Cast Special Events

Two weeks ago I got to do a backstage tour of Dinosaur! in Animal Kingdom with some Friendship Boat captains. We learned about some of the theme details in the Dinoland area, and after it closed for the night, got to ride with the lights on. After that we were able to walk the track and see the animatronics up close.

Last week we attended a special cast showing of the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue at Fort Wilderness before it reopened to regular guests. It's a fun show and the food was good.

Last night Susan and I went to a special cast night at the Magic Kingdom. We rode a couple of rides and enjoyed free snacks, as well as visiting with fellow cast members. 

The canopy for Tron looked cool lit up at night.

Another Trip from Oregon to Florida Part 4

Monday morning we stopped at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park before driving into Tennessee. The Kentucky visitor center was fairly small, but had a couple of films that were shown on a large TV upstairs that we watched. It also appeared to have a fairly nice campground and trail system on the Tennessee side, but we didn't really have time for hiking. The ranger also said the viewpoint is great, but we didn't want to try driving up to that with a trailer attached.

 

We headed down to Pigeon Forge, and stopped for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, my 30th. After lunch we drove through town checking out the tourist attractions. I'm hoping to come back sometime soon to check out Dollywood.

 

We continued east through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, stopping briefly at two of the visitor centers, then drove down into Georgia, staying the night south of Atlanta.  

After a stop at one more Buc-ee's, we crossed into Florida and made our way home.

Another trip from Oregon to Florida Part 3

Saturday we continued on into Iowa. I wanted to visit the Star Trek museum in Riverside, but we were going to arrive after it closed for the day. Instead we stopped at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. Besides the visitor center, the site includes Hoover's childhood home and several related buildings, some of which had been relocated. I was a little disappointed in the movie at the visitor center, because it didn't explain how Hoover came to be President.

Susan said we should check out the Presidential Library nearby. I was skeptical, figuring it would be closing too soon that we would have to pay too much to see too little, but when we walked in they said they were no longer charging admission since it was late in the day. We had to hurry through the displays, but we had enough time to see pretty much everything, and learned a lot more about President Hoover's life.

We stayed the night in Davenport, Iowa, and the next day drove through Illinois and Indiana and into Kentucky, where we discovered a new Buc-ee's we had to check out.

Another Trip from Oregon to Florida Part 2

Friday morning we continued along the Lincoln Highway into Nebraska.

We stopped at the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument outside Kearney. We had driven underneath it on several of our trips back and forth between Oregon and Florida, and we finally had time to stop and see what was inside.

It's a pretty cool museum all about the westward migration, and how the Great River Road became the Lincoln Highway, and then I-80. Friday night we stayed in Grand Island, Nebraska.

Another Trip from Oregon to Florida Part 1

Last week Susan and I flew to Oregon to bring my truck back. We spent some time going through and getting rid of some stuff, and put the rest in storage. After that we rented a U-Haul trailer and, loaded up, headed back to Florida, my 20th time driving across the U.S.

Wednesday we drove from Bend into Idaho, stopping for the night in Twin Falls. Thursday, instead of our usual route, we turned east onto I-86 and eventually onto Highway 30. When we got to Montpelier, Idaho, we stopped at the National Oregon/California Trail Center. 

It was an interesting museum, with much of the presentation done by live re-entactors. We probably would have preferred being able to just read or listen or watch short media and therefore go through a bit faster, but there are probably a lot of people who would enjoy this type of experience, especially if they weren't familiar with the subject.  

We then crossed into Wyoming and stopped at the Fossil Butte National Monument. It had a fairly nice visitor center with some nice displays, but it's pretty small. I don't think it took more than an hour to see everything there, and it was quite a way off the road to get to the visitor center. Thursday night we stayed in Rock Springs Wyoming.