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

[SCTigerCock 171]

He needs to go more often. Familiarity with the fort will help him calm down. You should really take him every other weekend.... think of it. Rocky's TCD Fort Report....

Agree! :dance: :heart:

Can't wait to take your youngest for the first time in October or December...... :banana:

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Rocky is SO cute! My boxer, Gracie, doesn't like to have her picture taken but my husband managed to get one of her last night. She's fat. I think I have spoiled her too much with people food treats. She was abused before we rescued her. I guess I gave her too much treats to try to make up for what happened to her. She's coming around but she is still scared of everything.

My mom has a boxer, too. He looks more like a Great Dane, though. He's huge! She just took him to the vet and he weighs 115lbs! He looks like a small horse. My sister has a black boxer. He's still young and is so full of energy. Last night we had all three boxers outside when some neighbors came by with a 4 week old boxer puppy. Omg, he was so tiny! He was left at the park and they found him and took him home. How could anyone leave tiny puppy behind?

Our boxers are all jumpy like that when they are away from home. We took Gracie with us camping once and she was a mess. She just couldn't calm down. When Elvis and Harley come over to my house they pace around almost the whole time they are here.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Here we go.

Back to the report.

It's late afternoon on the 4th.

Actually, early evening.

We were eating our dinner at our site, when two Orange County Sheriff's Cars and a WDW Security vehicle came driving by.

Guess where they were going?

The pool!:

I thought about heading over there to see what the issue was.

But, after witnessing the big deal made over the pool chair argument, I didn't think it was worth the effort.

You can see in these photos that the pool area was still very crowded:

I guess some folks would be happy to see this. Thinking -isn't it great that the management is doing something to bring order to the chaos at the pool? Well, what if management did its job and stopped the chaos from happening in the first place? How about that? That would impress me. Seeing cops at the pool doesn't impress me. It makes me sad. Management needs to make a real effort to address the issue of overcrowding. Then maybe we wouldn't need cops showing up. And no, sticking a few dim-wits in costumes and calling them rangers really hasn't helped the situation. Has it?

I had walked across the street to take those photos.

Here's another shot of our site from over there:

My dinner got interrupted again when this lost bus came by and stopped at the 1500 loop bus stop:

If you understand the Fort's internal bus system those photos are funny.

Orange buses aren't supposed to stop here.

And, that bus isn't going to the Outpost- it's heading to the Settlement.

And, it's not going to get any closer to the Meadow Trading Post than it is right here.

I hope nobody got on the bus expecting to go there.

Right before it got dark, we made a run to the Settlement.

I was curious to see what the parking situation would be tonight.

As previously reported, they wouldn't let anyone drive down to the Settlement on Sunday night.

To my surprise, the 100 loop access was open, and the rangers were not stopping people from driving down to the marina area.

This was the night of the 4th.

Last night was only the 3rd.

Why did they go through all of that hassle on the 3rd?

I took this photo while we were checking on things.

As you can see, it wasn't particularly crowded around the marina:

I'll cut this update short here.

Next up, we hit the beach for the 4th of July fireworks.

I'll cover that all with one post.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

He needs to go more often. Familiarity with the fort will help him calm down. You should really take him every other weekend.... think of it. Rocky's TCD Fort Report....

Now there's an idea!

Better yet, I bet if I lived at the Fort, then that would be home for Rocky, and he wouldn't be jumpy at all.

That will work!

Rocky is SO cute! My boxer, Gracie, doesn't like to have her picture taken but my husband managed to get one of her last night. She's fat. I think I have spoiled her too much with people food treats. She was abused before we rescued her. I guess I gave her too much treats to try to make up for what happened to her. She's coming around but she is still scared of everything.

My mom has a boxer, too. He looks more like a Great Dane, though. He's huge! She just took him to the vet and he weighs 115lbs! He looks like a small horse. My sister has a black boxer. He's still young and is so full of energy. Last night we had all three boxers outside when some neighbors came by with a 4 week old boxer puppy. Omg, he was so tiny! He was left at the park and they found him and took him home. How could anyone leave tiny puppy behind?

