As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
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If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Sounds like a couple of great days at both Texas Six Flags! That heat is incredibly high and intense. So glad the kids were okay and the van suffered only minor damage. Crazy storm!
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Glad the kids were ok with the accident and not much damage to the van! The temps are just insane but very common in this part of the USA at this time of year. The humidity doesn't help either. Not always easy to rest for the night as you have an agenda and want to keep going and get to your destination. Quite an isolated part of the SW USA with nothing around for miles and very eery feeling, I'm sure. Will be better once you get to more populated areas, even though it may have been nice to travel through here. Very cool that you got to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico and quite the experience!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Wow, thank goodness the kids were Ok after that accident. I bet that was terrifying for them.
San Antonio sounds lovely - it's on my list to visit one day and I'd love to see the Alamo, not in those temperatures though!
I also want to get to Big Bend, as I want to visit as many national parks as we can. How cool that you can cross into Mexico. I had no idea you could do that.
Glad you enjoyed the Alamo and going into Mexico, but what a rough day after that! Glad you didn’t run out of gas and glad no one was I juredin the car accident!
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Sounds like a couple of great days at both Texas Six Flags! That heat is incredibly high and intense. So glad the kids were okay and the van suffered only minor damage. Crazy storm!
The heat was definitely intense... I was also thankful no one was hurt and the damage was minor...
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Glad the kids were ok with the accident and not much damage to the van! The temps are just insane but very common in this part of the USA at this time of year. The humidity doesn't help either. Not always easy to rest for the night as you have an agenda and want to keep going and get to your destination. Quite an isolated part of the SW USA with nothing around for miles and very eery feeling, I'm sure. Will be better once you get to more populated areas, even though it may have been nice to travel through here. Very cool that you got to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico and quite the experience!
I do enjoy traveling through isolated, scenic areas..... Just so long as I have a full tank of gasoline.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Wow, thank goodness the kids were Ok after that accident. I bet that was terrifying for them.
San Antonio sounds lovely - it's on my list to visit one day and I'd love to see the Alamo, not in those temperatures though!
I also want to get to Big Bend, as I want to visit as many national parks as we can. How cool that you can cross into Mexico. I had no idea you could do that.
I do think this Texas portion of our trip would have been more enjoyable in the cooler seasons....
Quote:
Originally Posted by purplegal
So glad the kids are ok, hydroplaning is so scary. You again had a busy few days, which is amazing given the high temperatures.
Hydroplaning is very scary..... And even scarier (and more dangerous) for younger/ less experienced drivers....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Glad you enjoyed the Alamo and going into Mexico, but what a rough day after that! Glad you didn’t run out of gas and glad no one was I juredin the car accident!
Me too!
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Originally Posted by pamcarey
Great start! I love reading about your road trip and watching your videos! So scary with the kids’ accident! I’m glad everyone was okay!!
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Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
What a great couple of days so far! But what a scary moment with your kids' accident. Glad nothing happened to them!
Very glad....
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Originally Posted by lovewdw2
I am so Happy that the 3 kids were okay and not hurt. Scared me and I am not their mother, can only imagine what YOU were thinking!
I hope the rest of the trip is uneventful.... looking forward to more.
My kids have been in a few wrecks (all with no injuries and minor damage)- and it is just never a full phone call to get- makes my heart jump every time....
Monday June 4/ Days 7 and 8 We had a 5 hour drive in front of us this day. Wesley, Madilyn, and Dillon had to wait for the van to get new tires before they could start their drive. The other three of us went on ahead knowing they would be less than an hour behind us. Saguaro National Park is in Tucson, Arizona and was calling for triple digit temps. I had never had plans to camp here thankfully as all of their camping is primitive/hike-in camping. I try to stick with traditional campgrounds that you can drive your vehicle right up to the site, or at least very close to it. We would be staying two nights at a hotel less than 30 minutes from Saguaro National Park. We had an uneventful drive to the hotel. I made sandwiches before the drive and we ate them on the way. Once at the hotel- we unloaded and chilled in the air condition. I needed to go to the local Wal-Mart and restock up on groceries, but I waited until the other kids arrived as Wesley really wanted to go with me to the store (to pick out snacks and such). They ended up being over two hours behind us. When they finally arrived, Wesley and I headed to Wal-Mart. No one else wanted to go. We restocked our groceries. We got some microwavable items like hot pockets to have this night for dinner in the hotel rooms. Tuesday June 5/ Day 8 We didn’t set an alarm for this morning, but I was still up right about 6am. We are now 3 hours behind our “home” time. So it would have been 9am at home. We weren’t necessarily in a rush, but because we are expecting intense three digit heat we wanted to get going before it got any hotter. The hotel has a really nice hot breakfast that includes omelets, sausage, and more. We all really enjoyed it especially since we have mostly been eating things like pop tarts for breakfast. I packed a cooler with waters, sandwiches, Debbie cakes, and chips to eat inside of the park. We arrive at Saguaro National Park in less than thirty minutes. We arrived right as the visitor center was opening for the day so we started with that. They had a short film, I got my national park passport book stamped, and we headed onto the scenic drive. This park is mainly known for having the largest cactuses (or cacti?) in the United States. When we entered the park, the park ranger informed us that they were expecting temps to reach 106 degrees and they were encouraging people to avoid hiking after 10am. It was already after 9am- so…. We stopped at several overlooks and just leisurely drove through the road taking in the scenery. We did stop at two trails. One was less than a quarter mile, so we felt comfortable doing it. The other was two miles- we only walked out several feet, looked around, and returned to the air conditioned van. We were all touring the park together in one van. We had left the gold van at the hotel. When lunch time came around, we were able to find a picnic area with shade over the table to eat at. We enjoyed our lunch and there was a nice breeze going to keep us at a comfortable temperature under the shaded picnic table. Once we were done eating, we all piled back into the van. I went to crank the van…. Tick tick tick tick tick…. Dead battery? How? The van has been off for less than 30 minutes- a battery can’t go dead that fast. But yet here we were in triple digit weather, in the middle of nowhere, having the other van thirty minutes away, and experiencing car trouble. Thankfully we did have cell service. I called my brother in law who is a mechanic and told him what was going on. He said it was likely the starter, but to try jumping it off. We used a battery jumper that doesn’t require a second vehicle. I tried cranking the van a few times- no luck- still ticking. But I guess the charger just needed to sit on it for several minutes because after a bit the charger lit up green and we tried cranking the van again and it worked. Praise God! Once leaving the park, we found an Auto Zone. They hooked up a “tester” to our battery and sure enough- the battery was bad. This was actually a blessing- because replacing a battery was a very easy fix. With a new battery, we headed back to the hotel. For dinner- the hotel had a reception with a taco bar and a few other things- we enjoyed it. The next day we would be headed for Joshua Tree National Park in California.
