"For 2,000+ Mile Round-Trip Drivers Only!" (IV)

[dvczerfs]

Ha Ha! We had a good 4th weekend,

Thursday night went out to dinner.
Friday morning food shopping, got corn on the cob, burgers and dogs
Friday afternoon parent came for dinner
Saturday - Mike's birthday, baked a cake
Saturday night - Mike's old band came over and played together, pizza and salad and birthday cake
Sunday - collapsed on the couch

All that time - Phillies were losing LOL. I give up!!!

Monday - Mike got the call - the band's getting back together, first show is in November LOL.

What a weekend.

shhhhhh I think they won last night.

band!!!! what kind of band are we talkin?????

 

[dvczerfs]

WDW Hess ( across from HS) was 3.49 today
Not bad.... cheaper than home in MA and FL

I just filled my company minivan up today.......$3.71, tax included.
and they say walt Disney world is expensive.

 

[dvczerfs]

Just a little update on my trip ( just for you dvczerfs) lol... Went to HS today with DS13. I really wanted to see the "Frozen" trading post. I thought we wouldn't be able to see it bc I thought it would be packed ( I don't love it to wanna stand in line). It wasn't bad at all we walked in to see the skating rink. DS would've loved to skate ( he plays hockey) but I wasn't paying $10.
Then on the other side they had frozen merchandise. Holy cow there was a lot!! We rode GMR, RNRC, and saw the Indy show. It was a good morning. We are back swimming now, well DS is.

sounds like a good day!!! I wouldn't pay $10 to fall on my rear either. im guessing the frozen ordeal wont be over by the time September 10th rolls around? if its just dw and I we do mgm ( I still call it mgm I don't care ) we do toy story, one mans dream and great movie ride.
it only has been maybe four-five years that dw stopped calling the magic kingdom.... Disney world. like me, when she started going....that was Disney world.
all these years and all the different resorts I stayed in, the only pool I ever went in at wdw is the boardwalk. briana was little and wanted to go down the clown slide. so her and I went up, she said "dad, you go first" I went down the slide. I hit the water turned around and she was walking back down the steps!!!!! put I big ole "S" on my forehead!!!!

 

[ddluvsdisney]

sounds like a good day!!! I wouldn't pay $10 to fall on my rear either. im guessing the frozen ordeal wont be over by the time September 10th rolls around? if its just dw and I we do mgm ( I still call it mgm I don't care ) we do toy story, one mans dream and great movie ride. it only has been maybe four-five years that dw stopped calling the magic kingdom.... Disney world. like me, when she started going....that was Disney world. all these years and all the different resorts I stayed in, the only pool I ever went in at wdw is the boardwalk. briana was little and wanted to go down the clown slide. so her and I went up, she said "dad, you go first" I went down the slide. I hit the water turned around and she was walking back down the steps!!!!! put I big ole "S" on my forehead!!!!

You're too funny! Yes the Frozen frenzy is only til Sept. 1 as far as I know, so you're good.
Like I said I'm not Frozen crazy and neither is my DS but I was really curious about the rink.
We're off to AK tomorrow morning. to get back to swim before the thunderstorm LOL
Then to the beach on Thurs. Then MK Fri. Night after DH gets out of work.

 

[sharadoc]

shhhhhh I think they won last night.

band!!!! what kind of band are we talkin?????

Yeah - two in a row!!

Band is all Originals. Hard to explain, actually. Rock, little bit punk-y, little bit singer-songwriter-y. Drums, bass (Mike), guitar and violin. I posted a quick clip on Facebook, but I think my page is set to private.

 

[Momma2PrinceNPrinces]

Our first trip to WDW was last year (May 2013), and we left St. Louis around 6:30 AM. We stopped a lot because only DH was driving. Like you, we spent the night at Tifton, GA, but we got there before 9. And we were able to sleep. We are going again in January 2015 (right after New Year's... So yes, DD6 will miss 5 days of school but we figured this will be the first and last time we'll be able to do that). If we can't fly for under $900, then we will drive again. And we plan to stop at Tifton again since there is no way we will be able to drive straight through. I will probably help out a little with the driving this time, but we don't plan to be on the road for more than 11 hours. I hope you will hear from others who have done this drive. I am interested to hear what their experience is like.

