TCD's Flippin' Awesome July 4 2011 Fort Trip Report!

[Lou... 3,118]

Lou, please accept my apologies.

I forgot completely about the fact that you hate the EWP.

And, I can't remember why you hate it.

Why the hate?

I haven't always been a bus driver, I worked at the GF, WL, & YC and I always worked nights. Guess what goes by 2 of those resorts every night, yup the EWP.

I swear I could even hear it when I worked at the YC too. The music was burned into my brain after hearing it so many times.

Plus the EWP is a hundred years old and it's hasn't changed.

How did you cut the sleeves off of Mickey's tuxedo?

Good one Andrew. Man, I wish I had come up with that line, that's funny stuff.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

I haven't always been a bus driver, I worked at the GF, WL, & YC and I always worked nights. Guess what goes by 2 of those resorts every night, yup the EWP.

I swear I could even hear it when I worked at the YC too. The music was burned into my brain after hearing it so many times.

Plus the EWP is a hundred years old and it's hasn't changed.

Good one Andrew. Man, I wish I had come up with that line, that's funny stuff.

That would be me if had ever worked in MK at "IT's a small world". Just one of those things that gets stuck and won't go away....

[Lou... 3,118]

What's a LADDA?

What ever it is, you need to swim ovah to it.

The aphabet as it was thought to me, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQSTUVWXYZ

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

The aphabet as it was thought to me, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQSTUVWXYZ

Awesome teacher you must have had since she thought it to you..... can she teach me how to think things to my kids. It would save me a lot of trouble. :rofl2:

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I'm at work and can't watch the video.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Here it comes.

The part that a lot of you have been waiting for!

It's Monday morning, July 4th.

I got up early.

Before the sun.

I like to get to the comfort station and get my shower early.

So, I headed out.

I nearly tripped when I stepped out of the camper door.

Someone was asleep on the porch!

I looked at the big lump on the ground.

And, at all of the beer bottles and chicken bones strewn around.

YURI!

Oy!

He's my distant cousin, in case you haven't heard of him before.

Although, no one has successfully explained to me how exactly we are related.

What was he doing here?

I don't have any way of contacting him, and I don't want to.

He knew we had been here at the Fort last 4th of July.

On a hunch, he showed up late last night and found us.

He knew what kind of welcome he would have received had he knocked on the camper door late at night, so he decided to help himself to my ice chest.

He drank every last one of my beers, and ate our left over Giddyap And Go chicken, too.

And then passed out on the ground.

Dang that Yuri!

He's useless!

Actually, that's not true.

He actually is a pretty nice guy, and he is forever trying to get in my good graces.

He loves to wander around the Fort and take photos.

He asked if there was anything that I would like for him to photograph this morning.

Frankly, I wanted to get rid of him.

So, I told him about the orange lift that I had seen when we took the boat past River Country last night.

He said he would go and check it out.

He asked for the keys to the golf cart.

I told him no way.

He had to walk.

He knows what happened the last time I let him borrow the golf cart.

But, we don't talk about that.

I handed him my camera, and told him to have a nice stroll.

With any luck, he would be gone for a long time.

I went ahead and got my shower.

And, thankfully, Yuri was gone for a while.

When he got back, he showed me the photos he had taken.

And, here they are.

This photo is taken from the entrance of the 1500 loop, looking back. You can see the sun is just beginning to rise. I told you it was early:

It was pleasantly cool again on Monday morning (around 72 again), so there was more fog in the swamp:

Since he was on foot, Yuri took the pedestrian trail from the back of the 300 loop to the Settlement. Here's the canal that is adjacent to the 300 loop:

The bridge was blocked off again this morning. Since Yuri was on foot, this was not a problem:

This appears to be a shot of the canal by the dam. Look how calm the water is, and how it is reflecting the trees. Nice shot, Yuri!:

This looks like the area right across from the old cabin. You can see the trash can that is there in this photo:

It looks like Yuri tried to get a photo of the cabin, but it was still too dark for that:

Yuri stopped and took a photo from the same spot I took one from yesterday. This is understandable, as we have visited this place together, and we both like the view from here. I wonder if that's the same bird there in the grass from yesterday?:

There's Bay Lake at dawn:

This is the path between River Country and the Settlement. Look, the lights are still on:

This shot is taken from near the old River Country ticket booth, looking in to River Country. The lights are all still on in here too:

This shot appears to have been taken from the same area, looking back toward the Settlement Trading Post:

Yuri told me that he had walked down the path by the old River Country Ticket booth, and then along the shore of Bay Lake to try to get a look at River Country without entering into any area that was off limits. His English is not so good, so as far as I understand, he stood outside the fenced off area, and was able to get these next few photos.

