Christmas at the Fort.

[wak648...Bill 94]

We have been to Disney once over Christmas before, but stayed in Shades of Green, not the Fort. When we discussed going this year our main concern was since Christmas was on a Sunday, there was only a short break this year. We decided that to maximize our time at the Fort, I would drive down with the boys, AJ DS6 and Evan DS3, and the girls, Becky DW and Kaleigh DD9, would fly down. At the beginning of December we contemplated canceling because we were going to be short a huge chunk of change because of a payment due my wife not going to be paid until after the first of the year. We discussed our options with the kids and they said they wanted to go even if it meant not going to the parks.

Now for the disclaimer:

I am a blue collar worker (Paramedic/Firefighter) not a writer. If you get ill or hurt, or your house catches fire, you wreck your car and need to be cut out, heck even if you cat gets stuck in a tree, that is what I do. When it comes to writing, well let’s just say not is not my strong point.

Also now that I am home, I am stocking up on the OT at work so we can pay for our July trip, so there may be times where I am not able to update on a regular base.

[wak648...Bill 94]

Day one:

Woke up at 0100 and AJ ,DS6, was already awake waiting to hit the road. He was so anxious he kept my wife up and she could not wait until we left so she could go to sleep. I took a quick shower, made a pot of coffee, loaded AJ and Evan DS3 into to the truck and we were Disney bound. We had planned on leaving the night before but some snow showers and freezing rain were happening and they were predicting low 40’s for the overnight low the next night, we pushed back our departure date one day. That did not work out so well for us as the weather liars were wrong as usual. It was misting as we pulled onto the highway and the thermometer in the truck said 29 degrees, I was cursing under my breath as the mist was freezing on the windshield and icing everything over. This was not going to be a fun ride. The only good part was it was 2 in the morning and there was no traffic to worry about so I would not have to worry about idiots until I got a little more south and hopefully warmer temps.

We dealt with the freezing drizzle until the Harrisburg area and then the weather cleared out. The only problem was now I was going to hit the DC area during rush hour. This is one of the main reasons we leave so early, so we can avoid the DC area during rush hour. So now as we approach the DC area, it is 0630, the traffic has picked up, and it became foggy, this was not starting to be a fun day at all! Thankfully, even though there was heavy traffic, I got told I was number one a few times, and foggy, we made it through unscathed and in relatively good time. We pulled into the Flying J in VA at 0700 and took a break. I love the Flying J truck stops when I a pulling the trailer. For those of you who don’t know, they have RV lanes which make it very easy to get larger travel trailers and RV’s in and out. Most of the gas stations I have seen are not set up for us travelers to get in and out easy, especially during the busier times.

After a short stop to let the boys stretch their legs and eat breakfast we jumped back on I95 south and continued our journey. By lunch time we were in SC and we stopped at Mc D’s for lunch, as the boys were running around the play area, I was looking up campgrounds for us to stop at for the night. I settled on New Green Acres in Walterboro.

Day two:

Woke the boys up at 0500 so we could get to the Fort for noonish, and we hit the road. As the morning progressed, the boys were in an exceptionally good mode, we watched the sun rise over the GA tidal basin.

With a view like that I knew it was going to be a much better driving day.

After a short six hours we get to see this pic.

And then this

We checked in and set up in site 1605, well we thought it was site 1605. As I was unhooking the trailer, I looked up and there was a lady standing by the site marker 1606. What the Fort!!! How did this happen. I apologized, hooked back up, went around the loop and backed into the right site. As I was driving around cursing myself out wondering how I backed into the wrong site, I noticed the site markers leading up to my mistake. On the left hand side of the loop it goes 1602, 1603, 1604, and the 1606 with 1605 across the street. So I guess after that long on the road I just saw the numbers go up sequentially and not skip over and go back to evens on one side and odds on the other. Once we got the camper set up, they boys had demanded we hit a play ground which we did.

As the night progress we hung around, went looping and waited for the magic express to bring the girls. Someone tried, but could not keep his eyes opened while waiting for his mom to arrive.

When they arrived, they ate and we went to bed.

[HappyCamper...Deb 61]

Yay! A new TR!!! Love the playground photo of the two boys. They're adorable. :heart:

Patiently waiting for more..... :)

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

You are wrong, Bill. You're an excellent writer!! Love the pictures, your boys are so cute!! I'll be reading this while I'm on the road so I hope you do regular updates. I understand why if you don't. :wave1:

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Beautiful trip report start!!!!!!

[SCTigerCock 171]

Cute Boys!!!

Thanks for sharing :jumpforjoy

Don't be gone to long, b/c that just means one thing, THREADJACK! :rofl2:

[stefa70 205]

Nice start Bill! Don't worry about not being a writer, any trip report is a good report, in my eyes. If you've ever read mine, I write exactly like I talk...fast and furious. (which sometimes requires an edit after the fact )

Hope to see an update soon, but if you're out saving lives, I guess that's a good enough excuse.

[BouncingTiggers 98]

Bill you're off to a great start. I must say you are a crazy man. That long of a road trip with a 3 & 6 yr old. What was in that coffee?

Looking foward to more.

[wak648...Bill 94]

Cute Boys!!!

Thanks for sharing :jumpforjoy

Don't be gone to long, b/c that just means one thing, THREADJACK! :rofl2:

This from the girl who avoided me like the plague on my way to and from

Hope to see an update soon, but if you're out saving lives, I guess that's a good enough excuse.

I don't save lives, I prolong the inevitable

Bill you're off to a great start. I must say you are a crazy man. That long of a road trip with a 3 & 6 yr old. What was in that coffee?

