"GET AWAY, SCURVY!!" – A May 2017 Whirlwind Long Weekend TR

[afwdwfan]

There was more snacking. No diets on vacation.

That's how I roll...

That may sound ridiculous, but as I mentioned, N is a spray paint artist. Just the week previous, he'd found out that he would have the opportunity to paint at a comic convention in Orlando the week after our trip. This would be his first US show, and he didn't yet have a US supplier for his paint or the boards he paints on. He buys his boards at hardware stores and has them cut to 16"x20," and there's a specific process he has to go through with the person cutting it to make sure it's done properly and he gets the right number of "canvases" for his money. After quite an ordeal at Home Depot, and some major stress, he finally had his order sorted out to pick up the following week when he returned to make his second journey to Florida. (More on this craziness at the end of the TR.)

Ok, I'm intrigued by this 16"x20" spray paint art. Do you have some pictures? I'd like to see what it is that he does.

The gluten free one is the yellow one that looks like it must be made of corn...because it is. But it was decent, and it didn't make me sick. When travelling, that counts as a major score.

That's always a huge victory.

N was frantically trying to sort all the details for his show the following week on such short notice before he could really start doing vacation this weekend, and I worried that this would be the only view of him I'd have for the whole trip:

That stinks. Never fun to deal with real world problems when you're trying to enjoy a vacation.

N's supper was purchased for later (because there's not much inside security at Bangor) and then we went through. It was a little more eventful than usual because N had a tablet in his bag, and it has a case on it which includes a detachable keyboard. When he went through the TSA person said to remove laptops, and N said he had a tablet and asked if he should take it out. They said "No, ONLY laptops." Ok, point taken. So he didn't. Then, of course, his bag kept being put back through the machine...then it was taken over to be manually inspected with the bomb wand thingy, and N was rushed over and questioned in a very serious manner. Then the TSA person (different guy) reamed him out for having a laptop in his bag. N explained that it was a tablet and he'd asked whether to take it out, but the TSA person just angrily told him that it had a keyboard, so it was a laptop. And then that it was a Surface Pro, which was considered a laptop. Moral of the story is: when in doubt, take it out.

This is the reason I just don't like to fly. It is such a pain in the... you know.

and the rest of the diamond-encrusted grapes.

I hope you didn't break a tooth!

He even made a joke during the safety info about how if the masks fell from the ceiling that they would "charge for oxygen by the minute...since this is Allegiant, after all." I was like, dude, no kidding! That's why we only packed one carry-on! They charge you for everything. They didn't even offer free soda.

That meant I had to drive...and pay the $75+tax fee for young drivers that went along with it. We also added the full gas tank option so we wouldn't have to find a gas station on the way back to the airport, even though we knew it would have saved us money not to. And alongside that we had to pay a bunch of other "hidden" fees I was prepared for...which made our bill that night for a car we'd ALREADY PAID FOR: $176.

Rental companies are really good about squeezing every dime out of you.

So if you read my PTR you may recall that this was going to be a budget trip for us. You may also notice that I've stopped tracking the trip costs since then. Having this extra charge slapped on so early in the trip kind of became a "screw it!" moment for us, and I stopped working so hard to beat the bank. We didn't do anything extravagant after that, but if we wanted a snack we bought it. If we didn't want to split quick service, we each got our own thing.

Totally understandable. I think to enjoy a vacation you have to have some degree of freedom to spend on things like that without counting every penny, but I definitely get just blowing up the game plan as soon as the rental wrecked your budget anyway.

He led us over to the "Best in Class" row and put us in our zippy little Infiniti. N and I couldn't figure out how to classify it, not really a car, not really an SUV, etc., so he jokingly called it our "luxury sedan" and it stuck. It had a moon roof, leather interior, temperature control on the AC that you could adjust differently for each side of the car. It was beautiful. And we got it for "economy" price. (Which, I think was totally karma for having to pay such a ridiculous young driver fee!) Here are photos I took later in the trip when it was light out:

Well, for all that you had to deal with there, I guess at least you can feel like your extra money spent was justified since you got a car that would have probably cost about that much to begin with.

...Alright! I swear on my Disney Dooney that the fun Disney stuff is coming in the next update. Thanks for hanging in there!

Well, I guess if you're swearing on a Disney Dooney, you must be serious!

 

[amalone1013]

We stop for nothing.

Amen sister!

And I made sure to stretch as directed:

Rest stops always have the weirdest things.

N was frantically trying to sort all the details for his show the following week on such short notice before he could really start doing vacation this weekend, and I worried that this would be the only view of him I'd have for the whole trip:

I know this feeling... our last whirlwind long weekend was to Vegas. My fiance flew in the morning before me for work, and then the day I got there he spent a bunch of time trying to write emails on his phone...

