Copyright © 2004, 2005 Robin Costello. All rights reserved.

Chapter 8, Day 2
Stupid Van, 12/9

Ms. Gloria Hardee, final answer.

We had come out of Millionaire and were told the story of the scroll by Zurg. I didn’t think it was possible, but Ms. Gloria Hardee made my Brother’s wife look pretty good. The Zurgs and Carol headed off to present their scroll to the people it was intended for.

Congratulations Ms. Gloria Hardee, you made it into the Zurg/Delswife trip report.

As a thief.

Wouldn’t these chapters from our reports look nice where the stolen scroll used to hang?

You wouldn’t have to worry about the CM’s seeing them, that’s for sure.

If Chris had been feeling better, we may have gone with the Zurgs on the mission to right the wrong. His stomach was feeling ‘funny’.

But I never heard him giggle, so I’m thinking it wasn’t really funny.

My crew, Vicky, Diane, Matt and a new guy decided to go grab a quick snack to help Chris’ stomach humor then go for a flip on the RnR. (Yes, it was a brilliant idea, that is what I was told.) Laura and Rachel had another meeting and left to go have lunch.

Hey, wait a minute, we had a new guy!

We like new people.

We are a friendly family and always welcome new people to join us in Disney fun. We are not an exclusive group; we are just living ‘out loud’.

The new guy turned out to be Eric (SyracuseWolvrine) a CM and friend from the animal kingdom.

To Bea, Eric became the newest member of ‘stranger danger.’

Bea is incredibly shy and barely speaks to anyone other than her own family. She NEVER sits next to anyone she isn’t related to unless I am not paying attention. If that happened and she ended up sitting next to someone, she got really pissed at me. “Did you forget ‘stranger danger’ mother?”

This picture was from a few days later. Notice that I made Del into a moose and Bea is still keeping a close eye on Eric.

She had met a few of our friends before and had worked up the courage to speak to just a few of them on this trip, but Eric was the new guy.

Here is a photo of our incredibly dangerous newcomer. Notice Bea looking to see who he is threatening.

It took Bea a couple days, but eventually she welcomed Eric in and he became one of us. It took her as much time to get used to Eric as it took me to stop calling him saccharine wolverine.

I wasn’t doing it on purpose; I think my brain kept seeing the hockey trophy in his signature as a sugar bowl.

I don’t follow sports, does it show?

Everyone went on the RnR but me. No special reason, I just didn’t feel like being flipped upside down right after I ate. I didn’t have a funny stomach but I might have scared off the new guy if I got sick everywhere.

Em got her panties in a twist about a CM that had cut them in line. Diane explained to her that he needed to cut to operate the ride. He was then granted Em’s blessings to go ahead of them.

After they got off the ride, there was talk of going on the TOT, but no action was involved.

Diane invited us all over to the (where did we go Diane?) because Del kept saying needed a beer because it was “Beer thirty”. We were going to go to Beaches and Cream to meet up with Buz and have a light lunch.

And a couple beers, it was almost “Beer o’clock” for crying out loud.

The mysterious DVC place we went to was home to Storm along Bay. Only guest of the resort can go in and you need to show a wrist band to do that.

There may be someone reading this that will know were we were.

No wonder we could never find that stupid van.

Diane had caught wind that Chris had a funny stomach and whipped out her cell phone to notify Buz that there was a situation developing.

Or she needed something to fan the air, I’m not sure.

Buz met us at Beaches and Cream with some serious medication for a funny tummy.

Buz@badshoe.com

We had to wait to get a table. Diane pointed to the bar across the bridge so Del could get a beer. It was ‘half past a beer’ by this time. Del, if you remember correctly is not allowed to carry any money.

That’s what he tells people, and it’s not really that he is not allowed, it’s that he doesn’t know how too. Did I ever tell you how I paid for some of those ride photos?

Money found in the bottom of the washing machine because Del never empties his pockets. That is where ‘Bank of Del’ is located.