This appears to be a photo of a rock that used to be a part of the Indian Springs area of River Country:

From what I understand, those petroglyphs were inscribed by the ancient people who used to inhabit this area.

Yuri told me, and this photo confirms, that the lift we saw in yesterday's photos was not inside the fenced in area of River Country. It was on the other side of the fence, and it did not appear to be related to any work being done in River Country:

So, there doesn't appear to be any type of demolition work going on in River Country.

Yuri apparently is curious about those blue tanks that we saw earlier in this trip report, and he snapped these photos of them (again from outside the fenced area):

These photos contribute nothing to answering the question of why those blue tanks are there.

I guess that all those bags of play sand and top soil may have something to do with the blue tanks.

But, near as I can tell, these things are just giant buckets of slime.

What about that video I asked you to watch?

Well, there's a few more Yuri photos.

But, I am near the photo limit, so I will post those next.

TCD

[kampfirekim 260]

I have that cake topper!!!

Me too!

Me three!!! H bought it for our wedding cake. I've taught him well.

Cool shot of the petroglyphs! Yuri rocks!

[Just Whipperwhirl 24]

I can never get that video to work - so I ask to be excused as well.

[Just Whipperwhirl 24]

I cant beleive they left all those empty bags just laying there and then they throw a river country post on top for added unnerving. Thats not a very disney thing to do. I like that post - I wonder if a loop 3000 sign would fit on it.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I haven't always been a bus driver, I worked at the GF, WL, & YC and I always worked nights. Guess what goes by 2 of those resorts every night, yup the EWP.

I swear I could even hear it when I worked at the YC too. The music was burned into my brain after hearing it so many times.

Plus the EWP is a hundred years old and it's hasn't changed.

Oh yes. I remember now. That's funny how you could hear it at YC!

Plus the EWPis a hundred years old and it hasn't changed.

Well so are you (almost), and we all still love you!

I'm at work and can't watch the video.

OK, but you can't read the next post until you do.

I can never get that video to work - so I ask to be excused as well.

Oh, OK . . .

I will give you a pass.

I'll put a screen cap in the post to make my point.

TCD

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Nice picture, Yuri is getting pretty good with that camera. Gotta agree with Whip, leaving that junk laying around is not very disney

My two cents on EWP, I love it and hope it stays around for a long, long time :heart:

[HillBillyWhisperer 20]

The aphabet as it was thought to me, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQSTUVWXYZ

All these years and I never knew. Now I understand completely. Thanks!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Even though Yuri had confirmed that the orange lift was not actually doing any work inside of River Country, since he was in the area, he took a few more photos.

This is a photo of the old main swimming area. You can see the old barrel bridge in the background, as well as the Boom Swing. Also note all the birds perched up in the trees:

This photo shows the old barrel bridge, and the orange lift outside of the fence:

You can see the birds up in the trees again in this photo, as well as the old tire swing and an old life guard chair:

You can see the tire swing and a horizontal net suspended over the water in this photo:

This must be the bridge that you can see as you pass by River Country by boat:

You can see the orange lift, as well as an old life guard chair in this photo:

It kind of looks like the lift is inside of the fence in that photo. But it isn't.

This photo show the center area of the old swimming area. This part of River Country used recycled lake water:

This photo appears to have been taken from the same spot as the last, but turned toward the Contemporary Resort and Bay Lake Tower. You can see Discovery Island and even the shipwreck on it if you look closely:

This is the platform that folks used to walk out on to to use the nets suspended above the water:

Below those nets, there used to big round disks that looked like slices of a log. Folks would try to walk across them.

This is the attraction that was the focus of the video I asked you to watch.

This is a screen cap from that video, in case you couldn't watch it:

Here's another look at the net:

This is the old sign describing the attraction. I guess it was called the Stump Jump. Look at the elaborate rules:

If you watched the video, you saw how dangerous this attraction looked.

But fun!

I would have no problem obeying this sign if I ever was in this area:

This shot shows the suspended net from about where the videographer took that video that we looked at earlier:

There is a barrel bridge over here, too:

Here's the swimming area and tire swing again:

I remember this part of River Country well. The area that is obstructed by brush in this photo is the walkway that led to the stairs you would climb to get up to the two big slides that were called Whoop and Holler Hollow:

It looks like it would be pretty hard to walk through there now.

This area covered with cat-tails used to be a nice sandy beach:

This shot looks like it was taken from the beach, looking across the water to the old slides. You can see the slides through the leaves:

Those are all the River Country photos from Yuri.