Oh yea, Tifton...lol I wrote Tipton!

 

[dvczerfs]

Yeah - two in a row!!

Band is all Originals. Hard to explain, actually. Rock, little bit punk-y, little bit singer-songwriter-y. Drums, bass (Mike), guitar and violin. I posted a quick clip on Facebook, but I think my page is set to private.

I didn't know mike played drums!!!! i started when i was nine!!! i just dug my drum set out last year. my mom and dad bought it for me when i was in jr. high school. after i got married, i kinda lost interest. i never did or will sell my set, it has more of a sentimental thing then anything to me. its a five piece pearl, jet black. i just put new heads on it all the way around and replaced a boom stand. i play it every once in a while.
i have it set up in my office now.
i spent a lot of my jr and sr high school years behind it and my mom listened to it up to the day she passed away. i think that's why its hard to get behind it today.
i was second in districts in my freshman year and was 5th in states. like a jerk, i never tried out the rest of my high school days.
funny just a few weeks ago a girl that i played drums with in high school posted on her fb page a picture of the old drum line. she wrote on the post to her favorite drummer "dave".
tammy is friends with her and posted for me since im not on fb.
tammy said, did she like you in school? i said no, i was like a brother to her. when she started, she wanted to play snare and the instructor told her she wasn't good enough. she said she was going to play. she would get yelled at all the time. she came to me one day and asked me for help. i said sure. so we started and she would speed up and slow down. i said cant you hear the beat? she said no.... im deaf in my right ear and have only about 30 percent in my left.... please don't tell anyone. WOW! how did you get this far and cant hear?????? being section leader, i was in the middle of the snare line and she was on my left. i moved her to my right and she was fine.
at the banquet that year, she stood up in front of everyone and was holding a bunch of flowers. she started, she didn't mention me by name at first. she went on to say she was deaf, the place was completely quiet. she went on about this person who she turned to and was the only one who helped her instead of yelling at her yadi,yadi,yadi..... she called me up, gave me the flowers and thank me for everything i did for her. i had no idea.
anyway, she still plays to this day. 31 years later, just about completely deaf and plays in a church band. she is amazing!!! i couldn't imagine how she plays in a band and cant hear. one day im going to pop in on her while shes playing.

 

[1disneychic]

We will be leaving next Friday for WDW from South Central PA along with my mom and niece. We are doing the 81-77-26-95 route and plan to leave between 3:30-4:00 pm. Although we'd like to be able to do a straight-thru overnight drive so the kids will sleep, I'm not sure we can do it even though we have three drivers. If we get tired, we need some ideas on where to stop for a quick overnight. (Just not worth it to try to drive with the risk of falling asleep at the wheel.) Ideally, if we can drive 'til midnight, I'd like to be on the road again by 6:00 am at the latest. Looking at google maps and the iExit app, it seems that we would probably stop anywhere from Charlotte to Walterboro SC if there is the need for a hotel room. So does anyone have a specific hotel they would recommend or one that they would NOT stay at? I would appreciate any advice you guys have!

 

[cruisingkat]

Back from our month long trip in June visiting grandkids in TX and FL with two stops in Orlandofor WDW and Universal. All went well until our last trip to Disney on the way home. I couldn't get a reservation at a Disney resort (except for rooms way out of our price range) so we decided to stay at Cabana Bay at Universal. Got a really great Universal passholder rate on a family suite there - cheaper than our last AP rate at POP in April. Well, while we were unpacking the car, I tripped over the cement parking block and went face first into the asphalt. I spent that day at urgent care instead of heading over to Disney. Xrays showed a broken little finger but urgent care doesn't treat broken bones so we spent the next morning at the hospital getting a splint and wrapped until I could see my own ortho. So we didn't make it to Disney at all and spent our time at Cabana Bay. Thank goodness we got a day at WDW on the stay between Houston & Ft Myers so I did get my Disney fix on this trip.
Cabana Bay is a nice resort - two pools, a lazy river, a bowling alley, a fitness room, and a full Starbucks off the food court. The food was very good. We stayed in a tower room - inside corridors, closer to the food court, lazy river (which I didn't get to try), bus stop, etc.
To add more complications to our trip, we stopped in TN on the drive home to spend the weekend with DD#3. She & i ran out for some food and when I got out of her car, I happened to glace at the tires on our car. It looked like the tread was pulling away from the tire so I told DH. He looked and found that it was on 3 of the 4 tires. So we had to spend an extra day so we could get new tires for the car. Luckily they were stll under warranty.
Looking forward to smooth drive #27 - hopefully for F&W in Oct.