Our boxers are all jumpy like that when they are away from home. We took Gracie with us camping once and she was a mess. She just couldn't calm down. When Elvis and Harley come over to my house they pace around almost the whole time they are here.

Rocky is our third boxer. Our other two had weight issues. We fed them canned food. We have kept Rocky on dry food. It has worked great, and it is so much better all the way around. We also made a vow not to feed him from the table, and that has been great too. Our other dogs were such beggars. Rocky doesn't know the difference.

My wife had boxers growing up. I never cared for them. Until we got our first boxer. Now I think they're the best!

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Now there's an idea!

Better yet, I bet if I lived at the Fort, then that would be home for Rocky, and he wouldn't be jumpy at all.

That will work!

TCD

good luck selling that one to Mrs. TCD....

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Here we are on the night of July 4th.

The fireworks are set for 9:00.

Not knowing what to expect, we head down to the Settlement at a little before 8:30.

As already mentioned, there was no effort to restrict folks from driving down to the marina, or to have them park behind Pioneer Hall.

This is the night that they should have made an effort at crowd control.

But they didn't.

Guess who we ran into when we got down to the area in front of the Settlement Trading Post?

Ranger Sean!

He had been at the golf cart parade in the morning, and here he was still working.

He told me he was happy because he was now being paid double-time.

He directed us to a parking spot on the grass right by the little sidewalk leading to Clementine's Beach.

That was good.

As soon as we unloaded and headed toward the beach, I noticed this crowd set up right here:

Sorry about the photo quality. The sun was setting, and these folks were in the shadows. You can make out the Backyard BBQ sign in the background of the first photo. That's where these folks were set up- in the wooded/sandy area there on the edge of the beach. I've never seen anyone do that before. I guess it's OK. Ranger Sean was there, and I'm sure he would have told them to move if this wasn't allowed. Or, maybe they were friends of his too.

There was a respectable crowd gathered on the beach. Most folks gather closer to the marina. I'm not exactly sure why. Discovery Island is still going to block part of their view:

It was not quite as crowded down toward the River Country end of the beach, which is where we planned to sit:

Yes, I see the guys playing cornhole.

Yes, I said cornhole.

Please keep your B & B hijacks to yourself.

Thanks.

We were treated to another wonderful sunset:

The only Fiends I saw down here on this end of the beach were Hillbilly Whisperer and his crew.

The fireworks began promptly at 9.

As previously reported, the audio was played a bit too low.

We had heard this from someone who attended on the 3rd (Devores), so we made a point to sit near one of the speakers. We could hear fine, but I doubt folks further away could hear very well.

I have plenty of fireworks photos.

But, I'll just post a few.

Here are your basic red, white and blue fireworks:

And your rockets red glare:

And some red stars:

There were blue and white stars too.

Use your imagination.

Note that there's a guy standing in front of me taking photos.

He had been sitting down.

But, he decided it would be good to stand up in front of everyone sitting behind him to get his pictures.

Who are we anyway?

At least he got his shots without an idiot standing in front of him.

Sucks to be us.

Here's the finale and my new friend's back:

I you have a really good memory, you may remember that a lady in a hoodie did this exact same thing to me when I was trying to take photos of the NYE fireworks here.

I thought maybe this time I was being punked.

But Ashton Kutcher never showed up.

So, I guess it was just another clueless person who was only thinking about himself.

There's no shortage of those around the Fort.

But not all is lost, my DD had her camera:

There you go.

It's better at the Poly.

But, not bad at the Fort.

Have I mentioned that the rangers were busy all weekend directing traffic when it didn't need to be directed? Well, guess what?

They were no where to be found when the fireworks were over.

Instead, there were various castmembers stationed around with walkie talkies trying to get everyone to go down the one path from the Settlement to the three way stop. They now had the 100 loop blocked off. And, since they didn't have anyone park behind Pioneer Hall, no one was being let out that way.

So hundreds of guests on golf carts sat there for 15 or 20 minutes while golf carts exited the area one at a time.

Genius.

The guy with the black shirt whom I had seen earlier at the pool was standing in front of the Settlement Trading Post thanking everyone for their patience.

Like we had a choice.

Whatever.

It was actually kind of fun.

Until someone decided it would be a good idea to honk his horn.

