Orlando 2009 (day 1)
After a false start or two ... (including the first unplanned bathroom break being no more than 10 miles down the road) ... R, Z, L and I made it onto the interstate around 10am. Our first goal was to make it to Tifton, GA for brunch, but due to a lot of scattered rain along the path - we pulled into the Tifton Cracker Barrel at about 12:30pm.
Once realizing that it was a Sunday afternoon and the Tifton "church crowd" is indeed much larger than one would imagine... we settled on Waffle House instead. About an hour to get us all fed and back into the car - we were once again battling Georgia drivers and their inability to drive in any type of precipitation.
I forgot to buy a power adapter splitting device - so for the trip we had to alternate using the cigarette lighter to power a dvd player for the kids.. and using it for my FM transmitter plugged into my iRiver so I would not go completely insane. (The proper driving music serves as a sedative that has saved many an incompetent driver from certain death at the hands of yours truly.)
Two more gas station/bathroom breaks between the FL border and hotel... and we arrive sometime around 6pm. I would guess that is about 6.5 hours driving time, and 1.5 hour of break time.
At the hotel, the day's hijinks had just begun. Check in goes smooth and quick - we get our keys and are directed to Building 8 (we're in a multi-building resort property). We drive the long winding road back to our building, which seems to be very well located in relation to several resort amenities (2 pools, hot tub, ice cream parlor, fitness center, pool bar/restaurant, arcade, etc are all right our of our door.)
We grab a handful of bags and head to our door - only to find that our keys don't work. Now we have to go all the way back to the front desk (we decide to walk to see the property). We get back to the desk, get new keys - go back to the room... still don't work. Security dude comes, lets us in and calls Engineering to work on the lock. Not wanting to be burdened by a faulty lock - and underwhelmed about the size of the room - we ask for a room change. "The dude" says he'll go get the keys to the new room, asks us to stay put.
We stay put. and put. and put. Until our stomach linings begin to devour themselves, we stay put. Get in the car... head back to the desk. Give them the proverbial W.T.F. and we find out the room with the broken lock that we had been chillin in for a couple of hours... was indeed not our room. It was the one next door.
So, new room acquired... we head out to dinner. Everyone was in the mood for something cheep and fast - we settled on a Denny's. However after 20 minutes of sitting at a table without so much a drink order being taken - we decided that Denny's was not settled on US. So we went across the street to Burger King. We were not back in our new room 30 minutes before everyone had crashed.
Monday looks to be more promising (to be continued)
Once realizing that it was a Sunday afternoon and the Tifton "church crowd" is indeed much larger than one would imagine... we settled on Waffle House instead. About an hour to get us all fed and back into the car - we were once again battling Georgia drivers and their inability to drive in any type of precipitation.
I forgot to buy a power adapter splitting device - so for the trip we had to alternate using the cigarette lighter to power a dvd player for the kids.. and using it for my FM transmitter plugged into my iRiver so I would not go completely insane. (The proper driving music serves as a sedative that has saved many an incompetent driver from certain death at the hands of yours truly.)
Two more gas station/bathroom breaks between the FL border and hotel... and we arrive sometime around 6pm. I would guess that is about 6.5 hours driving time, and 1.5 hour of break time.
At the hotel, the day's hijinks had just begun. Check in goes smooth and quick - we get our keys and are directed to Building 8 (we're in a multi-building resort property). We drive the long winding road back to our building, which seems to be very well located in relation to several resort amenities (2 pools, hot tub, ice cream parlor, fitness center, pool bar/restaurant, arcade, etc are all right our of our door.)
We grab a handful of bags and head to our door - only to find that our keys don't work. Now we have to go all the way back to the front desk (we decide to walk to see the property). We get back to the desk, get new keys - go back to the room... still don't work. Security dude comes, lets us in and calls Engineering to work on the lock. Not wanting to be burdened by a faulty lock - and underwhelmed about the size of the room - we ask for a room change. "The dude" says he'll go get the keys to the new room, asks us to stay put.
We stay put. and put. and put. Until our stomach linings begin to devour themselves, we stay put. Get in the car... head back to the desk. Give them the proverbial W.T.F. and we find out the room with the broken lock that we had been chillin in for a couple of hours... was indeed not our room. It was the one next door.
So, new room acquired... we head out to dinner. Everyone was in the mood for something cheep and fast - we settled on a Denny's. However after 20 minutes of sitting at a table without so much a drink order being taken - we decided that Denny's was not settled on US. So we went across the street to Burger King. We were not back in our new room 30 minutes before everyone had crashed.
Monday looks to be more promising (to be continued)