After assuring we weren't a threat to anyone's safety, we were allowed through security and continued to wait. While there, I went to the washroom and encountered a lady sitting on the tile floor, pulling all of her clothing out of her ginormous backpack and stuffing various articles down her shirt and into her bra, etc. She was already wearing about 5 layers. I assume she needed to make her backpack fit in the luggage sizer. Otherwise, I'm baffled by her sense of style.

And airports the weirdest people...

Also, on my first trip to Disneyland two years ago, I got pulled aside in security because I had a roll of quarters and pennies in a mini M&Ms tube for the penny press machines.

And alongside that we had to pay a bunch of other "hidden" fees I was prepared for...which made our bill that night for a car we'd ALREADY PAID FOR: $176.

ARGHHHH. These kinds of things make me cranky. It would have been a screw it moment for us too.

I can't wait to hear more! I'm hoping to do a few crazy trips like this myself before March...

 

[MeghanEmily]

excited to follow along and for the disneymoon PTR- Congratulations!!!

Great to see you here!

I'm here but I'll have to go back and get caught up.

Thanks for coming over here! And welcome back from your trip with Danielle! I'll try not to get too post-crazy until everyone gets a chance to catch up a bit.

So nice that you could stop and see your grandma!

We're really close. She kept me every day when I was little and my mom worked, and kept me after school once I was old enough to go to school. She's going to do a reading in our wedding.

As a lover of peach flavored candies, those ones you were eating look so good!

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about Maynards being a Canadian candy company. I think you have peach candies that are almost exactly the same just under a different brand though. They look like this:

 

[MeghanEmily]

Ok, I'm intrigued by this 16"x20" spray paint art. Do you have some pictures? I'd like to see what it is that he does.

As a matter of fact, I do have some pictures! You'll be sorry you asked.

So typically he paints live (which kind of adds to the appeal. My mom didn't "get it" when she first saw the paintings because the art isn't as much her style, but when she saw it done live she thought it was pretty cool. It takes him approximately 3 minutes to do a painting. He uses no brushes unless it's for a really specific request or something. It's done with tools like palette knives, spray paint, and household items like newspaper and pot lids, etc. He'll create something out of his head, or he'll take requests and will do almost anything except human faces or specific pets.

This is one he painted me after my neurosurgery because I love purple. I think he spent a little more than three minutes on it because he thought it was important. It hangs in our bathroom now.

He does all different things, space, nature, and a lot of specific fandom type things at comic conventions.

This is one we collaborated on together when we were getting read for our first Disney trip and in the Disney/Pixar spirit (I like to dabble in art, too, but with a brush. He painted first and then I added stuff):

And then sometimes he gets requests to paint murals or unconventional objects like guitars, surfboards, cars, motorcycles, (or as you can see in the below picture, a hippy van. )

 

[MeghanEmily]

Also, on my first trip to Disneyland two years ago, I got pulled aside in security because I had a roll of quarters and pennies in a mini M&Ms tube for the penny press machines.

I've heard of this happening to people! Weird! It must look funny in the imagine machine or something. It's crazy the things you can get questioned for. Once we had our checked bag be searched and torn apart because I'd brought home a kind of gluten free flour we didn't have here. But I guess the bag of white powder probably looked pretty suspicious

ARGHHHH. These kinds of things make me cranky. It would have been a screw it moment for us too.

Agreed. The only upside was that it let us loosen up a bit and not be too stingy to really enjoy ourselves. My credit card wasn't thrilled with me when I got home, but it was fun while it lasted!

I can't wait to hear more! I'm hoping to do a few crazy trips like this myself before March...

Thanks so much for reading! I never thought I'd be a crazy spontaneous trip person, but it was so fun. Highly recommend!

 

[KathyM2]

Wow....N's artwork is amazing! I think I have seen some artists do this type of thing before in touristy areas. But his is really good!!!

Your travel day sounded really....long!!! That is really annoying about the rental car. Also that travel alert thing too. Was it too late to just call the credit card company and ask them to take off the hold on it? Ugh. I do love me some Olive Garden though. Everyone always laughs at me because it's a must eat whenever in the US for me. I miss it being in Canada.

Looking forward to hearing more about the whirlwind trip.

 

[fallonkendra]

So, I tried getting caught up on this report last night, but for some reason it wouldn't show me any pictures. So weird. They are all working today though!

We crossed the border with no trouble and popped over to our international mailbox to pick up some things I'd ordered for this trip and for the wedding.

I see all these cute things online, but then shipping prices to Canada are always outrageous So smart that you guys have an International mailbox, I would totally have one if Montana wasn't so far away.

Just in case you were curious. There was more snacking. No diets on vacation.

Of course! Also, great choice Hard to go wrong with Fuzzy Peaches!