You know what happened next.

My ears are still ringing.

It seemed like this took a lot longer than it really did.

We eventually got cleared out of there and back to our site.

It wasn't even 10 pm yet.

What were we supposed to do now?

Don't worry, we came up with some things to do.

Next up, our 4th of July fun continues.

TCD

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Love the pictures of the fireworks. You do know that a gentle kick behind the knee of the rude photography would have brought down real fast. It was dark he would never know who did it :rofl2:

[SCTigerCock 171]

Love the pictures of the fireworks. You do know that a gentle kick behind the knee of the rude photography would have brought down real fast. It was dark he would never know who did it :rofl2:

Note to self: doodle promotes/condones tasering, clipping (football), and probably pepper spraying people.

I :heart: Doodle.

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Well, all I can say is thank goodness for the Wiggles! I spent the last few days doing silly things like teaching kids, laundry, and cooking. So today, I had 9 pages of TR to catch up on, including a lot of posts about beer, which just made me want a beer. It took me over an hour to read through all this. But I did it! So why am I thankful for the Wiggles? because i completely forgot during that hour to keep an eye onmy 4yo. Thankfully, she spent the hour watching a Wiggles video. I have looked very carefully and found no new permanent marker on the walls, no nail polish on the carpet, and I don't believe she has straightened any bobby pins out either. I have no idea what the rest of the kids have been up to, but at least the youngest behaved for the past hour.

I better get back to cooking and laundry. At least we finished school before i started reading.

[stefa70 205]

I hope you found A LOT of things to do that night, because I think you left the next day, right? I have a sinking feeling that the end is near...

[Fortmommy 1]

No, I wouldn't say he's squirrel crazy.

We have a lot of squirrels at home, and he chases them, but he's not as serious about it as I've seen some dogs get.

I think he's just high-strung. He gets wound up whenever he goes anywhere new. Just like a little kid.

At home, he's great, he'll go outside and play and wear himself out, and then he sleeps quite a bit.

But when we are away, he is very jumpy and just won't relax.

I don't think there's anything wrong with him- he's just a bit hyper.

But, that gets old when you're camping. The last time we were at the Fort, he went to the dog park several times, and on way more walks than he does at home, but he just would not settle down during the day.

TCD

What a CUTIE! He is still a puppy, he will calm down eventually.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Love the pictures of the fireworks. You do know that a gentle kick behind the knee of the rude photography would have brought down real fast. It was dark he would never know who did it :rofl2:

You know, Doodle, you are pretty quick on your feet.

I really wasn't upset at the guy. In a crowded situation like this, that kind of thing is bound to happen. I could have moved if it was that important to me. But it wasn't.

Note to self: doodle promotes/condones tasering, clipping (football), and probably pepper spraying people.

I :heart: Doodle.

Good observations.

We had all better watch our backs around Doodle.

Well, all I can say is thank goodness for the Wiggles! I spent the last few days doing silly things like teaching kids, laundry, and cooking. So today, I had 9 pages of TR to catch up on, including a lot of posts about beer, which just made me want a beer. It took me over an hour to read through all this. But I did it! So why am I thankful for the Wiggles? because i completely forgot during that hour to keep an eye onmy 4yo. Thankfully, she spent the hour watching a Wiggles video. I have looked very carefully and found no new permanent marker on the walls, no nail polish on the carpet, and I don't believe she has straightened any bobby pins out either. I have no idea what the rest of the kids have been up to, but at least the youngest behaved for the past hour.

I better get back to cooking and laundry. At least we finished school before i started reading.

I agree.

Thank goodness for the Wiggles.

Although, truth be told, they do make me a bit uncomfortable.

Your 4 year old was quiet for an hour? Did you check to make sure things that shouldn't have been have been flushed?

Thanks for reading along.

I'm sorry it wasn't longer so you could have stayed away from the cooking and laundry a bit longer.

I hope you found A LOT of things to do that night, because I think you left the next day, right? I have a sinking feeling that the end is near...

I ain't going to lie to you, we did leave on Tuesday, and we are getting close to the end.

Which means I need to get serious about planning my next trip.

Don't be too sad.