 

[pwdebbie]

We will be leaving next Friday for WDW from South Central PA along with my mom and niece. We are doing the 81-77-26-95 route and plan to leave between 3:30-4:00 pm. Although we'd like to be able to do a straight-thru overnight drive so the kids will sleep, I'm not sure we can do it even though we have three drivers. If we get tired, we need some ideas on where to stop for a quick overnight. (Just not worth it to try to drive with the risk of falling asleep at the wheel.) Ideally, if we can drive 'til midnight, I'd like to be on the road again by 6:00 am at the latest. Looking at google maps and the iExit app, it seems that we would probably stop anywhere from Charlotte to Walterboro SC if there is the need for a hotel room. So does anyone have a specific hotel they would recommend or one that they would NOT stay at? I would appreciate any advice you guys have!

Hi neighbor! We always leave around 1:00 on Sunday from the Fayetteville area. We reach Orangeburg, SC around 11:00 p.m. and we are done-for by then. We could never make it to Walterboro leaving two hours later than we do. Just too long. At the St. Matthews Rd. exit for Orangeburg, there are a half dozen hotels and not much else (restaurant, gas). We stayed at the Sleep Inn several times; you also have other choices -- Country Inn, Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn, Quality Inn, Fairfield Inn, Hampton Inn, and probably a few more that didn't make the google map I'm looking at. The only negative here was that it was VERY dark the last time we were there. Not a lot of street lighting, no moonlight that night. At 11:00 p.m. I had a hard time seeing entrances to parking lots. Not a lot of traffic in this area, absolutely dead in the morning.

 

[pwdebbie]

Back from our month long trip in June visiting grandkids in TX and FL with two stops in Orlandofor WDW and Universal. All went well until our last trip to Disney on the way home. I couldn't get a reservation at a Disney resort (except for rooms way out of our price range) so we decided to stay at Cabana Bay at Universal. Got a really great Universal passholder rate on a family suite there - cheaper than our last AP rate at POP in April. Well, while we were unpacking the car, I tripped over the cement parking block and went face first into the asphalt. I spent that day at urgent care instead of heading over to Disney. Xrays showed a broken little finger but urgent care doesn't treat broken bones so we spent the next morning at the hospital getting a splint and wrapped until I could see my own ortho. So we didn't make it to Disney at all and spent our time at Cabana Bay. Thank goodness we got a day at WDW on the stay between Houston & Ft Myers so I did get my Disney fix on this trip.
Cabana Bay is a nice resort - two pools, a lazy river, a bowling alley, a fitness room, and a full Starbucks off the food court. The food was very good. We stayed in a tower room - inside corridors, closer to the food court, lazy river (which I didn't get to try), bus stop, etc.
To add more complications to our trip, we stopped in TN on the drive home to spend the weekend with DD#3. She & i ran out for some food and when I got out of her car, I happened to glace at the tires on our car. It looked like the tread was pulling away from the tire so I told DH. He looked and found that it was on 3 of the 4 tires. So we had to spend an extra day so we could get new tires for the car. Luckily they were stll under warranty.
Looking forward to smooth drive #27 - hopefully for F&W in Oct.

What a rough couple of days you had. Here's to a better trip in October!

