A Fiend Looks at Fifty-A TCD Birthday Trip Report

[stefa70 205]

:jumpforjoy Thank you, thank you!! Not only did you post an installment but it was a Rocky installment! He is quite the ladies man. Those girls must have loved watching him as much as he loved being watched. I would have liked to see you chasing after him with a flip flop in his mouth, that would be a show on its own.

Great pictures. Love the ear flopped over in the dog park, his tetherball skills, digging in the dirt, drinking from the bunk end, and especially him standing on the table! Dogs, like kids, are meant to be spoiled. Rocky looks like one happy pup.

You are forgiven for waiting so long, I am satisfied now. You may now go enjoy your birthday. :heartsmiley:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Squirrels eat pine cones where I live.

Great report Andrew! Looking forward to more.. Hopefully i won't fall behind again.

KFK-

Glad that you are caught up.

Thanks for the SC squirrel info.

Isn't it strange that squirrels eat pine cones in Orlando and the Tampa Bay area, and SC, but not in Inverness, Florida where S70 lives?

I hope that you don't fall behind again, too!

:jumpforjoy Thank you, thank you!! Not only did you post an installment but it was a Rocky installment! He is quite the ladies man. Those girls must have loved watching him as much as he loved being watched. I would have liked to see you chasing after him with a flip flop in his mouth, that would be a show on its own.

Great pictures. Love the ear flopped over in the dog park, his tetherball skills, digging in the dirt, drinking from the bunk end, and especially him standing on the table! Dogs, like kids, are meant to be spoiled. Rocky looks like one happy pup.

You are forgiven for waiting so long, I am satisfied now. You may now go enjoy your birthday. :heartsmiley:

Wow, you are easy to please.

Thanks for all the comments.

Since you have been so nice, I am going to try to post another installment today.

It will include some more Rocky pics.

I like to keep these things moving along.

TCD

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

AHA!

People are always asking me what kind of dog my Jedi is. Maybe he is part Rocky...

As you can see, Jed also likes to dig holes when ever we stop for more than a second. Grass, dirt, sand...it doesn't matter. Nice to see he's not the only one.

Loving the report! Rocky seems like a really sweet dog.

[lklasing 16]

Happy Birthday, on your official birthday!

If I knew how to photoshop, I'd change this to say "Can I go to Fort Wilderness for my birfday?!?", but I'm not skilled like that. Hope you're having a great one!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

With breakfast out of the way, some of the princesses went for showers, and others hung around and we went looping.

We spent the rest of the morning just hanging out.

On one of our visits to the Settlement, I noticed this hula hoop holder on the porch of Trails' End. I had never noticed it before. I think it's new, but it could have been there before, and I just didn't notice. I'm not much of a hula hooper:

Also make sure to notice the red horse shoe up on the roof. Someone must have had too much of that free sangria at the Hoop Dee Doo Revue last night.

It was a beautiful morning. You can see how bright and blue the sky is in this crooked photo:

As we came back and forth from the 1500 loop, Rocky kept looking at the 1500 loop tetherball court.

He is the champion of the 1500 loop tetherball court.

But, he hadn't yet played on it on this visit.

There was always someone using it.

We had a lot of kids on the 1500 loop this weekend.

And they all liked tetherball.

Finally, it was open on one of our drive-bys.

So, we have more Rocky tetherball photos.

Enjoy them, because these are the last (for this trip):

A guy stopped and watched Rocky for a while- you can see him in the back of this photo:

He also had a young male boxer, but his dog had stayed home on this trip. He said his dog didn't play tetherball like that. The poor guy probably felt bad that his dog was such a loser.

Here are some more photos of Rocky showing off his skills:

Of course, Rocky's antics attracted some more admirers:

These kids were all from a campsite that was kind of across from ours. They were directly across from Brent's site.

One of these girls was Katherine Margaret.

We all knew her name, because her mom pretty much constantly yelled at her the whole weekend.

She didn't seem like a bad kid.

I can't say anything bad about the mom, though, because Katherine Margaret brought the mom out to meet Rocky. She (the mom) really liked Rocky, and brought him out some bacon to eat. Bacon! I was hoping maybe she would give me a piece too. But, she gave it all to Rocky. Lucky dog.

