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Saturday, May 26, 2012

A Whole Lot Of Nothing

We're happily settled in our "Home Base" in Irmo, SC, two miles from our grandsons Andrew and Owie.  We've been enjoying seeing them almost every day and we've even had a sleep over, "practising" for our Disney World trip with them.  I'm not saying they're excited but they seem to be jumping up and down whenever we talk about it.

We've booked an eight day stay at Disney World's Fort Wilderness campground.  Oh, if we were only wealthy enough to stay there year round!  It is our favorite campground and we've many happy memories of visits there.


This year we bought tickets for a "Four and Four", four days of theme parks and four days of water parks.  We are going to do three theme park days and three water park days so the boys will still have a theme park and water park day left on their tickets for a return weekend with their mom and dad later in the year.  There are enough things to do around Fort Wilderness that two days off will be a nice break. 

New this year is we're renting a golf cart off site.  Disney only offers 4 seat carts and we've found a company that will deliver a 6 seat cart for more than $100 less than a Disney rental.  Why a six seater?  The boy's parents, Heather and Brian will be with us for the first weekend, then they'll drive home and the boys will be with us the remainder of the time.  The boys have gotten so big that we can't fit anymore on a 4 seat cart.


The campground we're at here in Irmo is nice and reasonable but just in case we can't book a site when we need it, we took a drive to check out some other nearby campgrounds as a backup.  One is a state park which is okay, but not good for a long term stay due to the hookups.  The other is a commercial campground, the Barnyard Campground, which is okay but for a weird policy. 

We're looking for later this year to book some month long stays.  Barnyard has a good monthly rate but they require on top of the monthly fee an additional $200 deposit, all paid in advance.  They will return your deposit via a check in the mail after you leave.  We've never seen anything like that before and the explanation was that it is to protect the park owners from monthly campers that don't pay.  We still can't figure out that issue.

We've been doing little items like getting paper plates so we don't have to do dishes at Disney, to getting a new radiator in the Element.  We also have solved our quandary of our "Tadpoles", the motor scooters we carry in the Element.  We don't always have the time or the place to ride them, but when we do, they are a blast.  The past five months we carried them about 10,000 miles and rode them for barely 30 miles (in the Quartzsite desert).  When we have them, they take up so much room, we can hardly fit groceries in, let alone passengers.

Instead of selling them, we bought a storage shed for our daughter and son-in-law's house, big enough to store the scooters and still give them a bunch of room for their lawn and garden equipment to get it out of their garage.  This way we can pick up the scooters when we're going someplace where we'll use them (like Key West) and leave them behind when we're not.  Yes, we're leaving the keys so they can ride them.  :c)

So, aside from holding down our lawn chairs, we've been busy with the boys.  Little Owie just loves being in the Journey, he is very inquisitive and wants to know how everything works.  He certainly is learning the "ins-n-outs" of it.


Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

20 comments:

  1. Your Disney trip sounds awesome! Seeing as you'll have 2 extra seats in that golf cart after a couple days, we might have to stow away in the Element now that the tadpoles aren't in there :)

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  2. Are all six of you going to sleep in the Journey at Disney? If so, then you guys have much less need for personal space than I do. :)

    Can you drive the golf carts around the theme and water parks?

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    1. Yes, but the key word is sleep. They have the most clean and easily accessable comfort stations that you've ever seen. We have nice picnic tables at each site for meals outside and we do eat some meals in the parks themselves.

      It's only for a short time and it's all about having great times with your grandkids. We used to do things like this in a tent! :cO

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  3. I got the sense that the boys are not the only ones jumping up and down with excitement when the subject of Disney comes up.

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  4. I got the same sense that JB did. I think the whole family is getting pumped up. Have fun.

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  5. I'm with Judy - what do you use the golf carts for? Can you ride them from the campground to the parks instead of taking the toad? Sounds like a good time - you know they always says these places are more fun for grown ups.

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    1. The Fort Wilderness campground is so large (over 780 campsites, not counting the dozens and dozens of cabins located in one end) that it is fun to have a golf cart to drive to the stores, or the beach, the pool, etc.

      There are buses that you can take to these places but they run at (supposedly) 15 minute intervals. The cart helps you get to the main bus stop to take buses to the various theme parks. Nothing better than having a cart to take sleeping boys (after long days in the parks) to your campsite that may be a mile from your stop.

      No you can't run the carts to the theme parks, but there is a fun activity called "Looping". That is driving your cart around the various campground loops and look at all the RVs and decorations that people put out during different times of the year. Indepependance Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are some of the hoildays that people decorate for and some really go to town on their sites.

      I'll be doing posts on some of the sights at Ft W. so stay tuned.

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    2. Thanks for the info. Sure wish I had some grandkids that I could take there. By the time Todd has kids and they get old enough to go I will be too old to be driving. lol

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  6. Sounds like you have a Grand adventure planned. Hope you have a ton of fun and post lots of pictures.

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  7. Love Disney!!! It is just such a happy place!!!

    Makes us smile just thinking about it...Have a blast:o))

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  8. your nothing sure turned into something!..have a great weekend!!!

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  9. Looks & sounds like so much fun! You guys will have a blast :)

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  10. I'm glad you're keeping your scooters. It costs more to replace them than you'll get by selling them. You seemed to enjoy them when you were in "Q".

    We've been to Disneyland several times with the kids ... and without the kids. We love it. We've never stayed at Fort Wilderness though. Maybe you could get an annual rate????

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  11. We love Disney too. Can't wait to hear about your adventures.

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  12. We've never camped at Fort Wilderness...always wanted to but just never quite got around to it. Maybe this fall. I'm sure you'll have a great time. It's always so much fun at Disney....expensive, but fun!

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  13. Disney really is the happiest place on earth!

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  14. Only been to Disney once when Carrie was about 9 and we loved it. I'd thought we should try to go again for a "vacation week". It would cheer us both us tremendously but there were no reservations to be had. Not sure it would fit in our diminished budget either. So you are in charge of having a good time for us too. Sounds like you can handle the job.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. i think, you had good experience while you were in RVS as if you had been sitting at home. you has lots of fun over there.Thanks for sharing such a beutiful moments.
      Used Trucks

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  15. Getting the storage shed is a great idea. If you ever need a place for a storage shed in AZ, just let me know. That way your scooters will be closer to Q.

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