Looking foward to more.

The boys are easy to entertain and love to travel on the highway. They'll watch their movies, count the mustangs, camaros and tractor trailers as we go. Every time a peterbuilt truck passed us, they quoted cars, "I ain't no Mack, I'm a Peterbuilt! Turn on your head lights you moron."'

[BouncingTiggers 98]

The boys are easy to entertain and love to travel on the highway. They'll watch their movies, count the mustangs, camaros and tractor trailers as we go. Every time a peterbuilt truck passed us, they quoted cars, "I ain't no Mack, I'm a Peterbuilt! Turn on your head lights you moron."'

:rofl2: I love they quote cars. What good kids. My DD3 last about until the next town before she's ready to stop driving.

[caveat lector 181]

Nice job Wild Bill.

Was really great to meet you and your wonderful family.

Hope you beat the nasty weather home, but I'll wait for the end of the TR to find out.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 595]

Great start! Looking forward to reading more. I love the pictures of your boys on the slide.

[wak648...Bill 94]

Nice job Wild Bill.

Was really great to meet you and your wonderful family.

Hope you beat the nasty weather home, but I'll wait for the end of the TR to find out.

Nice to meet you also, I still owe you that beer. Here is a little teaser about the weather at home;

[SCTigerCock 171]

This from the girl who avoided me like the plague on my way to and from

durn you figured me out.....seriously, I would love to meets some fiends, even Bill :heart: . But you were traveling around the holidays and work hours. :banghead:

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

I'm so excited to hear all about your trip! Your boys are absolutely adorable, looking forward to seeing your whole family together!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Hey Bill-

You are doing great!

Keep it coming!

It was nice to meet you and the family at the Fort last week.

TCD

[dblr....Rennie 224]

Bill,

Great start and love the pictures, almost did not recognize the boys without their rainboots and playing in the mud, looks like you had a great trip can not wait to read all about it. Hope to see you in Gettysburg @ Easter.

[wak648...Bill 94]

Day Three, Christmas Eve:

We crawled out of bed at 0900 (why can’t the kids sleep this late when we are at home?) ate breakfast and Becky wanted to get things set up her way, so I took the kids out looping and we meandered into the trading posts where they played checkers.

Afterwards we went to the Meadows Pool to go swimmimg and the kids love the slide.

While the kids were swimming the activities people we announcing the start of the Florida snowball fight and the kids had to go see what that was all about. Since it is to warm is sunny FL for real snow, they used white water balloons and a sling shot to launch them at some blow up dolls in the field.

After swimming we got changed and watched the golf cart parade there weren’t that many carts in the parade.

This cart got a lot of cheers as he went by. The inflatable Santa on the roof was so tall he had lots of trouble getting under the trees

Then we went to the Poly for Dinner Christmas Eve dinner at O’Hana. On the boat ride over Kaleigh was questioning me about the existence of Santa. After our discussion she, decided that she no longer believed. When we got to the Poly, the kids went to see Santa and talk to them and pled their case of why they should be on the nice list and not the naughty list.

While waiting in line Kaleigh told me she was going to prove there was no Santa and that this was dressed as Santa and if there was a real Santa, he had no connection what so ever. When I asked how she was going to do this she said since she did not write a Christmas list, she was going to tell him what she wanted. I told her that it might not happen because the Real Santa was already working his way around the world. She just gave me a look in response. I eves dropped to her talking to Santa and she said she wanted a Kindle and that her parents to her she was to young to have have one, but we could not stop her from having one if he gave it to her. Afterwards we went to the Poly’s beach to watch a Muppet’s Christmas Carol until it was time for dinner.

We love eating at the restraints around Disney as they are top notch when it comes to addressing food allergies. The Disney Chefs go out of their way to make my kids feel special and make sure that they can eat almost everything they want. They separated the items off the platters that they could not have and served us all at once. After we went back to the Poly beach and watched to fireworks.

We went back to the Fort, and did some looping to look at the decorations.

Next day was Christmas morning and the kids were anxious to get to bed so the fat man in the red suit could visit.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Sounds like a GREAT Christmas Eve!!!

[charitycase20....Charity 10]

Great trip report! You are the MAN!! A 3YO and a 6YO from Pennsylvania to Florida?! I don't even want to take my 4YO and 6YO to Wal-mart by myself!! :rofl2:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Bill- I love the photos of the Florida Snow Ball fight! I saw that on the schedule of Christmas activities and I was wondering what that was. I also have never seen the Christmas golf cart parade, so thanks for the photo of the giant Santa on the roof of that cart. I saw them shooting waterballons from that big sling shot during my trip and was amazed at how far those things could go!

TCD

[HappyCamper...Deb 61]

Feeling all warm 'n fuzzy seeing the kids with Santa. My three are 18, 17, and (soon to be) 12. Brings me back..(sniff-sniff)

Viewing the thread on my tiny screen on the phone, I thought the golf cart Santa WAS the target for snowballs. Ack!

Can't wait for more... :)

[stefa70 205]

We love eating at the restraints around Disney as they are top notch when it comes to addressing food allergies.

Love this picture Bill.

Funny, some days it's tough to eat through my restraints. :rofl2:

[caveat lector 181]

Dude,

We were at Ohana's in Christmas eve as well. We ended the meal with a HUGE stack of empty shrimp shells. I agree with you, there are some Disney dining experiences that can't be matched.

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

Love the pics of the kids having fun at the Fort! I bet it is a real treat for them to swim in December!