After our last tetherball match, Rocky was pooped. He was panting hard, so we took him on a golf cart ride to give him a chance to rest and cool off. We headed out of our loop, took a left , and cruised past the 1600-1900 loops. When we got to Fort Wilderness Trail, we took a right and headed toward the Settlement. This is where we saw this family:

What The Fort?

Did you see that?

A whole family riding on coolers!!!

Awesome!

They, just kept on going.

We had to follow them. I like how they didn't bother pulling over for traffic:

I did catch up with these folks and spoke to the dad a bit. First I told him he was awesome. Then he told me his story. It turns out that he used to be a dealer for these riding coolers. They retail for $450 each. Ouch. I asked him if he had any used ones he might want to sell. He said to come by the 400 loop and look him up later. I did just that, but I never found his site. So no riding coolers for the TCD gang.

How cool would it be for a group of folks to ride these in one of the golf cart parades?

After this looping trip, I brought Rocky in to the camper so he could cool off in the AC.

He was worn out!:

I just noticed that one of the Justin Bieber birthday balloons is there in the bunk in these photos.

It wasn't long after this that Mrs. TCD and Rocky took off for home.

They had both had enough fun at the Fort.

So, it was just me and the DD's for the afternoon.

My oldest DD had been texting one of her friends who attends UCF all morning. The friend was going to come over for a visit. And she did come over at around 2:30.

I grilled up some hot dogs, and got a TV set up outsider for the FSU/Clemson game at 3:30.

My DD and her friend watched the game.

The TCD twins and I watched some and looped some.

On one of our loops, I decided to stop by the 300 loop canal to see if the TCDRMOG's were out on the canal in their boat.

This is what I saw when I looked:

They had moved their canopy from the back of their site out to the canal.

Why not?

I told you they were geniuses!

As the afternoon passed, we would stop by Trails' End for soda runs. Here is the crowd for the early HDDR:

Quite a few folks left our loop in the morning, and new campers came in during the afternoon.

I noticed a pretty cool set up over on the 1600 loop, so I thought I would head over there for a photo.

I walked out by the canal.

I saw a deer across the canal. So, I had to take a photo:

I took another photo of the woods, because I want to compare how the woods look now to some earlier photos. As I have already said, I still haven't found any good comparison photos, but I still think the woods have been thinned out:

Here's the deer again:

This is the set up that I had set out to photograph:

And here's the interesting thing about that set up- these folks worked for quite a while on Saturday afternoon getting that all set up. And then they left on Sunday. Believe it or not, that happens a lot in the tent loops. Folks just come and camp for one night. I don't get it. But I guess camping for one night is better than not camping at all.

When half time rolled around for the FSU game, my oldest DD said that she wanted to head back to Tallahassee. She had mentioned that earlier. She had homework to do, and needed an internet connection. She at one point was going to get up and leave early on Sunday, but she decided she would rather go back tonight, do a little of her homework, and then sleep in a bit in the morning rather than have to get up and drive. That made sense to me.

So, the oldest TCD DD took off for Tallahassee at about 6. Her friend headed back to Orlando. It was now just me and the TCD twins.

We had to pick a place to go for dinner, and decide how we would spend our evening.

It turns out that our choice led to us making a very important discovery.

Very Important.

I dare say it might even be life changing for some of you.

It's that important.

You'll see.

I'll tell you about it in the next post.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

AHA!

People are always asking me what kind of dog my Jedi is. Maybe he is part Rocky...

As you can see, Jed also likes to dig holes when ever we stop for more than a second. Grass, dirt, sand...it doesn't matter. Nice to see he's not the only one.

Loving the report! Rocky seems like a really sweet dog.

Yes, I would say Jedi is part Rocky.

How does he like tetherball?

Drinking out of fountains?

Happy Birthday, on your official birthday!

If I knew how to photoshop, I'd change this to say "Can I go to Fort Wilderness for my birfday?!?", but I'm not skilled like that. Hope you're having a great one!

Thanks, Leslie.

That is a sweet card.

I'll just imagine that it says Fort Wilderness, and that the kid has a Musket Mickey shirt on.

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Gosh durn... blame.. something. The revelations will come when I'm doing the laundry. Well I'm just gonna have to take the computer and the mifi with me so I won't miss it. Unless of course someone is in there and wants to talk...

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Gosh durn... blame.. something. The revelations will come when I'm doing the laundry. Well I'm just gonna have to take the computer and the mifi with me so I won't miss it. Unless of course someone is in there and wants to talk...

