Disney World 2006

A Family Vacation Part I
"The Departure, The Arrival, and Gregory Hines' Ghost"
by JT Pilaf

Like family vacations of yesteryear, this one was no different. The kids were jumping out of their socks just days before we left with expectancy and overjoyed animation. It's tough keeping control of a situation before a vacation, fathers don't want to be the bad guy and "go see your mother" can only be used sparingly. We woke up bright and early on a beautiful morning in Buffalo, the sun was a vibrant red spilling with life and energy. We had our suitcases already packed in the van and we were ready to for our flight to Orlando.

The boarding was smooth and went without a major incident. Unlike Gramma, who received the "Mexicali special", on her flight to San Antonio, we were greeted kindly by Charity Van der Pol in the employees line (thank you cast and sympathetic look of need), handed coffee and bagels, and received hugs and kisses by all the TSA employees at the Buffalo airport.
We once again received presidential treatment by our friends at Southwest because of my untimely inconvenience and were seated first on the plane, I chose the first row, it had a cup holder and extra leg room. The kids immediately dove into their Disney journal created by their loving mother to compensate for school assigned homework. The only thing that would keep us from a perfect flight would be our unscheduled detour to Pittsburgh to refuel. But even that only added an extra 30 minutes; and who doesn't want to stop off in Pittsburgh, home of the Champion Pittsburgh Steelers.
Captain Dan, our pilot, was an experienced aviator and landed the plane in Orlando with precision and creativity. The sunbathing onlookers were very impressed and gave him standing ovation, one even tried to high five him as he passed.






Our destination was Fort Wilderness Campground in Disney World. The Disney Magical Express picked us up at the airport, showed us a video, featuring Mickey Mouse and all his friends, of all the fun we were entitled to have, and dropped us off at Fort Wilderness; it was now our responsibility to continue the week of fun.






We entered the cabin, ooohhed and ahhhhed, and quickly threw our luggage in our rooms. Geckos ran amuck outside the cabin, tapping a soft shoe on the deck, giving Gregory Hines a run for his money (RIP).
The kids turned the TV on and settled into their daily routine. My old man, immediately wanted to start a campfire, sing, and roast marshmallows. He had to be reminded that we weren't neccessarily roughing it and it might be wiser not to start a fire considering the state of Florida was going through their worst drought in years and were battling brush fires for two weeks straight and not winning. My old man paid no attention to us and built a fire that could've hailed down a 5 plane search party heading up a rescue mission in the Bermuda Triangle. He started it by rubbing two pieces of his hair together and four gallons of gas at 2.85 / gallon.


In an instance I was blinded by the explosive flames, Zachary's hat flew off from his head from the violent burst and landed in the next lot, and both Sandra and my mother's eyelashes were completely burned off and they were inside the cabin.
A funny coincidense followed, we never saw another gecko.




My mother, always looking out for the welfare of her children, rented a scooter for me so I could get around the parks easier. I offered to reimburse her for her generousity and that she didn't have to do that, but I'm not sure if she heard me. My throat was still hoarse from the gasoline fueled campfire.

I was a little hesitant at first to use this transportation, what would the chicks at Magic Kingdom, like Ariel and Cinderella think. But, after putting on the helmet, the body suit, and protective gear, I felt manly again. Zachary wanted his hand at it. I told him no, this isn't a toy, and then I went out and did some jumps on my old man's campfire rubble.






Disney Trip 2006 will continue with parts II and III



Part II:
The Night I Spent With Jasmine







And the story everyone is waiting for;

Part III:
Sue versus The Volcano