Wednesday, July 30, 2014

2014 WALT DISNEY WORLD TRIP REPORT: DAY 1 MURPHY GOES ON VACATION



Thursday, May 22, 2014

It’s here, it’s here!  The day we are scheduled to leave has finally arrived.  Nearly eight years since our last trip and over 20 since we went this time of year.  We are all so excited.

We had hoped that possibly the guys could have taken today off and we could have left early this morning, but it wasn’t to be so.  So instead they hooked the camper up to the truck last night and as soon as they get home we are suppose to head out the door by 6:00 pm.  Our goal for tonight is Van Buren, AR where we plan on boondocking in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

I spent the day scooping litter boxes, doing last minute laundry, vacuuming and similar fun activities.  Basically anything I could do to make the time pass. Anything to help me ignore what felt like a bad cold coming on.  I would NOT let a stupid virus ruin this trip.  So I popped vitamins and drank gallons of juice and water all day.

Gary had checked the air in the tires again (for the third time) last night before going to bed.  We’d had all 10 tires looked at by professionals and had been assured they should make the trip just fine, but that we would need to look at replacements when we got home. \

As some of you who follow this blog already know we tend to have tire problems when traveling great distances despite how great the tires looked.  We had the money in a tire fund to replace them, but we had been assured all 10 were fine.  So Gary checked the air one last time last night and we were all ready to go.

We did have the “security blanket” of knowing we had a brand new spare for the trailer, a near new spare for the truck and the tire fund if we needed it.  So we set out realizing we’d done our best to assure a safe trip.

At 6:15pm we headed down the driveway with “C is for Cookie” blaring on the stereo system and very proud of ourselves for leaving so close to on time.  For those new to my blog, We played “C is for Cookie” as we got near the exit we now leave from on our very first trip and have done so on nearly every trip since.  The one trip we didn’t we had a horrible trip with everything from flats to the air conditioning dying in the car on an August trip as well as having a van that would simply stop running when it rained and anyone who has been to WDW knows that time of year it tends to rain a little every day.

Eleven miles later one of the passenger side trailer tires blew sending that bumper of the trailer off into the great beyond.   Thankfully we were on the outside lane and the bumper didn’t hit anyone.

Traffic was heavy so we limped about 3 miles to the first big parking lot we could easily access.  Taco Bueno.  

While we ate a fast food supper we discussed whether or not to just camp there for the night and try and get tires in the morning at the Wal-Mart next door or move on toward Van Buren on a wing and a prayer. It was just past the closing time of the tire center so there was no getting one right then.

The guys changed the tire quickly and declared it too hot to stop there that early for the night and we went on toward Van Buren, AR.  Never before has I-40 felt so rough as it did that night, and for most of the trip to be truthful. 

Every little bump, wobble or noise made us all a little more tense.  When we reached the Arkansas Welcome Center near Van Buren we pulled in between the semis and called it quits for the night.  

By then the temperatures had dropped from in the 90’s to an almost bearable 80.  Because of where we were boondocking we did not roll the slides out so ds, Sean had to simply spread his sheets over the sofa and curl up to sleep on a sofa that was too short for him to stretch out on.  Unfortunately this looked to be the set up for the next two nights as well due to circumstances beyond our control.

Despite the flat and the annoying persistent tickle that was in the back of my throat we were all in decent moods because we refused to let something as minor as a flat dampen our spirits. I had decided to not let the guys know about the tickle.

Jan who was thankful to finally have the trip started in OK

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