Our plan to take a day off between our two days of Magic Kingdom seems to be working out well. We had a relaxing day yesterday just lounging by the pool, cooking in the Airstream and not doing much walking around. Today, the girls are fresh and ready to rock and roll again.
We learned on our last trip that going back to back while staying here is a brutal undertaking. You spend all day walking and waiting and having your senses overloaded at the park, to go back for a second consecutive day is especially tough for parents like us who have little children. We opted to skip a day and hang out at the campground to enjoy what it has to offer instead.
Our 4 nights at Fort Wilderness includes 2 days at Magic Kingdom. Actually we can go to any of the other parks but with our kids age, Magic Kingdom is the only way to go. For those of you out there with 2 girls under the age of 6, you know what I mean. There is no coming to Disney World and not getting to take photos with the princesses. Oh yeah, and it happens to be Marlene’s birthday.
Last night we slept at our first Cracker Barrel and survived. I can’t even count how many times we’ve slept in Walmart’s parking lots but for some reason we were a little scared of getting a knock on the door in the middle of the night at a Cracker Barrel. They don’t really have signs that say parking overnight is okay or not okay so we are always a little apprehensive about it. Now that we survived our first night without an incident, I think we will consider it as a boondocking spot from now on.
So you know how we are trying to stay on “California time” on this trip? Well, this little guy has other plans. He likes the Eastern time zone just fine and has been waking up around 6:45 am. Maybe he heard all the other campers talking crap about the lazy Californians who barley make it out of the campground by 11am on a good day. You can’t call us lazy anymore!!
Since we got lucky with a last minute reservations at Fort Wilderness in Disney World, our time in Savannah is unfortunately cut short to just 4 days. That might sound like a decent amount of time to be in a city, and it usually is, but we love Savannah so much that we originally planned on being here for at least a week. Well, what are you gonna do? You win some and you lose some. I doubt anyone will be sympathetic for us for having to leave Savannah because we have to go to Disney World.
James Island County Park in Charleston is a great place to be for Thanksgiving. We did not know about it 2 years ago when we came through here and ended up staying a little further out at Oak Plantation RV Park. James Island is a little more expensive but it sits on a ton of land with very nice facilities right across a bridge from Charleston.
Tryon, North Carolina is a quaint little town right on the border of North and South Carolina. There are a dozen little towns like this all over the area and today, we are going to visit some of them with Frank and Debbie.
We got a late start today but we can’t blame it on yesterday’s ghost hunting or the consumption of alcoholic beverages at the old tavern. It’s how we roll. We decided to leave My Old Kentucky Home campground today and head to Mammoth Cave National Park to see what the fuss is all about. We unfortunately did not even go see the Home itself. Something about a song plus we were running late and hungry equals next time. And since our good friend Carrie lives in Kentucky, we know for sure that there will be a next time.
Bardstown is one of the oldest European settlements in Kentucky dating back to the 1780s. Our campground, My Old Kentucky Home State Park, is the site of the old plantation owned by the cousin of Stephen Foster, also known as the Father of American Music. He is of course the writer of the song that serves as this state park’s namesake.
The Kentucky Horse Park has been good to us. It gave us just the right kind of stay we needed both times we have been here in the last two weeks. It is quiet, spacious, well-maintained and priced well below what you would expect for a place like this. We have stayed here 3 nights while using it as a staging location for our various explorations around here. Today we are finally going to visit what most people come here to do, visiting the Kentucky Horse Park.
This morning we woke up to overcast skies and light but persistent rain. Last night we came to Lexington and met up with Doug and his family of Troutstream who hosted us at their home a couple of weeks ago in Ohio. When we left, we had made tentative plans to meet up again in Kentucky to do some Kentucky trail hiking: The Bourbon Trail.
