Ft Wilderness

It was a fairly relaxing day at the RV. We had a late buffet breakfast at the Trail’s Inn. When the bill came, we discovered that they raised the buffet rates on Sunday. Truly time to pack up and go: crowds and higher prices! I cleaned the inside of the RV, vacuuming, dusting, etc. Bill did some chores outside. We want to get away by 9 at the latest tomorrow.

Judy, the lady in the loop with all the Christmas decorations, rode by, and we gave her the refrigerator stuff to share with her neighbor. She was truly appreciative. Nancy and Bob arrived at 4:20. I picked them up at the parking lot, and we came back to the RV. Nancy was awed over our neighbor’s decorations, so we wandered around looking at the other decorations. Then we drove over to the Grand Floridian Hotel to see the decorations there and have dinner at the Café. It was a pleasant dinner. We got back to Ft Wilderness at 9. Bob and Nancy headed off to the Villages, and we came back to the RV to finish packing. It is going to be hard leaving the shorts weather for the cold of NYC, but we will be back January 20th.

Ft Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge

It was a lovely, warm, shorts-wearing day. The RV repair guys came at 11:30. In 45 minutes they fixed the spring and installed a new topper over the slideout. While they were working, several people stopped them and asked them if they could look at their RV’s. Of course they were told just like us that they needed to call and set up an appointment. I can’t believe the amount of work they can get just by showing up.

We rode our bikes on the nature trail over to the Wilderness Lodge to check out their holiday decorations. They had a huge tree in the lobby and a neat tree made of red and black plaid flannel bags in the gift shop. We stopped by their little counter service restaurant and got a sandwich to split. While we were eating, a lady came in with a tray of cookies, icing, and sprinkles. From 2-3 every day they have a kids cookie decorating project. I wandered over to look, and since she just had one little boy, she told me to sit down and I could decorate one, too. Pretty soon another lady about my age came over and sat down too. She told me I couldn’t leave until she was done. It was kind of fun talking to the little boy as we decorated and ate our cookies.

On the ride back to the campground, we passed two deer grazing in the woods. They stepped back a big and waited for us to pedal on. We also caught a bunny nibbling. It was a pleasant afternoon. I did a load of laundry before dinner and started setting stuff out to take to NYC and Raleigh for a month. It is strange to be packing from the RV, especially for a month. We had shrimp and some veggies for dinner. We are trying to clean out the refrigerator before we have to shut it down and dump or give away what’s left over before we leave on Thursday.

Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom

The crowds at Disney are increasing, so it is probably time to leave. This morning we went to Animal Kingdom. We had lunch at the Flame Tree barbeque which is always fun because seating is hidden around the lake, and we can watch Everest ride and the ducks who come for handouts. Then we took a walk through the Pangani Forest. The colobus monkeys, okapi, birds, hippo, and gorillas are always fun to watch. I posted some photos on the Disney Christmas link on the left. The gorillas were really out today, and they were magnificent to watch. The crowds started to gather, so we left the park and came back to the RV. I took a nap.

At 5:30 we took the boat to the Magic Kingdom to see the castle lighting ceremony one last time. Then we had dinner at Cosmic Ray’s. Most people were getting ready to see the parade, so it wasn’t too crowded. However, after dinner, the parade was still going on, and it was difficult making our way down Main St to the entrance. Our boat home was packed. Bill went back to the RV while I stayed on the beach to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks. I did get a photo of one of the more elaborately decorated golf carts that roam the campgrounds. That is also posted on the link to the left.

Ft Wilderness and MouseFest

It was a quiet, down day for me at the RV. Bill headed out at 10 to go to MouseFest. This is a convention of Disney fans. Bill just wanted to go see what it was all about. He spent an hour at the convention meeting Anita who answers questions every week on allears.net. He also met the author of one of his favorite Disney books, Reality Land. He had lunch in Epcot and then met the author for a tour of the World Showcase to see what had been planned and discarded as Epcot evolved. He got home around 5 and really had a good day.

Disney Rain

It was an interesting day here at Disney. We had all sorts of nasty storm warnings this morning including strong thunderstorms and tornado watches. We ended up just getting some heavy rain for a few hours that cleared up by 2. The local news was full of the discovery of a child’s bones that are thought to be that of Caylee Anthony.

I wrapped Christmas presents to mail. After it stopped raining, we went down to the store and bought some little gifts to send to German Barbara. Those are now wrapped and ready to mail. So tomorrow we will be making a trip to the post office.

Bill took a bike ride over to the Wilderness Lodge. On the path over there, he saw a deer who just looked at him and continued eating. We have seen lots of deer around here along with bunnies, squirrels, turkeys, and lots of neat birds.

We didn’t want to fix dinner, so we went over to the Trail’s End for the buffet. The food was pretty good. It is a very casual, western-themed buffet restaurant, so it was a bit of a shock when one of the waiters announced that there was a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary there. I sure could have found a more romantic place to celebrate a milestone like that!

Disney - Ft Wilderness

It was a lovely warm day with a few clouds. We did some chores around the RV and then headed out for some major errand running. Disney is not that close to the real world, so we have to travel a ways to do what we want. Bill wanted a new Unofficial Guide to Disney, so we had to find a bookstore about 12 miles away. We did some shopping there, and then went on to a drugstore and then to a grocery store. On the way back we made a detour to Target for a few items, and then to Camping World. Bill was able to get a new connector for between the RV and the Tracker when we are towing.

Finally we made it back to the RV. It is supposed to storm Thursday, so we took down the lights from the awning so we can put it up quickly if the wind starts catching it. I took a nap. Tonight Bill watched the Indiana basketball game.

Ft Wilderness and Epcot

It was a gorgeous day in Disney with temperatures in the 70s. Bill went to the Trails End for our free coffee, and we sat outside enjoying the lovely weather. Last night while I was down watching the fireworks, Bill heard a loud noise that shook the RV. When he went outside, the awning over the slideout had sprung. So this morning when the RV repair guy was next door, we asked him to come take a look and see what he could do. Judy (the lady with all the lights on our loop) rode by in her golf cart and stopped to chat. She diagnosed a broken spring. She said these RV guys were good and reputable. So we hung out and waited. The guy took one look and said “spring”, but he didn’t have the right spring. We are going to get the spring and a new awning replaced as soon as they get the parts.

Bill rode down to the main check-in area on his bike. I stayed here and labeled photos, a never-ending job. At 5 we drove over to Epcot to hang out until our 7:30 reservations at China’s Nine Dragon restaurant. It was fairly crowded, and there really wasn’t anything we wanted to do, so we checked in early and were seated. It is a strange restaurant – a sitdown, higher end, restaurant. The service was excellent, but the food was strangely mediocre and the service rushed. Bill had hot and sour soup, and the fried rice entrée with shrimp. I just had two appetizers: summer rolls and shrimp and taro. Our waiter was really nice. He was from Beijing and has been here for 10 months. He has only worked at this restaurant for 2 weeks. The rest of his time he worked the fast food counter outside. We did get a dessert to share (even though Chinese don’t really eat dessert) called Banana Cheesecake Eggroll. Now this was good! It was a large eggroll filled with a banana cream, drizzled with caramel sauce and served with caramel ginger ice cream!