No, don't lug all that to the laundromat.

The important, life changing news won't be posted until tomorrow.

I've got to upload some more photos.

TCD

[stefa70 205]

Isn't it strange that squirrels eat pine cones in Orlando and the Tampa Bay area, and SC, but not in Inverness, Florida where S70 lives?

Wow, you are easy to please.

Thanks for all the comments.

Since you have been so nice, I am going to try to post another installment today.

It will include some more Rocky pics.

I like to keep these things moving along.

TCD

Hold on! I did not say they didn't eat pine cones, I said I've never SEEN them eat pine cones. They sit on my porch railing eating acorns, while taunting Mason through the window.

Yes, I am easy to please. 2 updates on your special day is more than I could have hoped for. I can never see enough Rocky!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Hold on! I did not say they didn't eat pine cones, I said I've never SEEN them eat pine cones. They sit on my porch railing eating acorns, while taunting Mason through the window.

Yes, I am easy to please. 2 updates on your special day is more than I could have hoped for. I can never see enough Rocky!

OK, got it.

I figure that they must go after the pine cones when the acorns run out. There seem to be more pine trees than oak trees at the Fort. Maybe you have more oaks than pines.

I am sorry to say that those will be the last Rocky photos from this trip.

But, hopefully he will be back at the Fort soon.

TCD

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

Wow, Nick!

The big Two-Oh!

You aren't a teenager anymore!!

Way to go!

j/k- I hope all is well with you and the CP.

The big day is coming up, right?

Weren't y'all at POR and FW over Labor Day? If so, you owe us a TR. How about just a little one?

TCD

Haha good one!

The CP and I are doing well and counting down until the big day on Nov. 12th. I was thinking I would do a trip report of those two weeks; they should be pretty exciting and will include a night at DisneyWorld!

Yup we were at PO-Riverside for a couple nights. We had a good time but on the first night it took a turn, my grandmother went into the hospital and it wasn't looking good for a while so we didn’t do much and stayed on the phone a lot of the time (she wouldn’t let me leave a vacation early, I had to wait until it was over to fly home, no kidding she would have killed me if I had). I'm happy to report though that's she's once again doing great and has a new defibrillator. I’ll try and write up a quick trip report next week.

We also have a trip coming up for the Food & Wine Festival so I should have a good report for that trip also.

I’m heading to Louisiana and then Austin, TX in the morning for my bachelor party so I’ll appreciate any news posts you make so I can have something to read in the airports! :)

Happy Birthday Again!

WBI

[TheLug 10]

First I would like to talk about southern squirrels vs. northern squirrels. I have not seen either one eat a pine cone like that, BTW. The squirrels up north are much bigger than ours, and they have black ones! Big fuzzy black ones! (At least in NY they do)

They also have chipmunks...real ones, not the Chip & Dale kind. I tried to get a picture of one, but those little suckers are fast. I don't think Florida has chipmunks...well, except for Chip & Dale.

"Bears" is not just a teenage slang thing, as even I know what a bear is! They are also usually big & fuzzy...and fairy like. I'm glad that you didn't piss them off.

i am big and Fuzzy!!! What does that mean ??? :beer:

[TheLug 10]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

No, don't lug all that to the laundromat. The important, life changing news won't be posted until tomorrow. I've got to upload some more photos. TCD

Well it wouldn't have matter anyway. There was a talker at the laundromat so nothing would have gotten read anyway.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Those rolling coolers aren't exactly small, and they don't break down either. That's a lot of space! But I have to admit I've never seen a whole family on one!

[stefa70 205]

i am big and Fuzzy!!! What does that mean ??? :beer:

Well....that must mean you are related to the northern squirrels. Since you just got engaged (to a woman), you don't qualify as a bear!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Haha good one!

The CP and I are doing well and counting down until the big day on Nov. 12th. I was thinking I would do a trip report of those two weeks; they should be pretty exciting and will include a night at DisneyWorld!

Yup we were at PO-Riverside for a couple nights. We had a good time but on the first night it took a turn, my grandmother went into the hospital and it wasn't looking good for a while so we didn’t do much and stayed on the phone a lot of the time (she wouldn’t let me leave a vacation early, I had to wait until it was over to fly home, no kidding she would have killed me if I had). I'm happy to report though that's she's once again doing great and has a new defibrillator. I’ll try and write up a quick trip report next week.