Wednesday June 6/ Day 9 I woke up at 5:30am this morning. I went ahead and got in the shower and got ready for the day. Once I was ready, I woke everyone else up and told them to use the toiletries and eat breakfast so we could start packing up. Winston and I were the first down to the breakfast room. They had a really good breakfast assortment including scrambled eggs, sausage, and biscuits and gravy. Winston and I were on the way back to the room as the others headed down to breakfast. Wesley had the van keys on him, so we took the keys and Winston and I went ahead and straightened up the van to get it ready to be loaded while the others ate breakfast. I did the gold van first and was done in no time. When I went to clean out the white van, I immediately noticed everything was out of the dash and strewed around the front seats. I immediately called Wesley and asked if he had dug something out of the dash and left it a mess- he said no. The others said no also. The van had been broken into. At first it seemed as if nothing had been taken. Most of our things had gone with us inside the hotel. I did notify the front desk about what happened and they said they had no cameras for the outside of the building… When we got the vans loaded up and left- Wesley immediately realized his blue tooth that hooks up his phone to be played through the radio was missingL. And I’ll go ahead and jump ahead and tell you we later realized our National Park (America the Beautiful) pass had been stolen as well. As of right this minute, we haven’t noticed anything else missing… We had a 6 hour drive to Joshua Tree National Park. We ate sandwiches on the drive. This place was also calling for high temps and the same day I booked us a hotel for Big Bend NP, I also changed this place from camping to hotel. So we drove straight to the hotel. We unpacked and headed for Joshua Tree NP. We started out at the visitor center. I later realized I forgot to get my National Park Passport book stamped- I think I was in a fog trying to see if we could get our National Park pass replaced. *we couldJ. We then drove around some of the scenic roads stopping at several overlooks. I had two hikes I wanted to do. We did a one mile trail that included some optional rock climbing. Dillon and Austin went all the way to the top of the rock climb. Madilyn and Winston went just a tiny bit up and Wesley and I stayed on the ground. We enjoyed this hike. I also wanted to hike to an abandoned mine which was a one mile walk. But we could not find the trail head. After several attempts- we gave up. Back at the hotel, we had Pizza Hut for dinner. We really enjoyed our time here at Joshua Tree National Park even though it was a short visit. Unlike Big Bend- Joshua Tree gets very cool at night despite the highs during the day and in retrospect I think we would have been fine to camp here…. But as I type this from my air conditioned hotel room, I have no regrets . Tomorrow we would be bound for San Diego, California.
Too bad for the extreme temps preventing you from doing some of the hikes. It seems everyone is having a great time. Hopefully, nothing else bad happens during the trip and glad not too much was lost with the break in.
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Joining in! You've had quite an adventure so far!
So glad no one was hurt in the accident and you were able to get back on the road without a major delay. That's terrible that the van was broken into! I'm glad you were able to get your park pass replaced.
OMG the heat sounds terrible! Very good call to opt for the hotels rather than camping in those temps!
Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your journey!
Sorry that the excessive high temperatures are making you all redo your plans, but sounds like you all are still enjoying the National Parks. Thank goodness your park pass could be replaced.
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That heat is incredibly high and intense. So glad the kids were okay and the van suffered only minor damage. Crazy storm!
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The temps are just insane but very common in this part of the USA at this time of year. The humidity doesn't help either. Not always easy to rest for the night as you have an agenda and want to keep going and get to your destination. Quite an isolated part of the SW USA with nothing around for miles and very eery feeling, I'm sure. 
Will be better once you get to more populated areas, even though it may have been nice to travel through here. Very cool that you got to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico and quite the experience! 
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I bet that was terrifying for them. 
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Very good call to opt for the hotels rather than camping in those temps! 
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