There are a lot of other good trip reports still going that you can read.

What a CUTIE! He is still a puppy, he will calm down eventually.

Yes, he is and he will. He's not bad now. Just spirited.

TCD

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

You know, Doodle, you are pretty quick on your feet.

I really wasn't upset at the guy. In a crowded situation like this, that kind of thing is bound to happen. I could have moved if it was that important to me. But it wasn't.

Good observations.

We had all better watch our backs around Doodle.

TCD

You don't have to worry about me, while I could come up with the plan, I'd leave it to others to carry out :rofl2: Or would I >:D :dmmhu:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

It's the night of July 4th.

We enjoyed the fireworks at the beach.

Now, it's time for a few of our own.

These aren't really fireworks.

Just sparklers.

The sign at the beach said no fireworks, including sparklers.

But sparklers aren't fireworks.

They're sparklers.

And since the sign said none on the beach, doesn't that imply that they're OK not on the beach?

I thought so.

I don't think I need to tell any of you that Florida is a weird place.

I grew up in New Jersey, and there was no doubt that fireworks were illegal there. I rarely saw anyone shoot of any kind of fireworks, not even little old firecrackers, when I was a kid. They were illegal, and there was no place to get them. Occasionally, a kid would show up with some firecrackers that he obtained on a trip south, and that was a big deal.

In Florida, fireworks are supposedly illegal. But, every July, tents pop up everywhere with folks selling them. Heck, they even sell packages of fireworks at Publix. It used to be that if you bought fireworks from one of those tents, they would make you sign a piece of paper affirming that you were going to be using the fireworks for a legal purpose such as mining or scaring birds out of your fields. Now, they don't even bother with that pretense. You just pay your money and you get your fireworks. I guess what they sell must be legal. Or maybe they aren't really fireworks- just sparklers.

Anyway, we usually visit one of those tents before July 4th each year, and get a couple of items.

So, we had a few fireworks sparklers to light after we got back from the fireworks. Including that Flippin' Awesome thing you saw a photo of in the first post on this TR.

Here's good old 1501 at night:

We had one of those little fireworks sparkler assortments.

It included a few cylinders with fuses.

We put one of these out in the tetherball court and lit it:

\

We were having some fun now!

There were a couple of teenage boys playing tetherball.

They liked the fireworks sparklers.

I think maybe they also liked the TCD twins.

They offered to jump over the fireworks sparklers if we lit another one.

That sounded like something worth seeing, so we said sure.

My DD lit the next one:

The boys chickened out.

The girls teased them.

This was getting serious.

Then, a lifeguard (of all things) came driving into our loop on a red cart.

Even though we had been the ones lighting the fireworks sparklers, the teenage boys ran.

The lifeguard chased them.

When she drove back around she asked us to tell those teenagers that they weren't allowed to be lighting off fireworks.

We told her that we would be sure to do that.

If you have ever been at the Fort on a holiday, you know that somewhere in the night, there will be an impromptu golf cart parade.

It happens all the time.

Some folks just start driving around in their carts, and honking their horns, inviting others to join in.

Well, it was right about now that one of those groups came cruising in to the 1500 loop.

They were going around the loop, and we were right where they would come out.

Guess what else I had left from my little fireworks sparkler assortment?

Smoke bombs!

In a rainbow of colors.

I lit three and lined them up at the loop exit.

They smoked like crazy.

But not for long.

Plus it was a little windy.

By the time the impromptu parade came around, they were greeted by just a few wisps of smoke.

Fail.

We were going through our little fireworks sparkler assortment pretty quick.

There were lots of sparklers in there, though.

So, it was now time for some sparklers!:

The girls used those to do some light writing:

Before long, we were all out of fireworks sparklers.

All we had left was our Flippin' Awesome.

I told the girls that I didn't think we should light it.

It was pretty big.

I wasn't sure what it was going to do.

For all I know, flaming dolphins were going to come flying out of it.

They called me a chicken.

And clucked.

And flapped their arms like chicken wings.

Well, maybe H can stand up to that kind of ridicule, but I can't.

So, we came up with a plan.

We needed to think of a place where we could light that thing and not bother anyone, and not light the Fort on fire, and, most importantly, not get caught.