From there, he walked down the dirt road past the barns to get this photo showing the lift in place outside of the River Country fence:

This is looking down that aforementioned dirt road, back toward the Settlement Area. This is where all of the employees who work at Trail's End and the Marina park, and is part of what will be developed if the rumored DVC resort ever gets built:

That is the last photo taken by Yuri.

He either walked or hopped a bus back to the 1500 loop.

It was not even 7:30 am when he got back.

Next up, we begin our 4th of July festivities.

And I had to figure out how to get Yuri to leave.

TCD

[stefa70 205]

While Yuri may be a thorn in your side, I enjoy his pictures. So sad to see River Country slowly deteriorating.

I remember almost drowning coming off the Whoop & Holler slides (the water was deep!), scraping my shins on those slices of logs, minnows freaking me out when they would surround my legs, and being scared to death the first time my Dad made me go down the "half slides" in the pool!

Ahhh, the memories......

Please thank Yuri the next time he drops in!

[BouncingTiggers 98]

Yury must have been a Russian spy during the Cold War. He is very good at infiltrating top secret locations & bring back top notch reconnaissance photos.

Yury if your reading this great job!!

[caveat lector 181]

Yuri Rocks! Beer, Cold Chicken, and spy pics. What a combo.

[Lou... 3,118]

Gotta agree with Whip, leaving that junk laying around is not very disney

You need to go backstage, other than where the tours might go that is.

My two cents on EWP, I love it and hope it stays around for a long, long time

It's a start. If everyone put in their two cents, the Disney Imagineerless could come up with a new EWP. Maybe one that uses technology from the last 30 years.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

You need to go backstage, other than where the tours might go that is.

I have been backstage and was appalled at how much trash was laying around, especially cigarette butts.

It's a start. If everyone put in their two cents, the Disney Imagineerless could come up with a new EWP. Maybe one that uses technology from the last 30 years.

I don't need new technology, sometimes change isn't a good thing. Before you know future generations are going to be asking "Who's Walt Disney"

[Lil Lisa 53]

MultiQuote still isn't working for me, but I wanted you all to be the first to know. Bruce wore sleeves for the wedding. Gasp!!! And it was summer!!! Gasp!! Gasp!!

[Fortmommy 1]

WOW! Brings back many memories.

One question though from the video. What's a LADDA?

That is a very scary attraction! I don't think I would let my kids on that until they were older! I am surprised we didn't see any of the kids that fell hit their heads on those logs.

You should spell that laddah. It something used to get tallah when yah bee-ah is up too high.

[wildfire 0]

Good start to another TCD TR. Notice anything odd about this coach?

I don't know, but looks like the bay door in front of the rear wheel is open. Hope they didn't lose things coming down the road.

Hi, my name is David. I've been a lurker for a long time. I passed this guy on my way home from where I work in Lynchburg, Va a couple of weeks ago! I pulled up next to him, got his attention and pointed to that swinging door. He pulled over, but I don't know what happened after that point. It appeared to be empty at the time, so either he knew it was broken or lost his stuff earlier.

[lklasing 16]

Great job, as always, by Yuri! I agree with all the other comments about the trash, though. Very sad. Maybe next time Yuri invades one of your trips, you can send him back to see if it's still there. Maybe one of the powers that be is reading this report and might actually try to clean it up since they know a Russian spy is lurking about.

[Lou... 3,118]

Hi, my name is David. I've been a lurker for a long time. I passed this guy on my way home from where I work in Lynchburg, Va a couple of weeks ago! I pulled up next to him, got his attention and pointed to that swinging door.

Wow, what are the odds of you lurking here and seeing that MH, amazing.

BTW David, stop lurking and start posting.

You know what they say about the number one?

[thecplusplusguy 7]

Hi, my name is David. I've been a lurker for a long time. I passed this guy on my way home from where I work in Lynchburg, Va a couple of weeks ago! I pulled up next to him, got his attention and pointed to that swinging door. He pulled over, but I don't know what happened after that point. It appeared to be empty at the time, so either he knew it was broken or lost his stuff earlier.

Hey I'm first (I hope) to :welcome:

Dan

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Hi, my name is David. I've been a lurker for a long time. I passed this guy on my way home from where I work in Lynchburg, Va a couple of weeks ago! I pulled up next to him, got his attention and pointed to that swinging door. He pulled over, but I don't know what happened after that point. It appeared to be empty at the time, so either he knew it was broken or lost his stuff earlier.

Glad you are here. Don't be a lurker here we have too much fun :banana: