Tag: adventure

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Fool Me Once… Shame on….Shame on You

It’s been cooling off this week, and I could really tell this morning when it started to sleet on my way to work. It didn’t stick at all, and just melted away instantly, but I was definitely caught off guard by the sound of it hitting everything around me outside.

I’m still recovering from re-imaging my laptop, which meant I had to build a Microsoft Office installation for myself. That and a bit of tinkering with some other things got me through to lunch at Western Sizzlin with the boys. Afterward I packed up and went to the high school to help Mike sort depot boxes. We ended the day with the lift in the band room since we finally got our lamp in.

Autumn went to the gym again, so Summer left work and took Eaddie as well. That left me to go home and clean more in the garage. Nearly forgetting to plan my shenanigans, I pulled out my old TI-99 for deployment at work. Not just the base computer though. Oh, no. I brought out the Expansion System as well. That thing was heavy. I needed some help repairing the video cable though, so I packed up and took it to my parents’ house.

Dad got me sorted with some solder and hot glue. Then he pulled out my tiny old CRT television, and things booted up perfectly. Unfortunately I didn’t have the necessary Microsoft Multiplan 5.25″ floppy, so all I can really do is look at the loading screen, but it’ll serve its purpose. He went with me to the office to help stage everything, but just as we finished setting up, Melinda walked in. It was in the dead of night, so I really thought she was there to stage her own pranks, but she was just there to pick up some things. She’ll be out tomorrow, but I was hoping to land the prank on her the next day. Unfortunately she walked right in and saw it, so it’ll just have to be for fun with the rest of the gang tomorrow.

I dropped Dad back off at home and finally headed home to finish up the last of my plotting. Tomorrow should be fun.

Duuuuuude…..

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Skydove

Summer had an appointment to go skydiving early this afternoon, so I got up and headed home to clean up. The girls were all waiting outside for me when I got back to pick them up, and we made our way to the Clarksville airport. We hadn’t been there very long before a group came down for a landing, and one of the pros that had been doing the filming for that jump came down super hard and broke his leg. They called an ambulance, but the guy ended up taking the bed of a truck instead. After seeing my nonsensical COVID bills, I don’t blame him.

It took us a while to get started on account of the injury, but Summer wasn’t phased. Another group of kids came in for a jump as well, but Summer was up next since she had an actual appointment. The plane ride didn’t take too long, but we couldn’t actually see them leave the plane because of some large clouds. I did get a bit of video as they approached the field for their landing, but she paid the extra $150 for a premium body and external cam footage anyway.

Autumn wanted to go to their father’s restaurant afterward, but he had already closed. We settled on El Molcajete instead, but as we parked, we realized that not a single soul other than myself had brought a mask. That irritated me enough on account of my hunger, but then Autumn started in on an attitude when she should have known better than to leave the house without her mask after more than a year of this.

I drove us straight home instead, where we picked at some leftovers for an early dinner. Then I sunk a bunch of time into Photoshopping an explosion behind Summer and her tandem partner in a photo I took of them walking back from the airfield. Frustrated from the loss of daylight and everyone else taking naps, I left for home and spent the evening poking around the garage.

You never look back at the explosion!

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Bike Day

Eaddie and I got up this morning and rode the Shadow to the Ridgewood Brothers for lunch. I called Dad and had him meet us there too, and Grant was so excited to see all of us. I finally got to try the cheddar jalapeño sausage, and it was fantastic. I had the bronco sandwich, which had a link on it, and got an extra one to go as well. Felix was feeling some attitude today, but overall came through in taking care of us.

After we ate, we ran by the shop to share some banana pudding with Summer. Then Eaddie and I took a long motorcycle ride around town. We went around the marina, peeping at houses along the way. Then we took a slow cruise through the park before continuing up the mountain and back down to Old Post. She wanted to get off and play around in the park a bit, so we goofed around a bit and had some swing time. Sheri spotted me and came by to ask if I would be applying for Ben’s job. I appreciated that she at least said I would be good at it.

Once Eaddie got tired of the park, we went back up the mountain and finished the Skyline loop before making it back home. We watched a couple episodes of House, and then she took off on her bicycle while I poked around the garage some more. It was just the smallest amount of organizational progress, but at least it was something. Eventually I needed a break and took the R1 across town to deliver the CPL sticker I had forgotten to bring Grant earlier in the morning. We chatted for a little while more before I headed home.