The gluten free one is the yellow one that looks like it must be made of corn...because it is. But it was decent, and it didn't make me sick. When travelling, that counts as a major score.

I didn't realize Olive Garden did corn pasta! I actually prefer corn pasta to regular pasta, and even though I haven't required a gluten free diet in 4 years, I still eat mainly gluten free pasta. Brown rice pasta though - no thanks! Not a fan!

I thought it was neat that they had a little tablet at the table that sorted your food options for you based on allergies. This was new since the last time I'd been.

That's cool! They don't have these at Olive Garden in Canada yet, we were just there last weekend.

we went to get our rental car from Alamo...only to find that they wouldn't let me put N on the contract as the driver. N didn't have a working credit card because his card didn't have a travel alert on it and had thus been declined earlier that day in Maine. My card was fully functional and had the rental car already paid for on it, but since N didn't also have a credit card to use, they wouldn't let him drive. That meant I had to drive...and pay the $75+tax fee for young drivers that went along with it. We also added the full gas tank option so we wouldn't have to find a gas station on the way back to the airport, even though we knew it would have saved us money not to. And alongside that we had to pay a bunch of other "hidden" fees I was prepared for...which made our bill that night for a car we'd ALREADY PAID FOR: $176.

Ugh, so annoying! At least everything righted itself and you ended up with a sweet rental car!

 

[Jennyren]

I ate a quinoa salad I'd prepared at home before we left, and the rest of the diamond-encrusted grapes.

Having this extra charge slapped on so early in the trip kind of became a "screw it!" moment for us, and I stopped working so hard to beat the bank.

I can totally relate to this. Trying to save money but once something goes wrong, all of that goes out the window!

Another perk of marriage is that some rental car companies will let you add a second driver without a fee, as long as they're your spouse. We learned that one the fun way (on our honeymoon)! It won't help with the underage driver fee, but I'll take any chance to get out of their crappy extra charges

 

[MeghanEmily]

Wow....N's artwork is amazing! I think I have seen some artists do this type of thing before in touristy areas. But his is really good!!!

Thank you! I'll pass the praise along! He's been at it a number of years now, and it gets a little better every year. Sadly it always seems that most of his best paintings never get photographed because they're usually the first to sell. Once in a while I'll be there at a show with him taking pictures and that helps.

Your travel day sounded really....long!!! That is really annoying about the rental car. Also that travel alert thing too. Was it too late to just call the credit card company and ask them to take off the hold on it? Ugh. I do love me some Olive Garden though. Everyone always laughs at me because it's a must eat whenever in the US for me. I miss it being in Canada.

We could have called the company when it first happened on Thursday, but since I intended to put everything on my credit card for the whole trip, we didn't bother calling from the states and planned to just sort it out when we got home...and then by the time we got to the rental desk it was almost 11pm and we figured it was too late to call, and even if it wasn't, we were too tired and still had too much to do to sit on hold waiting for customer service. It just didn't end up working out very well. We probably could have fixed it had we really tried and timed things better, but oh well. And I kind of love Olive Garden too. I especially did when I ate gluten and could gobble those breadsticks!

So, I tried getting caught up on this report last night, but for some reason it wouldn't show me any pictures. So weird. They are all working today though!

Apparently photobucket was having some issues, or so I heard on another Diser's TR. Weird.

I didn't realize Olive Garden did corn pasta! I actually prefer corn pasta to regular pasta, and even though I haven't required a gluten free diet in 4 years, I still eat mainly gluten free pasta. Brown rice pasta though - no thanks! Not a fan!

My fave as of late is the Catelli gf pasta. It's a blend of something like white and brown rice, corn, and quinoa. I hated brown rice pasta when I first tried it, but now I kinda have a weird soft spot for it. #glutenfreelife

Another perk of marriage is that some rental car companies will let you add a second driver without a fee, as long as they're your spouse. We learned that one the fun way (on our honeymoon)! It won't help with the underage driver fee, but I'll take any chance to get out of their crappy extra charges

Ooh this is good to know in case we rent again sometime! And only just over a year left on that young driver issue...what a pain. I know some terrible drivers much older than 25... haha

 

[vamassey1]

Thanks for coming over here! And welcome back from your trip with Danielle! I'll try not to get too post-crazy until everyone gets a chance to catch up a bit.

Thank you, I'm slowly trying to get caught up. Nathan's art is fabulous. Danielle is into cosplay and goes to some cons. She mentioned there was a big one in Orlando while we were there. If Nathan ever makes it to one in New Orleans please let me know.

Your last travel day sounded a bit frantic but happy you're now there. Looking forward to more.

 

[afwdwfan]

That is some pretty incredible artwork. I just couldn't quite envision what it was that he did with those tools, but that's really amazing. He's a talented guy! No wonder he's going all the way to Florida to paint.