 

[1disneychic]

Hi neighbor! We always leave around 1:00 on Sunday from the Fayetteville area. We reach Orangeburg, SC around 11:00 p.m. and we are done-for by then. We could never make it to Walterboro leaving two hours later than we do. Just too long. At the St. Matthews Rd. exit for Orangeburg, there are a half dozen hotels and not much else (restaurant, gas). We stayed at the Sleep Inn several times; you also have other choices -- Country Inn, Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn, Quality Inn, Fairfield Inn, Hampton Inn, and probably a few more that didn't make the google map I'm looking at. The only negative here was that it was VERY dark the last time we were there. Not a lot of street lighting, no moonlight that night. At 11:00 p.m. I had a hard time seeing entrances to parking lots. Not a lot of traffic in this area, absolutely dead in the morning.

Hi neighbor--so funny to find a DISer so close to me! Thanks for the response--it gives me a good idea time wise of where we can expect to be on the road. I don't think we'll make it past Columbia, but we'll see. I just know that I will not be the driver between midnight and 5:00 am! How much longer is the drive the next morning after Orangeburg? Also, do you reserve your hotel ahead of time or just book it when you get tired?

 

[sharadoc]

I didn't know mike played drums!!!! i started when i was nine!!! i just dug my drum set out last year. my mom and dad bought it for me when i was in jr. high school. after i got married, i kinda lost interest. i never did or will sell my set, it has more of a sentimental thing then anything to me. its a five piece pearl, jet black. i just put new heads on it all the way around and replaced a boom stand. i play it every once in a while.
i have it set up in my office now.
i spent a lot of my jr and sr high school years behind it and my mom listened to it up to the day she passed away. i think that's why its hard to get behind it today.
i was second in districts in my freshman year and was 5th in states. like a jerk, i never tried out the rest of my high school days.
funny just a few weeks ago a girl that i played drums with in high school posted on her fb page a picture of the old drum line. she wrote on the post to her favorite drummer "dave".
tammy is friends with her and posted for me since im not on fb.
tammy said, did she like you in school? i said no, i was like a brother to her. when she started, she wanted to play snare and the instructor told her she wasn't good enough. she said she was going to play. she would get yelled at all the time. she came to me one day and asked me for help. i said sure. so we started and she would speed up and slow down. i said cant you hear the beat? she said no.... im deaf in my right ear and have only about 30 percent in my left.... please don't tell anyone. WOW! how did you get this far and cant hear?????? being section leader, i was in the middle of the snare line and she was on my left. i moved her to my right and she was fine.
at the banquet that year, she stood up in front of everyone and was holding a bunch of flowers. she started, she didn't mention me by name at first. she went on to say she was deaf, the place was completely quiet. she went on about this person who she turned to and was the only one who helped her instead of yelling at her yadi,yadi,yadi..... she called me up, gave me the flowers and thank me for everything i did for her. i had no idea.
anyway, she still plays to this day. 31 years later, just about completely deaf and plays in a church band. she is amazing!!! i couldn't imagine how she plays in a band and cant hear. one day im going to pop in on her while shes playing.

What a sweet story! I thought Briana got all her sweetness from Tammy, now I know she gets some from you too, whether you're willing to admit it or not

Actually Mike plays bass, you missed the comma! You and he could be a rhythm section. Or when you retire, you could get a job at Epcot with the Jammitors! I love them, you'd be good at that.

 

[dvczerfs]

I was talking to someone on another thread about the 78/81/77/26/95/4 time and mile chart I posted. well, i managed to find one of them and since there has been a lot of discussion on this way, i copied and paste.
"home" for me in near i78 on the pa/nj boarder to give you an idea where i start from.



I made the drive a couple times. this is the way I go:

home to i81 via i78............ 1hr/1min. 71miles
i81 to ma ......................... 1hr/19min 87 miles
ma to wv.......................... /10 min 12 miles
wv to va........................... /22min 25miles
va to i77........................... 3hr/23min 241 miles
i77 to nc........................... /26min 32miles
nc to char......................... 1hr/44min 97miles
char to sc......................... /11min 12miles
sc to i26.......................... 1hr/13min 88 miles
i26 to i95.......................... /40min 53miles
i95 to ga .......................... 1hr/7min 84miles
ga to fl.............................1hr/44min 111miles
fl to i4.............................. 1hr/42min 119 miles
i4 to exit68........................ /54min 62 miles

these times include gas and bathroom stops. we don't stop for a sit down meals. this is 16 hours with stops, the fastest I did it was 15 1/2 hours.
you can pm me if you want. have a great trip.

1DISNEYCHIC!!!
here you go...... here is a mile and time breakdown from point to point going 81/77/26/95/4.
its something I posted a while back.

 

[dvczerfs]

What a sweet story! I thought Briana got all her sweetness from Tammy, now I know she gets some from you too, whether you're willing to admit it or not

Actually Mike plays bass, you missed the comma! You and he could be a rhythm section. Or when you retire, you could get a job at Epcot with the Jammitors! I love them, you'd be good at that.

sorry. I missed it! I always said she got her sweetness,brains and good looks from me.

the are pretty cool. I haven't watched them for a few years, just haven't stumbled on them.

I have to give you (and who ever else followed briana and her career )
she has decided to stay where she is at. they have started to train her on what she really likes to do.
there is someone who stops in on this thread who works for the same company. so if you need any "insider" help on your next trip, just send her a message. she is the only car in the parking lot with a WDW cast member sticker and cm license plate frame on her car.

 

[dvczerfs]

What a rough couple of days you had. Here's to a better trip in October!

hello pwdebbie!!!

Back from our month long trip in June visiting grandkids in TX and FL with two stops in Orlandofor WDW and Universal. All went well until our last trip to Disney on the way home. I couldn't get a reservation at a Disney resort (except for rooms way out of our price range) so we decided to stay at Cabana Bay at Universal. Got a really great Universal passholder rate on a family suite there - cheaper than our last AP rate at POP in April. Well, while we were unpacking the car, I tripped over the cement parking block and went face first into the asphalt. I spent that day at urgent care instead of heading over to Disney. Xrays showed a broken little finger but urgent care doesn't treat broken bones so we spent the next morning at the hospital getting a splint and wrapped until I could see my own ortho. So we didn't make it to Disney at all and spent our time at Cabana Bay. Thank goodness we got a day at WDW on the stay between Houston & Ft Myers so I did get my Disney fix on this trip.
Cabana Bay is a nice resort - two pools, a lazy river, a bowling alley, a fitness room, and a full Starbucks off the food court. The food was very good. We stayed in a tower room - inside corridors, closer to the food court, lazy river (which I didn't get to try), bus stop, etc.
To add more complications to our trip, we stopped in TN on the drive home to spend the weekend with DD#3. She & i ran out for some food and when I got out of her car, I happened to glace at the tires on our car. It looked like the tread was pulling away from the tire so I told DH. He looked and found that it was on 3 of the 4 tires. So we had to spend an extra day so we could get new tires for the car. Luckily they were stll under warranty.
Looking forward to smooth drive #27 - hopefully for F&W in Oct.

hello cruising! glad your home safely. hope you have a better trip in October. hows the finger doing?

 

[Goofygirl17]

Cruisingkat- sorry about the injury. Hope your next trip is a great one!

DVCZerfs- Glad Brianna is enjoying her new job. And great story about the drummer. i always say that band kids are the best!

We're home. We actually came home 2 days early because DD15 (turned 15 at Disney and had a great Supercalifragilstic breakfast on her birthday) was just getting too anxious to stay. She has anxiety and panic disorders and we're slowly taking her off her meds per Dr. recommendation and she just couldn't deal with the crowds and the heat anymore so we headed home.

We had a great couple weeks though

The ride home was a mess. We ended up leaving around 4 which wasn't very smart- sat on I4 forever. Then we drove until around 2 a.m. and stopped in Mooresville NC. I thought that was a good start but it still took us 12 hours to get home yesterday. We hit traffic in NJ because of an accident, then torrential rain, then a crazy BMW stopped sideways across the left lane on a corner of either 81 or 78. I guess he must have slid in the rain but there was no damage and he was just sitting there.