We also have a trip coming up for the Food & Wine Festival so I should have a good report for that trip also.

I’m heading to Louisiana and then Austin, TX in the morning for my bachelor party so I’ll appreciate any news posts you make so I can have something to read in the airports! :)

Happy Birthday Again!

WBI

I'm glad to hear your grandmother is OK!

I hope to get a couple of F & W visits in this month, too.

Maybe I will see you there!

Have fun at your bachelor party!

But not too much fun!

i am big and Fuzzy!!! What does that mean ??? :beer:

What does it mean?

Well, if you are ever camped next to the fairy loving bears:

1. Make sure to keep your door locked.

2. If you plan on showering in the comfort station, make sure to bring soap on a rope.

3. Do not do anything to piss off the fairies.

Those rolling coolers aren't exactly small, and they don't break down either. That's a lot of space! But I have to admit I've never seen a whole family on one!

Me either.

I would like to see the TCD gang riding around on rolling coolers.

I just need $2250.

I guess that's cheaper than buying a golf cart.

Well....that must mean you are related to the northern squirrels. Since you just got engaged (to a woman), you don't qualify as a bear!

How do you know that he's related to the northern squirrels? Don't we need to know whether or not he eats pine cones?

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Ok...waiting.....for.....the......revelations.....to.....begin.......

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Ok...waiting.....for.....the......revelations.....to.....begin.......

It is time!

The next installment should be up within the hour!

TCD

[stefa70 205]

How do you know that he's related to the northern squirrels? Don't we need to know whether or not he eats pine cones?

TCD

No silly, it's because our squirrels are smaller and more aerodynamic. The Lug said he is big & fuzzy! (Unless he is a closet bear )

I will have to call my father and find out if NY squirrels eat pine cones?!

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

It is time!

The next installment should be up within the hour!

TCD

Imagine the theme to double jeopardy playing

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

A. Jedi has never tried Tetherball, but he does like to leap at trees and try to rip branches off them. The only difference I can see is that the branches are stationary and the tetherball moves. We're going to have to give it a go!

B. I live in PA and we have lots of squirrels around, but I've never seen one eating a pinecone.

C. DS saw the riding coolers and has deemed them absolutely necessary for our next camping trip! But at $450 a pop, I think I might just set my Coleman on his electric scooter and see if it's the same effect.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

So, it was Saturday afternoon.

Mrs. TCD, my oldest DD and Rocky had all taken off.

I forgot to mention that I texted Lou and invited him to stop by the Fort for a visit. It was late notice. He texted back that he needed to stay home to see the Yankees beat his Red Sox.

It was just me and the twins.

We discussed our options.

And came up with a plan; We would head over to the Polynesian Resort for dinner. We would hopefully eat at the Kona Sushi Bar, and then head over to the MK. The MK was open until 11. It was a good plan.

So off we went.

Sometimes it isn't easy to get from here to there at WDW. Sometimes it is.

Tonight, it was super-easy.

As we pulled up to the FW marina, an MK boat was pulling up, and the resort boat was just pulling away from the dock. The resort boat was headed toward the WL. As soon as we parked the cart, we saw another resort boat approaching from the WL. That was the boat we wanted! So no wait for us at the marina. That is a good thing.

As we waited for the guests on the resort boat to disembark, I had time for a few photos.

Here you go:

The area in the background of this photo is where the old cabin is. Somewhere in this area, they may be building a new pavilion to use for the Backyard BBQ:

Here we are leaving the dock:

There sure were a lot of boats going around tonight. Here is another boat approaching from the Contemporary Resort:

The resort boat that was pulling away as we arrived at the dock hadn't even made it to WL yet, and this other boat was already at the Fort. That meant that they had at least three resort boats going. I haven't seen them do that even when it is busy. And it wasn't busy this weekend. Weird.

Here's another shot of the other boat, with the shoe tree there to the left of it:

Here are a couple of shots of Discovery Island:

Here's a shot of the shore of Bay Lake. This is the area between FW and WL. There is a small dock here where they keep some of the patrol boats. This is the area where a new DVC is rumored to be going:

We will loose a good bit of Wilderness if that ever happens.