Eaddie met me there, and we drove back up to Summer’s for the evening. Autumn was feeling moody, I suppose, and secluded herself as usual. Eaddie convinced Summer to watch a couple episodes of Glee, which finally got us started on the final season. At this point I’m just ready to be done with the show. It’s so far beyond everything that I used to love about it, so I’m ready to move on to the next thing.

Riding around town was more fun than the long highway ride to the rally, and the barbecue was leagues better too.

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Now That’s How You Wedding

Summer made an assortment of foods for breakfast this morning. My leftover Popeye’s biscuit with sausage, egg, and cheese didn’t need any of the hollandaise sauce she made, but was equally delicious. I left shortly after that to take a shower and make it to Mark’s to work on some printer configurations. I was a bit surprised when I received a negative test page that was covered in toner and white text.

I had to cut that short after some gossip in order to get back home and ready for a wedding. Summer’s employee Justin was getting married, and I still had to tie an eldredge knot. I made it up the hill to pick up Summer and Autumn, and we ran to Lamar for the wedding.

We arrived at the Bacchus Family Adventure Farm, and were pretty charmed by what they had laid out. The weather was just perfect. There was a covered, open air pavilion for the ceremony, and then a petting zoo just up a little hill. The ceremony wasn’t quite the shortest I had ever seen, but it also wasn’t held in a cold, windy gazebo at the park in the dark of night. It really was perfect. The petting zoo had a surprising assortment of critters willing to eat some Fruit Loops. Then the reception area was really nicely done as well.

The surprise of the trip was the number of people I knew. Kelli was a bridesmaid. Carl, who I hadn’t seen in years, works with the bride. Being awkward as ever, I waved him and his friend(?) over to sit with us. It was a really great time catching up. I hope every wedding I ever have to attend for the rest of my life is more like this.

When we got back to town, I dropped the girls off to pack, then headed home. When they got there, we watched the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I thought it was fantastic how such different types of stories all fit so perfectly in the same universe. Summer thought it was stressful. She went on to bed afterward, and Eaddie and I watched some YouTube, then an episode of House before she passed out in my lap.

Yes, the carnivorous arctic fox you see here in Arkansas just loves carrots.

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So Long, and Thanks for All the Wish(es)

We got up early this morning, but for some reason I agreed to let the kids get breakfast at the resort instead of leaving on the bus for our last day in the Magic Kingdom. By the time we got outside, the line for the bus was as long as we had seen it all week long, and Julie and my parents came strolling out just as we got to the head of the line. When we got to the park, we just took off to do what we wanted while we could.

Eventually we all caught up with each other for a little while. I got the newbies through the rest of the park, but the kids started to be less into it as we went. It got more than a little aggravating at times, but I know the week has worn on them too. We’re all just ready to be back home now.

Our last dinner reservation was at Be Our Guest, and we ended up sitting in the exact same room, at very close to the exact same table. It would have been nice to get another room so we could look around at something new, but I guess we didn’t get a choice. I didn’t care for my lamb chops, or even the overly sweet dessert. At least the bread and French onion soup were good.

When we got back to the room, the kids packed everything up for the trip home tomorrow. Summer and I walked to the neighboring resort to look for a different sized ring she wanted, but in the end she decided to force a fit into the largest one they had. Tomorrow, we’ll begin what’s looking like a completely booked flight back home. I just wish we didn’t have to spend so much time in the airport before our initial departure.

More like “the most exhausting place on earth.”

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Planet Hollywood

Everyone got up early this morning to try and queue for Rise of the Resistance, but it sold out immediately, not even loading the “join” button for some. We carried on to Hollywood Studios, a little defeated, and we were let into the park about half an hour early. Our first stop was the Hollywood Tower of Terror. Then we hit the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, followed by a surprisingly great Lightning McQueen animatronic in a show.

After finishing that, we pretty much immediately split off of the family group to do our own thing. I wasn’t willing to stick around for it to turn into a fight first thing in the morning, and we had a whole new Star Wars area to discover. The Smuggler’s Run was incredible and worth the wait. We ordered some food while we waited for the rest of the family to come around, but they still ended up doing their own things.

