After I posted this mornings update I noticed the guys working on the front of the Bike Barn. They said they were preparing to paint that side of the building and were hanging this black mesh to keep bats from flying into the freshly painted exterior. Kewl, I said.
On Monday morning we started our "day 1" routine. day 1 of a fort visit begins with a stop at the orlando premier shopping outlet out past downtown disney on the other side of i4. disney has an outlet there that carries the "after" merchandise. since this after the marathon time, for example, it has lots of unsold shirts, etc. they have good prices but you never know what will be in stock or in what size. also good for right after christmas, right after food and wine, etcu
Here is an example. a mens golf shirt normally 69 dollars for 42.
a halloween ears hat normally 17 for 8.
once you get there go around the back for easiest parking - go early. the disney character warehouse is just to the left of the food court doors. we stop there each trip and have gotten good deals over the years. but it is pot luck.
after the outlet we headed for downtown disney. but on the way i passed a gas station that i thought had a typo. i circled all the empty pumps and looked and it was no typo.
I understand trying to fleece tourists but this is about 2 dollars over the local rate. [all the pumps had no cars - surprise].
So on to DTD, specifically the World of
Disney store. you can probably find whatever you are looking for but it will be full price. so if the outlet doesnt have something, WoD will. I picked up a disney edition of trivial pursuit. i know, i know, major nerd-dom. but i didnt bring a tv on purpose this trip so we will have something different to do one evening this week.
after lunch at the camper i went to run some errands and check out some things. i biked up towards the outpost to check on the golf cart hill on the service road. here is a pix with DS16 at 6 feet tall for perspective. i think it was poster mauicat who was asking about unloading a golf cart from a pick up bed with short ramps. it looks very doable.
while standing there a CM went by asking if I needed anything - if i was okay. where the hill is happens to be next to the old railroad bed from the Fort Wilderness railroad. I told her i was a FWRR fan which I am. she said "oh you need to talk with dave then. he knows everything about the railroad". so she got on her radio and tracked down Dave Dietzel who happened to be working at the Fort today. Dave drove up in a service golf cart about 5 minutes later. he has over 40 years of service for Disney. He started on Main Street in 1971 and tranferred to the Fort in 1973 to work on one of the FWRR crews. a crew was 4 people - engineer, fireman, brakeman, and conductor. every 4th loop they would rotate positions so everyone got a chance to do it all. the issues with the trains have been documented in david leapheart's excellant books. i will add the link when i get home.
http://steelwheelonsteelrail.com/ It looks like David's books are currently out of print but a new edition will be published June 1, 2012.
i spent about 10 minutes talking with dave. if you get the chance to meet him you better take advantage of it soon. he said he turns 65 this summmer and will likely retire he said. so as a fan of the FWRR it was like meeting a celebrity. So here is Dave Dietzel and DS16. God bless, Dave, and we thank you for some fond memories to many of us [sadly not me though. i never got to ride the train]. PS - he said it was a blast to run the train.
Later this afternoon it was pool time. It was not as crowded as yesterday and the water was pleasantly warm. i did the slide twice with DS and DD then after 45 minutes got out.
I got one of the new "happy camper" FW merchandise koozies in the Meadow TP and who should i bump into again but the forner Mayor of Fort Wilderness, Hizzoner himself. Hizzoner is now retired from politics but old timers on this board may recognize him by that name.
We typically grill a bunch of meat early in the trip to reheat in the pup microwave for dinner on different nights which we did tonight. As the sun set while grilling the sunlight hit the cypress trees over the pup.
Then over to the Chip & Dale singalong. Cowboy Mark emceed the show and sounded like a Bama boy but he is from West Virginia. Then our two stars made tbeir appearance. Dale came down our side shaking hands and posing for pix.
We passed on tonights movie Alice in Wonderland for that game of Disney Trivial Pursuit. My team lost. Oh well, time to get some sleep and head for the MK tomorrow. I will see if I can load a few pix this way.
Bama ed
and look forward to more photos and TR updates!