There were a lot of buzzards flying around Discovery Island. That is never a good thing:

This is a shot of the side of Discovery Island opposite what you can see from the Fort. Note that there are ropes and floats out in the water:

There is WL over there:

I was sitting on the bench up by the captain of our boat, and I overheard some chatter on his radio. There was talk of an incident and about possible injuries, and about boats being diverted. You can't see it very well in the photo above, but there was a big MK boat pulled up to the WL dock, along with a couple of the Lake Patrol boats with flashing lights. There was also a big crowd on the dock. Something was going on over there.

There was definitely something going on, as the MK boat that was at the FW dock as we left headed to WL instead of the MK You can see it heading to WL here:

None of this affected us.

We pulled right up to the Contemporary, and headed up to the Monorail station.

Here we are:

I have noticed this big fountain lately when looking at the MK from my favorite FW spot. It's been here for a while now, but I don't think it was there before the built Bay Lake Tower. It is a very tall fountain. I am going to take a closer look at it from the ground on one of my next visits. I don't know why they put such a big fountain there. It must be hiding something:

I like the shops that they have in the Contemporary resort. I think it's cool how they are open to the Grand Canyon Concourse:

We probably waited less than 10 minutes for our monorail. This trip to the Polynesian ended up being flawless. I love it when a plan comes together:

As we headed around the beam, I could see another boat out in Bay Lake heading toward WL:

That's one of the old AK Discovery Boats. They use those for the fireworks pirate cruises, and occasionally in place of the regular MK boats. So, something was definitely up.

You can see a Lake Patrol and the Discovery Boat again in these photos. Also note all of the clouds. It was threatening to rain again. Boo!:

As we continued on, we got a good view of the WL dock. The MK boat was still there:

Wouldn't you like to know what was going on with that MK boat?

Well, I heard what happened.

That captain of that boat collided with one of the barricades as he crossed over the water bridge on the way to WL. The collision was enough to cause some of the guests to fall. That meant that risk management had to be called. There was probably paper work involved. That boat was kept there and the guests were not allowed to leave it until Disney management had sufficiently covered its butt. The detained guests were given park passes, special fastpasses and other incentives to keep the whole incident quiet. But, one of them talked. To me. That's how I know. The thing is, that we would have probably been there for a front row seat for all of this had we been just a few minutes earlier arriving to the FW marina. I'm glad we missed it, though.

When we got to the Polynesian, we found that the Kona Sushi Bar was packed. Over half the seats were occupied by children. Who probably were going to be ordering chicken nuggets or some other kid's meals. We hung around for a while to see if anyone looked like they would be leaving soon. But, it didn't look that way. So, sushi was out. Plan B was the Polynesian's counter service restaurant downstairs. We went with Plan B.

That's where we got the revelation.

My DD made this impressive Dole Whip at the self-service machine:

I mentioned to them that there had been some information posted on this site recently saying that the Polynesian's counter service restaurant was open 24 hours- including the Dole Whip machine. We all agreed that that couldn't be true. But, I said as long as I was here, I should check. I looked around to see if hours were posted anywhere. I didn't see anything posted.

So, I asked a castmember. She was cleaning the tables, and after chatting with her a while, I asked her what the restaurant hours were. She said it was open 24 hours. I asked her if the Dole Whip machine was open 24 hours. She said yes. I asked her if they served the full menu, she said no. They just served the flatbreads after midnight- not the rest of the items on the menu. We talked to this lady for a while. She had worked here for over a year, and had worked the graveyard shift cleaning tables. She knew what she was talking about.

So there is your potentially life changing information: there is a 24 hour self serve Dole Whip machine at the Polynesian Resort. If you want some pizza (flatbread) and a Dole Whip at 4:00 am, knock yourself out! Maybe I'll see you there.

TCD

[stefa70 205]

B. I live in PA and we have lots of squirrels around, but I've never seen one eating a pinecone.

:whew: Thanks for backing me up! Maybe it's not a matter of north vs. south squirrels, but a matter of taste? I don't like sushi, but as we just read, TCD was going to have sushi. We're both originally from the north, and now both live in the south. I think we can just safely say that some squirrels enjoy pine cones, while others prefer acorns!

Nice update TCD. That is surely an impressive dole whip, you have taught those girls well. Dave is going to feel so inadequate.

I doubt you will see me having a dole whip or flatbread at 4:00am, as I will be enjoying a morning cup of coffee. If you're ever up at that hour, you're welcome to come have one with me instead of waiting for Trails End to open.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

I have never had a Dole Whip so I am not sure about it's appeal but at 4am I would be fast asleep if on just.