Where could that be?

We thought of the group camping area.

But, there's not a good escape route from there.

We thought about the beach.

But, there would probably still be a lot of people around there.

Then I thought about the campfire area.

There's a big open area in front of the screen.

And, the ground is covered with gravel.

And, there are lots of ways in and out of there.

That would be our place.

One of my daughters refused to go.

She is afraid of jail.

My other daughter was all in favor of going.

She thinks jail might be fun.

So, we waited until midnight-ish, and then headed down to the campfire area.

We put the Flippin' Awesome in the center of the open area.

And I lit the fuse and stepped back.

I was able to take this one photo:

You can see the movie screen there in the background.

This was just a few seconds after ignition.

From here, the flames and sparks got bigger and bigger.

And we kept on backing up.

I swear, the sparks got as high as the top of the movie screen, and just as wide.

We got the heck out of there.

For all I know, that thing did shoot out flaming dolphins.

For a while, it was like daylight there at the campfire.

I started to think that maybe I should have stayed back at camp with my other daughter.

I am not pro-jail.

But, after about a half-hour that thing finally stopped shooting off sparks.

(actually it was probably more like thirty seconds, but it seemed that long to me)

I checked back to make sure nothing caught on fire.

But, I wasn't able to get any more photos.

My daughter and I agreed that was, indeed, Flippin' Awesome.

After this, it was time for some late night looping.

We ran into another impromptu golf cart parade going around the 1300 loop. We were heading down Fort Wilderness Trail as they were heading in. One of the elderly Security Officers was driving by at that time too. He got out of his SUV with his cane and walker and stopped them as they were coming out. He told them that they could continue with their shenanigans, as long as they stopped the horn blowing. They said no problem. He drove off toward the Outpost, they all headed toward the Settlement. They turned in to the 600 loop next. And immediately resumed the horn blowing. Hooligans! Funny hooligans. But still hooligans.

We finished up with our looping, and that was it for our 4th.

Next up, another early morning at the Fort, and then it's time to pack up and go.

TCD

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Flippin' Awesome, Andrew. I'm glad you didn't chicken out:banana: And wasn't it fortuitous that the teen boys were there to draw suspicion away from you :rofl2:

Fireworks are illegal in Michigan also. That being said we have more impromptu illegal fireworks shows than community sponsored ones. I am not talking sparklers either. Think Roman Candles and the like.

Please make be sure you introduce me to your dd that stayed with you, I think I like this kid. I see a button pusher of epic proportions and I'd like to give her some pointers :rofl2: J/K

[stefa70 205]

A+++++ on that installment! I laughed out loud, it was TOTALLY flippin' awesome!!

Love the pics of your DD in the middle of the road, better keep your eye on her. Not only was she breaking the law, she was having a good time doing it! ;D

[SCTigerCock 171]

flippin genius! :parrot:

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Please make be sure you introduce me to your dd that stayed with you, I think I like this kid. I see a button pusher of epic proportions and I'd like to give her some pointers :rofl2: J/K

You and I would get in so much trouble together. We'd be conspiring on the best hijinks.

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

I loved this last installment!

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Darn! We went mini golfing 4th of July night and then went to bed. Had I stayed up I might have been out and about when you were setting off Flippin Awesome. Too bad.

[rm0530 5]

Love the update! The star sparkler picture is great!

[anolefan 8]

A+++++ on that installment! I laughed out loud, it was TOTALLY flippin' awesome!!

Love the pics of your DD in the middle of the road, better keep your eye on her. Not only was she breaking the law, she was having a good time doing it! ;D

flippin genius! :parrot:

I loved this last installment!

Love the update! The star sparkler picture is great!

Agree with all these quotes.

Well Flippin Done!

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

Fiendishly Flippin' Awesome!

[Lil Lisa 53]

Most definitely Flippin Awesome!!!! :banana:

[mgsmom 9]

Awwww! Rocky is so cute! Boxers are high strung, I'm with you. When DH is out of town working, our boxer is on high-alert. He does not sleep well until DH comes home. That's a good thing though. He would protect me with his life.

Lovin' the Flippin Awesome firew... ummm... sparklers!