Monday, May 7th @ 2 a.m. we headed out on our next big adventure......which was short-lived since we had to turn back around before we even made it to the highway (& we live practically
next to it) for Brian to run back in the house to grab his almost-forgotten wallet. Now we're on our way! Let's try that again....
Monday, May 7th @ 2:05 a.m. we were eastbound on I-10 for our next big adventure! Jimmy Buffett's Boats, Beaches, Bars, & Ballads was blaring while Tracey & I sang our hearts out. The teens weren't amused, I'm sure. Oh well. It's a long day and there's 4 discs in the set...
As has become customary, there's no passing Gramma's house without a visit. We zipped into Krispy Kreme on 9th Avenue for some hot-n-fresh morsels then settled in at my Gramma's for a few hours of coffee, milk, doughnuts, and gool ol' Gramma love. Doesn't get much better. We visited from about 9:30 a.m. to about 11:30 a.m. before we hit the highway again.
Just before Tallahassee I did some quick figurin' and decided I should call the pet resort we had our toy schnauzer booked at in Kissimmee (not BFPC on-property) to let them know we'd be a little late arriving. This is when I learned that if you don't make it to check-in before the lobby closed at 6:30...too bad-so sad...they'd see you the next morning bright & early. Yikes! Panic! We didn't have a prayer of making it by 6:30. A frenzy of online searching and phone calls ensued to find the best alternative. Still wasn't going with BFPC on-property because they didn't have availability in our preferred accommodation. We settled on the Pet Paradise in Gainesville. We had previously ruled them out because their location is a little jog off the interstate but in a pinch it was a sacrifice we'd have to make. Well, as long as we could get her there before their lobby closed. At 6:00. The Tahoe's GPS said we'd make it with just 2 minutes to spare. Chinese Fire Drill! Tracey took the wheel from Chandler and put the silver bullet in the wind....
...until he got pulled over somewhere between Tallahassee and Lake City. Tracey saw the trooper pull out & knew he was busted. Instead of making the trooper catch up he pulled on over, got out his license/registration/insurance card, and waited for the invevitable. The nice trooper listened sympathetically to our plight. I wanted to ask if he had some kiddos that wanted a few extra bucks if they'd let Riley snuggle for a week. Then our trooper friend explained to us about how he was the little brother in a really big family of "brothers". He told us how a great many of his "brothers" would be seeing us veeeeery soon as we continued east. He suggested we think on that really carefully because sometimes you get where you're going faster if you slow down. With that, he sent us on our way. Boy, he wasn't kidding either. We saw loooots of trooper brothers on up the road. I'm sure glad he let us know he had such a big family.
After Tracey slowed down a little and we resolved ourselves to sleeping in the car at a travel plaza with our beloved pooch I started fiddling with my iPhone map to see what would be the quickest route from the interstate. Here's where I discovered there's dumber chicks living in dashboards than Stoopid Linda in my Acura. The Tahoe's GPS was off on the time estimate by like an hour! Now we could relax along with the slow-down. And thank goodness we didn't have to go on the 13 mpg we get when running at 90 mph. Sheesh!
We dropped little Riley Belle with the sweet gals at Pet Paradise in Gainesville at about 5:10 p.m. Confession: I cried. She's just a dog, I know, but she's like my 3rd child, too. First dog I've ever had. So, yes, I cried. Pathetic. You can laugh. Tracey & the boys sure did. LOL!
Since we were starving half to death and the truck was on fumes we stopped in Ocala to refill the tanks. This is where we put in our votes for dinner tonight & tomorrow night. I pushed for off-site options. I was out-voted by all the guys. Tracey didn't care about cost or value. He was ready to be in the Disney bubble!
Also, from Ocala we let Chandler take the wheel again. We discussed this a few days prior. We wanted him to have the "glory" of his first drive onto the Disney property. Of course this started Tracey giggling at how it was acceptable this time around vs. last time since we're only checking-in at Pop, not one of the deluxes again. What a dork!
Here's Chandler paying his first Turnpike tolls! Oh yes! It's a proud mama moment!
Just before 8:00 we were here:
But Brian was sleeping so solid he wouldn't wake up to see it for himself. Don't believe me? I have proof!
No rest for the weary! We had an 8:40 ADR to make it to at Kona! The weather wasn't really conducive to picture taking even with all our nostalgia for Pop Century. I didn't write trip reports then, but our first 4 family trips were all blissful Pop stays: 1/2004, 1/2005, 2/2006, & 2/2007. There's something to be said for nostalgia and simplicity. Here's my lone pic I took as I strolled in the door to check-in:
Classic Hall even smelled the same! We dumped the luggage with Bell Services then hurried off to the Poly. We would've valet'd in the rain but (1.) our TiW card is now expired & we aren't renewing for this 2 day stay, and (2.) it's not safe to valet your vehicle with...certain items...that aren't safe for strangers to have access to in your car. So no valet. We walked in the rain. I coulda kicked Tracey. I was opposed to said *item* from the start. Grrr!
We made it to Kona with a few minutes to spare. I had the coconut chicken w/salad which was fully awesome!
Chandler & Tracey had the shrimp & scallops dish. They're big-time seafood fiends.
Brian claimed to no longer be hungry. We talked him into the bbq rib appetizer at least.
After dinner we browsed the Bou-tiki only briefly. With full bellies we weren't going to last much longer on the bits of sleep from the road. When we returned to Pop we got our first look at the updated rooms (remember, we've not been at this resort since early 2007). Very nice. Love the addition of the privacy curtain. Much more comfy beds. Like the thermostat a/c units vs. the under-window variety. We can honestly say this is the cleanest, best kept room we've arrived to in several years. Good ol' Pop!
We were all in bed falling off to sleep listening to Stacy on tv by 11:50 p.m. Sweet Disney dreams!
hurl