 

[MeghanEmily]

That is some pretty incredible artwork. I just couldn't quite envision what it was that he did with those tools, but that's really amazing. He's a talented guy! No wonder he's going all the way to Florida to paint.

Thank you! I'll pass that along to him! Yeah, Orlando is quite a trek from here for sure, almost the farthest he's travelled for a show (only beaten out by driving out west to Winnipeg a few times) but it was a great opportunity to add some funds to the wedding account, so we couldn't pass it up!

 

[Bethislucy]

Those are awesome

 

[ariane37]

I'm going to have Steve look at N's artwork you posted, because he loved the ones N showed him on his phone but I think you posted more here than he showed him and they are all incredible!

N found the advertising for the XXX flavor to be quite suggestive!

This would be his first US show,

I didn't realize it was his first in the U.S, how awesome! And how did it go?

I went to the washroom and encountered a lady sitting on the tile floor, pulling all of her clothing out of her ginormous backpack and stuffing various articles down her shirt and into her bra, etc.

Um, not only is it weird, but sitting on the floor in a public bathroom is gross

N didn't have a working credit card because his card didn't have a travel alert on it and had thus been declined earlier that day in Maine.

This happened to us a few years ago down there and it was so embarrassing we haven't forgotten to alert our bank since! On arrival night we ate at Maya Grill, the TS restaurant at Coronado Springs. Steve handed our server his cc and they came back saying it was declined - what?? Yup, he hadn't told the bank and he'd used it for gas just a few hours prior in NY so they put a block on it. It was Sat. night and we had to wait until Monday so he could call the bank and get it fixed.

 

[MeghanEmily]

I didn't realize it was his first in the U.S, how awesome! And how did it go?

It was great!! There were a few hiccups before it all got started, but once they were ironed out he was good to go, and he was very busy there the whole weekend, so our wedding account has benefited greatly! It took him a little time to sort out all the legalities of working and claiming taxes in another country, but now that it's done he's been able to pick up other American shows for later this summer. Looks like he'll hopefully have one more in Florida and one on the US side of Niagara Falls. And it's awesome for us to be able to deal in US money since our exchange rate is so bad right now and we're having to pay for almost all our wedding expenses in USD.

This happened to us a few years ago down there and it was so embarrassing we haven't forgotten to alert our bank since! On arrival night we ate at Maya Grill, the TS restaurant at Coronado Springs. Steve handed our server his cc and they came back saying it was declined - what?? Yup, he hadn't told the bank and he'd used it for gas just a few hours prior in NY so they put a block on it. It was Sat. night and we had to wait until Monday so he could call the bank and get it fixed.

I mean I get how it's a good precaution to help prevent theft and everything, but it can be really inconvenient and embarrassing! But once it happens to you once you always remember to alert them the next time!

 

[missjackiemcg]

Welcome to "leg" two of the trip!

LOL, I love what you did there!!

N was rushed over and questioned in a very serious manner.

When I flew to Disney with my Mom in November 2015 I was briskly taken aside and they even wiped my hands to check for gun powder residue or something......all because of the stupid sequins on my yoga pants. Damn you, Victoria's Secret PINK store!!!! In all seriousness, I'm glad they check to be sure we're flying safe!

That meant I had to drive...and pay the $75+tax fee for young drivers that went along with it.

This totally stinks But I am glad you got that fancy luxury car in return for the headache!!

Nathan's work is AMAZING!!! The Up collaboration is by far my fav, but OMG he is talented!!

 

[MeghanEmily]

When I flew to Disney with my Mom in November 2015 I was briskly taken aside and they even wiped my hands to check for gun powder residue or something......all because of the stupid sequins on my yoga pants.

That's wild! Best TSA story I've heard so far

Nathan's work is AMAZING!!! The Up collaboration is by far my fav, but OMG he is talented!!

Thank you! I'll pass that along to him! It always makes me proud to see him doing something he loves to do and getting recognized for it.

 

[xlsm]

Here and caught up!

I was so excited to see N's artwork, I don't think I've ever seen it before! It's super cool!

What a long travel day

I hope you get all rested up...I can't wait to hear how your days go.

 

[vrajewski10513]

N's artwork is amazing!!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Here and caught up!

I was so excited to see N's artwork, I don't think I've ever seen it before! It's super cool!

What a long travel day

I hope you get all rested up...I can't wait to hear how your days go.

Nice to see you here!!

Glad to hear you like his art! I'll pass it along. I'm pretty proud of how hard he's worked to get to this point.

Long travel day is right! It felt like we spent twice as much time traveling as park touring...because I guess technically we did. It was worth it though!

N's artwork is amazing!!

Thank you! I'll pass that on to him! I'm proud to get a chance to show him off once in a while