Then when we thought we were home free on 95 in CT- we realized once again that it is not the Constititution State- it's the Construction State. We got to CT about 8 and hit construction around Darien where 3 lanes merged into 1. Then there was more construction in Bridgeport but thankfully that was marked off with barriers and shifted lanes instead of cones and trucks so things went more smoothly. Then there was street sweeping construction in West Haven and things went down to 2 lanes. Once we were past New Haven it was much better. Got home around 10 last night.

Now I need to unpack and do laundry!

 

[1disneychic]

dvczerfs-Thank you! That time guide helps a lot.

 

[dvczerfs]

Cruisingkat- sorry about the injury. Hope your next trip is a great one!

DVCZerfs- Glad Brianna is enjoying her new job. And great story about the drummer. i always say that band kids are the best!

We're home. We actually came home 2 days early because DD15 (turned 15 at Disney and had a great Supercalifragilstic breakfast on her birthday) was just getting too anxious to stay. She has anxiety and panic disorders and we're slowly taking her off her meds per Dr. recommendation and she just couldn't deal with the crowds and the heat anymore so we headed home.

We had a great couple weeks though

The ride home was a mess. We ended up leaving around 4 which wasn't very smart- sat on I4 forever. Then we drove until around 2 a.m. and stopped in Mooresville NC. I thought that was a good start but it still took us 12 hours to get home yesterday. We hit traffic in NJ because of an accident, then torrential rain, then a crazy BMW stopped sideways across the left lane on a corner of either 81 or 78. I guess he must have slid in the rain but there was no damage and he was just sitting there.

Then when we thought we were home free on 95 in CT- we realized once again that it is not the Constititution State- it's the Construction State. We got to CT about 8 and hit construction around Darien where 3 lanes merged into 1. Then there was more construction in Bridgeport but thankfully that was marked off with barriers and shifted lanes instead of cones and trucks so things went more smoothly. Then there was street sweeping construction in West Haven and things went down to 2 lanes. Once we were past New Haven it was much better. Got home around 10 last night.

Now I need to unpack and do laundry!

glad you made it home safely and had a great time! that 81/78 exchange is always fun for some reason. one year we were on our way home and I was in the right lane of the i78 "exit ramp", there was a semi on the right shoulder at a stop. I was going about 65 and he decided he was going to cross 4 lanes of traffic and get on 81 north from a dead stop!
I don't know if he was high, drunk or just had no idea what he was doing.
I never left wdw on a Thursday evening at 4pm or try to finish the trip on a Friday, thanks for the heads up, ill never try that one.

briana, she misses working in the mk. she misses a lot of the people she worked with and for, she don't miss some of the guest and being rained on. I think she likes sitting in a a/c office, dry, in a cube, making three times more then she did at wdw. not to mention dad does her laundry.

dvczerfs-Thank you! That time guide helps a lot.

have a great trip!!!!! there is construction on i26 near Columbia. from what I hear from truck drivers that come into work as long as you don't hit it at a rush hour you should be good.

 

[dvczerfs]

oh, I almost forgot...... TICKER CHECK!!!!!!!!

I do the on line check in tomorrow and the fp+. not sure why we are doing fp+ on line anyway...... we get to the parks at rope drop, get on what we want before noon...... go back to the resort around 1pm........ nap and hang out.........head out to our adrs around 4pm ............. eat and find a bench or hit every shop that we have to look at with the same stuff as last time just in case they came out with a new purse, ear rings or shirt. ( I have a box in the basement with every disney looney and burch, what I called them, purse ever made ) then head back to the resort around 9.

im just making them for a few headliners and let the rest fly. we don't kill ourselves any more to get to every ride. what we don't do thins time, we do the next. as I kid, I had to ride everything ten times. got married and had to ride everything ten times because it was new to dw. had dd and had to ride everything ten time because it was all new. now, just two old people. it is great!! sometimes we just find a bench and watch. when I retire im not going to work there, im going to go and just sit. I can sit there all day and just watch the people, hear the sounds and smell the smells. epcot, I can sit by the fountain and just watch the water and the people all day long. I guess im getting old.