So, when last we left our vactioneers they were safely at the Salvatore’s house after having endured a cold and rainy chowderfest and some lovely home made fish and chips… After a rousing game of Candyland and Chutes and Ladders the journey south began anew.. Next stop – Uncle Larry’s house..
The journey was slowed by rain and some bad traffic around Baltimore but in the end we got there just as dinner was being served. Pasta with chicken meatballs and home made sauce, garlic bread and a very tasty salad. After dinner there was a lot of playing with phones. Uncle Larry has an iPhone and of course me and Jessie with our Droid Xs had to show off and compare. One of the funniest things of the night had to be Jessie and Uncle Larry trying to exchange phone numbers via Bump. They probably could have written their information on a piece of paper, hid it somewhere in the house and played hide and seek and it would have been quicker and easier. Although honestly not as funny! I did get an awesome app and I recommend anyone who wants to be “in the loop” with my travels should get.. It’s called TripIt. Whoever is travelling emails the confirmation emails to their system and it keeps track of flights, hotels, car rentals, etc. The really awesome thing is that it will even tell you what gate your flight is at once they assign one and if there are any delays they show up real time. If you download TripIt you can add me as a contact and you will be able to see my trips. Add me using my gmail account. In the morning we had poached eggs and hung out for a bit before heading on the next leg of our journey.. This time to Harry’s house in North Carolina..
We were driving along, singing a song and enjoying the day.. Took the long and winding road over to the Blue Ridge Parkway and took that for most of the trip south. Stopped a few times to take pictures and generally enjoy the ride, it was still cloudy but at least it was not raining anymore.. Got off the Parkway and got back onto normal roads.. A little while later we got stuck behind a truck carrying an open trailer on a one lane road (one land in either direction). Now I know you’re thinking ‘man that must have sucked with him going all slow and stuff’ but honestly he was not going that slow which in the end caused the problem when his straps snapped and the plywood he was carrying decided it wanted to fly at us. Three pieces of flying plywood is not an easy thing to dodge! I did however prevent any of them from coming through the windshield, I swerved and one of them hit the driver’s side view mirror cracking that, scraping the paint above the door down to the frame and denting the roof right by the roof rack! Got the guys information and the number of a witness as well so hopefully there will be no issue getting everything paid for.. My poor car, it’s been through a lot these last few weeks..
Anyway, the trip was rather uneventful after that and we got to Harry’s house around dinner time. Went to a English Pub / Sports bar with Harry, Nicole, Rich, AJ and Rich’s daughter for dinner. Jessie got sorta waylaid into talking to Rich’s daughter for most of the night but a good time was certainly had by all. I had a sammich called a “Black Forest” which was turkey and bacon on a pretzel roll, so good.. After dinner we went back to Harry’s and watched the first two Family Guy episodes of the season. The Clue episode was amazing but the Rush Limbaugh episode was lame. Next day (Wednesday) we went over to Beckie’s house and had lunch with Beckie, Keith, Rich and AJ at a Greek place near their apartment and work. Went back to Beckie’s and watched two great movies.. Finding Neverland was amazingly done, the cinematography was so well done, they really brought the fantasy to life! Plus it “mostly” follows the true story behind the creation of the play Peter Pan. As with many of my double features (Equus / Lord of the Rings the Musical || Christmas Carol with Patrick Stewart / Woman in White) I apparently like to do one big budget extravaganza and one super low budget minimalistic show. Today’s second movie was The Gamers: Dorkness Rising! It was on Beckie’s Netflix Instant watch so we figured what the heck, if it sucks we can always shut it off. Honestly about 10 mins I was ready to shut it down but maybe 15 mins in I was hooked! The dialogue was great and it was one of those movies that just effortlessly told its point and hit all the jokes spot on while still keeping a serious plot line. It did a great job of showing the different style of gamers and if you game at all (or know someone who does) I recommend watching it.. btw – I mean game in the terms of D&D and/or LARP.. That night we went to a tepanyaki place for dinner, the chef was very good, he toned down the “show” but the cooking was very well done. He did do a smiley face with the rice with lemons as eyes and the standard onion volcano. I had the snapper and it was cooked perfectly, I also had a sushi roll which was spicy salmon tempura’ed with caviar on top! So good.. Went to a local bar after dinner, AJ knows the owners and he is usually able to name the nightly special if he calls ahead of time so we had $2 Fat Tires! The short jokes were in full force with Keith kneeling on the floor as a “bench” for me to stand on so I could reach the top of the pool table in the bar.. The night ended with me and Nicole playing pool at the house before bed.