I really wanted to build a lightsaber, but I also really didn’t want to have another large toy sitting around the house. We ended up just wandering through some shops until we could get in to eat. We didn’t order much food, but it got us right to the 1:00 queue time. The five of us refreshed our phones to try and get in for Rise again, and Summer actually made it. With that out of the way, we were free to enjoy the rest of the park.

Our dinner reservation at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater happened to be right around the time we expected to get called back to our virtual queue, but we made it work. We just didn’t waste any time at all getting food to our table and down our throats. We arrived back at the physical queue just in time to wander into the cave leading to the ride. It wouldn’t really even be fair to call it a ride. The whole thing is more of an event with several stages, and it was incredible.

We wrapped up the evening with Toy Story, and then headed back to our rooms for an early night. No more Disney Springs for us, after all.

Going to light speed was so satisfying.

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Everywhere Around the World, They’ll Be Shopping in the Streets

Today was our vacation from our vacation day. I tried not to sleep in because I knew sleeping in would just make it harder to go to sleep at the end of the day. So of course I woke up to my alarm, was scolded, then slept in until 10 while everyone else got up and walked around the resort. When I did finally get up, everyone came back and we took the bus to Disney Springs.

We were a bit worried there wouldn’t be anything for the kids, but it was actually a really neat place. Sure, there were tons of brand stores where you could pay retail for all their offerings, but there were some other places like a big Disney store that we could pick up some other souvenirs that we hadn’t seen in any of the parks. We saw a tiny Lego store with some statues inside and out. We had a huge, late lunch at T-Rex Cafe, where they had dinosaur animatronics and a periodic meteor shower show where the lights dimmed as a re-enactment of the extinction event.

Overall it was a pretty great day in spite of the couple of people that didn’t feel well. It was a whole lot less stressful than trying to cover all of a theme park, and I think everyone walked away happy with the things they bought. The kids got a bit tired of shopping though, so we let them take the bus back to the resort to go swimming.

When we finally got back, the kids were leaving the pool for food, so we stayed in for a quiet evening. Everyone got a quick training on how to queue for Rise of the Resistance, and eventually it was off to bed.

Man, Motown in Motion was HOT tonight!

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The Kingdom of Magic

I wanted to get everyone out the door at eight this morning so we could make it to the park right at open. Somehow we actually managed to get pretty close, even with a human version of the old Snake game leading to the shuttle buses. It was pretty awesome seeing the kids’ reactions as they were transported back to the 1920s, and every time we expressed how large the park was, they would just gawk. We got just a few classic pictures, but I was disappointed to see the Disney street photographers were not in operation. It really made me wonder why we bothered to buy the photo pass.

There were gobs of people there in spite of the pandemic. I hated wearing the mask, and there’s no way I could have done that in the heat of the summer. We snacked throughout the morning, then had a late lunch at Cinderella’s Royal Table. The princess came out a couple times during our visit, but stayed at the back of the room to wave at everyone. The food was excellent, and didn’t disappoint me too badly with portion sizes. I’m not sure it would have been worth whatever the regular, non-COVID price was though.

We covered Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, and somehow even convinced Mom to ride most of the rollercoasters. I think she was actually surprised that she wasn’t as scared as she’s always been in the past. At least we got the ride pictures with our photo package, to prove she went on the rides. I can’t wait until the Tron roller coaster is finished, because I’m sure it’s going to be awesome.

The nighttime atmosphere was really nice, and the temperature was incredible, but I think we missed a lot in the dark on the west side of the park. We were all pretty beat after the first day, but tomorrow will be shorter. The only real fight I had with Julie was over a fight she had with a couple complete strangers that she thought were just being rude kids. Hopefully we can avoid any more of that, but overall we did pretty well today. The kids did great, and had an awesome time. They still can’t believe this was only part of one of four parks they’re going to this week.

Practice what you preach.

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What Pandemic?

We planned a trip to Magic Springs today, so I got cleaned up and waited for Summer to bring all three kids over. As soon as they got here, I remembered the souvenir cups were at her house, so she and Autumn ran to get them while we waited for Dad to get here. Then we hit the road.

