Grumpy's trip - Installement#1 THE DRIVE About This Page:

[Mr.Grumpy]

Hello everyone. For those that do not know, I am Joel and my wife in Jeanne Marie. We are both Disney fanatics but have never psoted a trip report before. Thanks to Wildfor WD, Cruella and their boys we have been forced into writing a report.

So here goes................................

July 24th
We set the alarm for 2:15AM thinking that we would pop up out of bed as soon as the bell tolled. Were we mistaken. We turned to each other and grunted that ever unpleasant sound of joy that can be heard whenever we decide to drive from Poughkeepsie, New York to Orlando, Florida. Well once the alarm went off we knew we could not get back to sleep and we commented about the Disney commercial with the little girl and boy that are too excited to sleep. The mom tells them that they must go to sleep and then asks the dad if he is sleeping and he comments that “He’s too excited to sleep as well” The little boy then comments that he heard that!!! We love that commercial. Once we started commenting about TV commercials we thought it would be best to get up and get going. My wife jumped into the shower and I packed the car. It was a sticky 82 degrees at 2:30 in the morning and I immediately thought that Florida would probably be worse. Anyway, I put on my Grumpy hat and began to whistle my favorite tune. “Heigh, ho, Heigh ho, It’s off to Disney we go!” By this time, it was my turn at the shower. The hot water woke me up and the Disney adrenaline began to take over. We pulled out of our driveway at 3:19 AM. (20 hours to go!!!!)
The roads through our town were as vacant as could be. We were out of New York in just over an hour and knew that our choice of routes was working. We usually drive down I-95. This time we decided to take a more scenic and hassle-free route. We drove through Pennsylvania on Routes 84 and 81. This was a beautiful drive and we found less traffic. We hit the southern end of PA in just over 4 hours. We were careful not to blink or we would miss Maryland and West Virginia. They are both very narrow on Rt 81 South. We were in Virginia and only on the road for 5 ½ hours. Could this be right??? I then realized how long the trip would be through the western portion of Virginia. It was smooth but long. Much nicer that 95 so far. We turned onto Route 77 South in southern Virginia. We had made a few reservations at hotels along the way just in case we got tired. Since it was still early we decided to cancel the ones that we had for Fancy Gap, Virginia and Charlotte, North Carolina. We then passed through Charlotte and were coming up on the SC border when a torrential downpour began. This was knuckle gripping driving. Thankfully it was my wife’s turn at the wheel. She continued on like a trooper. She got us to Colombia, SC and the skies began to brighten and we were soon on Route 26 heading toward the ever dreadful I-95. Within an hour, we were on 95 heading to Georgia. Surprisingly, the traffic was light and we were making great time. Georgia was under construction as always but we sailed through. We hit Jacksonville, Florida just after rush hour and were becoming antsy to get to Daytona where we could turn off on what we call Walt Disney Expressway (I-4). Of course there are no signs telling you how far it is to Daytona from Jacksonville…this is frustrating. I like to know how much longer until we get there!!! (Sounds familiar to all those parents out there). We sailed into Orlando and arrived at the Days Inn next to Goodings Supermarket since our reservation at the Swan did not start until the next morning. The thought of staying at the Days Inn was quite disappointing… After all, we had just driven 20 hours and should have been rewarded with a stay on property. Anyway, the Days Inn wasn’t too bad and we got it for $49.95. More money for Crispy chicken strips and Mickey bars!!! We ordered a pizza from Domino’s (it was gross) and went to bed.
We woke up early and stopped at Goodings to buy ice for our cooler to keep our drinks cold during the heat of the day while the cooler was in the car and we waited to move it into the hotel. We then headed over to Downtown Disney to get new Annual Passes. We had them last year but did not renew them in April. However, we went into Guest Services and said we wanted to renew our passes and the Cast Member back dated them and renewed them for us even though deadline for our renewal had passes. This was very nice of her and she saved us about $90.00!! (We may even get to eat at a nice place this time!! We do actually many times over, but I will put that in the next installments). We then headed over to the Swan. We are both teachers and were able to get the Swan at the teacher rate of $99.00 per night. They asked for ID, however, since our district does not provide us with teacher ID cards, we came prepared with lots of other supporting information. We had a school yearbook with our pictures in it, pay stubs, letters of appointment for the upcoming school year and our union cards. The girl at the desk commended us on our preparation and organization. I will give my wife the credit here. We left our luggage and cooler in the car and headed over to the Magic Kingdom.
Stay tuned for the next installment!!!!

[Ursunique2001]

sounds real good so far....looking forward to hearing more.

[All Ears]

What troopers you are for making that drive! DH and I drove to FL back in '95, and boy was that a L-O-N-G drive!!
I am anxious to hear about the rest of your trip!
All Ears

[Beast_fanatic]

DH & I would have had to have pulled over to take a nap about an hour after leaving!

Glad to hear that you arrived safely. Off to read the next installment!

[Cruella]

You certainly get high marks for being able to do that long drive in one shot, Mr. Grumpy! I mean, I know you were anxious to get there, but I didn't think anyone could drive straight from where we live to Orlando without stopping! Can't wait to hear more!