Anyway, he asked me for a $5.00 and ran off over a bridge to get a beer. When he came back, he didn’t look quite as happy as I thought he should be.

He wasn’t, he had a problem.

For future reference to anyone that is interested, a beer across the bridge at the mystery DVC place cost $4.90. Del tipped $0.10 and he knows tipping is not a small town in China.

Sorry, but if you can’t fold the tip in half, it doesn’t count.

What else could he do? He had to go back, get another beer and tip properly. Who knows, maybe the bartender was saving for a trip to Maine.

With the crisis avoided, we all went into Beaches and Cream to have a bite to eat.

We all had a great time and a few laughs. Diane had pointed out a dessert they made named ‘the kitchen sink’ which is really a large bowl of ice cream headache hell. Anyone who would even attempt to eat such a thing is just looking for a problem.

I actually considered it, but we had to get going. We were all going to the Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and having dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern, plus snacking on the free cookies and hot chocolate they pass out during the party.

You know, after re-reading this and looking through my passporter, I realize now why none of my jeans fit me anymore. We ate more on this vacation than we ever have. Usually the weather is too hot and we don’t want to eat, but in December the weather is cooler.

Warning, Disney in December will cause you to ‘fat out of your jeans’.

Del was confident that he could lead us to the van if Diane could just point us in the direction of Epcot.

Too bad we were parked at MGM.

Eric walked backwards with us back to MGM rather than Epcot because he is a nice guy that way. He walked the entire way backwards so I am thinking if the Disney thing doesn’t work out for him, he could get a job at Discovery Cove.

My crew and I parted ways with everyone else and got on a tram to the parking lot.

The plan was to go back to the room for a little break, then pop over to Magic Kingdom for the party. As the tram came to the first parking lot I looked at Chris and asked him if this was the lot we were in. “I think so.” He said.

The reality was we got off the tram at the first parking lot we came to because of Chris and his thinking and ended up walking up and down the isles looking for the stupid van for over an hour.

In the third parking lot we were touring my cell phone rang and it was Kimball checking to see that we were awake and going to make the party on time.

“I can’t find the vaaaaan!” I cried into the phone.

There is ALWAYS a problem with us.

I know it is fun to read about, but when you spend over an hour walking around different parking lots with tired family members pushing a panic button on your key chain to set of a car alarm, ANY alarm, it really rains on your parade.

Just as I was about to give up hope of ever finding the stupid van and jump on a diesel-donkey, rocking back and forth, skin to skin contact stranger filled bus, an alarm finally went off.

I fought the urge to drop to my knees and cry happy tears.

There was no time left. No going back to Pop for a quick rest, just jump in the stupid van, pray the traffic lights would be in our favor and get to the Magic Kingdom to meet up with our friends at Liberty Tree Tavern.

We were going to be late; it was now just a matter of how late we would be.

Love Ya / Mean It and BadShoe.com Pins

Tony, Delaney, Connor - Love Ya / Mean It

Robin & Del, Kimball & Bennet (aka Delswife & Scuba Steve, Zurgswife & Zurg) are proud to announce two unique limited edition trading pins to benefit research to help find cures for Juvenile Diabetes and Muscular Dystrophy.

We love going to Disney World and writing funny trip reports, after all it is how we became friends. We care just as much or more about helping these two great causes. All the profits from pin sales will go to JDRF and MDA because, well, Robin thought it would be a fun idea.

So if you enjoy the trip reports please chip in and buy a pin or two. Pins are $10.00 each including shipping and handling (North America.) Send an email to pins@badshoe.com with how many pins you would like and we will get the pins rolling. The BadShoe.com pins have sold out. Existing orders are being filled but we can't take anymore BadShoe.com pin orders, sorry. There still Love Ya / Mean it Pins (there were more to start.)

If you feel inspired click either MDA or JDRF's logo or both and make additional contributions.

Copyright © 2004, 2005 Robin Costello. All rights reserved.

Chapter 8, Day 2 Stupid Van, 12/9

Chapter 8, Day 2
Stupid Van, 12/9