We woke up a bit too early (8am) and left for Disney World, GPS estimated our arrival at 6pm so we figured we would be there for a late dinner. First stop, Starbucks to get some quick breakfast and coffee.. Right next to Starbucks there was a “steak and lube” place, that’s right everyone it’s finally that all in one car service steak place.. I know you’ve always thought man, this Jiffy Lube takes too long, it would be so much better if I had a steak while I waited.. Well, if that’s you then you’re prayers are answered! Ok, so… like I said, first stop Starbucks.. Second stop, the urgent care across the street! Jessie stepped off the curb weird and turned her ankle, she stopped her fall with her arm and broke a bone in her elbow! A few hours and some xrays later Jessie left the urgent care in a splint and we were told we needed to see an orthopedic doctor to confirm the break and get more details about what to do. We could have hung out in North Carolina till 5pm when we could go see the orthopedic doctor but we decided to keep on fucking that chicken so off to South Carolina and then Georgia before stopping in Savannah for the Orthopedic Urgent Care. Results? Bone is compressed and broken, probably need surgery, should probably cut vacation short.. /sigh – or as the new internet trend likes to say FML..
So, we arrived at Fort Wilderness at ass-o-clock at night (I want to say 2am) and hit the bed.. Since we were under the impression that we might have to leave as soon as Saturday we decided to make sure the first place we went was Universal Islands of Adventure so we could see the Harry Potter area. As it turns out Universal is doing their Halloween Scream Nights so we got a ticket to that as well. For the Halloween Night we got the “express” pass which gives you fast passes once for every ride and attraction! If we didn’t do that there is no way we would have gotten through everything in the one night. But let me back up a bit… Ran into Islands of Adventure with the concept of eating in Hogsmeade but the line at the Three Broomsticks was OMG out of control! Speaking of lines, there were lines to get into the gift shops! And not just little ones, they actually had queue areas so people could line up to get in to the gift shops! I sorta feel like that’s worth saying a third time.. Lines to get in gift shops! Anyway, we ate at the empty Jurassic Park area and came back. The Hipogriff ride was pretty lame, but the main Hogwarts ride was awesome and even if that was the only thing there I would say it was worth the trip. We had some butter beer which is not alcoholic. It’s like cream soda with a butterscotch twist, and whatever they put in causes a head that just keeps growing and foaming! It was very tasty but I could really only drink like 1/3 of one, Jessie drank most of it. They also had a microbrew that was made specifically for the Harry Potter area, it was a Scottish red and was very tasty. After we drank we wandered around the shops (yes, waited in the lines) and I was very impressed at how they did the shops and even had things like the expendable ears in Zonkos. Oleanders had a series of wands based on birthdays. My wand was “eh”, I took a picture and will post it to Flickr.
After we finished up the HP area we went back to the car so Jessie could call insurance company and figure out a plan for back home doctoring. The plan is to go home early (probably leave here Monday morning) and hopefully get her in to a doctor later in the week. I rested in the car for a bit while she made calls and then we headed back in for dinner at a Latino place on CityWalk. I had a snapper with chorizo and rice which was very good. Got into the Halloween night a few minutes after the opened and was immediately impressed when he walked through the first “scare zone” which was a Mexican Day of the Dead theme. They have six “scare zones” which are just parts of streets dedicated to different themes (Day of the Dead, Witch Trials, Cyberpunk, Zombified Mardi Gras, Fear Revealed [which was a empty trail with pumpkins and fog] and the main Halloween one). They also had random guys walking around with chain saws who would try to sneak up on you and turn their chainsaws on right next to you! I have to admit I jumped a bunch of times while walking down the streets. My favorite area was either the Cyberpunk (awesome costumes) or the Witch Trials (super hot witches)! Aside from the scare zones they had eight actually horror houses, some were amazing and some were just pretty lame. Not going to go into each one (this blog would be even longer than it already is) but the basic concept was you go through a maze like building and people would jump out at you to try and scare you. Except in the best one, they had an Insane Asylum one and the people were not hiding and trying to jump at you, in that one they were just hanging out and talking to you and then would jump at you. They did an amazing job of creating “crazy people”! The other favorite was called Havoc which was cyberpunk-ish, basically it was like being on a mod at Future Imperfect! The Zombie one could have been cool, but it fell short. The worst one was probably the Orphanage which had burned down. The worst thing in the park? Bill and Ted’s Halloween Adventure! It was just smeggin’ bad, so bad I don’t even want to write about it..
I’m going to end this blog here. The next day starts our time in the actual Disney parks so I will save that for another blog..
I have to say it.. Goodnight my lovelies
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Here is something you may find cool. So, the hotel charges $9.95 a day for internet which is lame’o. So, I typed this blog on the laptop in Word, transferred to my phone which opened the document, copied the text to a clipboard and pasted it into my blog site! How’s that for super rad! That’s right, I just said rad.. Deal with it..
Wicked!
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