Blizzard Beach	The theme of Blizzard Beach is well ... imagine that Jamaica mounted a successful invasion of Switzerland. There are chairlifts going up to the water slides and skis poking out from the ground ... palm trees and pine trees. The music is sort of Reggae-Christmas. The water slides are different than those at Typhoon Lagoon, but both parks have a great tubing creek. Which is where I parked my butt pretty much solidly from 1:00 to 5:00 today. It was blissfully uneventful. Tomorrow I move on. I never thought it could happen, but I'm all Disneyed out. I'm ready for some real on the road adventures again. Bring on the empty ditches!!