It was a pretty good drive down, in spite of getting stuck behind every Jeep. Seriously, if you drive a Jeep down Highway 7, screw you, buddy. When we got to Hot Springs, Summer and I decided to go back to Rolando’s for lunch. The strip was absolutely packed though, and we made it all the way to the top of the parking garage without finding a space. Luckily there was a lot of foot traffic back to the garage, and we found two people leaving just as we turned around at the top.

It was a pretty good, brisk walk to Rolando’s. I was surprised they weren’t completely packed, but we got right in and sat in the 1920s-30s speakeasy themed floor. The rest of the visit was pretty disappointing, unfortunately. The food looked great, but it was all just barely warm. It didn’t take much time to come out, so I don’t know if it just wasn’t cooked fresh, or what. Evidently they also didn’t serve chips and salsa for lunch unless you ordered it as an appetizer. Then the salsa didn’t taste as good as any of us remembered. Overall it was super disappointing compared to the incredible experience we had on their rooftop deck last time.

From there, we made our way to Magic Springs, and wandered through to a few rides. They were pretty busy too, with really long lines for the roller coasters when we first got there. We split up a little bit to get some rides done, and then all ended up back at the Gauntlet, where the line had diminished to almost nothing. We all rode it twice, and then everyone but Summer and Autumn rode it a third time since there was hardly a wait.

We wanted to get some funnel cakes on the way out, but we got really lucky and missed out, because they stopped making them over half an hour before they would close. Instead, we went back downtown and walked all the way to the end of the strip to a place called Kringles and Kones. Kyle, the sole person there, was an amazing and friendly host. It was a bit weird to be so Santa-themed, but the Santa’s Way danish and ice cream was incredible.

After that, we walked back to the car and filled up some water bottles while Dad checked on some tickets to see Maxwell Blade’s show. It was a packed theater, but he got us tickets in the back corner, and it really wasn’t that bad. It was a great show, and Dad got to visit with him for a bit after it was over. Everyone was exhausted by that time, but it was a great way to end the day.

I had to hit the brakes pretty hard on the way home to avoid hitting a deer, and that lead to about a gallon of spilled spring water in the back of the car, so when we got home I had to sponge a big pool of it out from under the spare tire. Of course it’s all in the carpet and everything too, and it won’t evaporate very well in the cold weather. I’ll just have to deal with it tomorrow. Along with replacing my car battery.

And I won’t take “no” for an answer.

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Conquer the Everything

We got up early this morning to get Summer to Little Rock for Conquer the Gauntlet. Some guys from Splash were running, so we caught up to them and got her started. Then the girls were hungry, so we ran to the Pilot and Burger King for something small to eat. The girl at the drive-through said their system was down and they couldn’t serve us, but then I talked to a group of employees standing outside, and the girl there said they would have our order out in just a few minutes. Food did come out, but the fries were unsalted, and we didn’t get any condiments at all.

We made it back to the course with just enough time to finish our food and make it to an obstacle near the end. Autumn caught the guys first, then Summer came along shortly thereafter. It was the same thing Hannah and I got to see last year, and Summer powered right on through.

Summer finished with a time of 1:35, then we went back to the Pilot so she could get a shower. I accidentally left the car running on battery power while we waited, so when I got back to the girls it was completely dead. I pulled out the jumper cables, and almost immediately had two different guys offer to jump me. It really could not have been a more convenient inconvenience. The car was super dead, so it took a couple minutes of charging to start, but we got going and didn’t have any more trouble the rest of the day.

First we went to Red Lobster for lunch. Our waitress even brought Summer a sundae for her accomplishment. Then we went to McCain Mall and spent an eternity walking around that place. I don’t remember ever spending any time in the furniture area in the past, but they actually had some interesting looking stuff. The department did seem very unfinished in a lot of places though.

After the mall, we went to The Original ScoopDog for some ice cream. They were only operating at the drive-through, so we ended up waiting there for probably half an hour at least, because they didn’t actually have a speaker set up. We just had to give them our order at the window, and they turned around to make it.

Everyone was pretty exhausted, so we came straight back home from there. We got settled in, and Summer and I watched a couple episodes of Cobra Kai before Eaddie came around. Then we watched a couple episodes of Glee with her. We ended on the memorial episode for Cory Monteith, which tore us to shreds. It really just felt like the day would never end.

It’s an even more powerful kick that you deliver while standing on your hands so it frees up both legs!