The Continuing Adventures of Jud

August 4, 2006- Had a “list meet” for lunch at Downtown Disney today. So I did my best to get there early, yet despite my best efforts, still arrived a few minutes late. Had to make a couple of stops on the way, and they stretched out a bit, then got stuck behind a funeral moving very slowly down the main highway, so ended up at DTD about ten minutes late.

Headed over to the “planter between Earl Of Sandwich and the Toy Store” as instructed, and was looking around trying to figure out which thing was “the planter” when I heard my name called out. I looked up to see Stefanie, from Boston, whom I had spent an afternoon with the previous meet- along with her husband and daughter and son.

Amy was with her and we intro’d and then Stef pulled out a present for me, a pair of Red Sox pencils and erasers! You know the guys who beat the tar out of those damn Yankees and won the World Series a couple of years ago? We chatted a bit then headed into Earl Of Sandwich, where Barbara had staked out a couple of tables.

While everyone went up to get their food orders, I raced over to the store to get some postcards I wanted to have everyone sign for some special list friends. When I got back, quick introductions were made all around and, cheating here now, it was Melanie, her kid's, one of whom was Victoria, Kay and her husband, Harry, who are members of a different net group, and Barbara’s husband, Tony, a Disney Cast member.

I chatted with Kay for a while, as she has a Pride Go-Go scooter like mine; and then with Barbara’s husband, Tony about his work operating, loading, and running several rides in FantasyLand; then I moved over to talk to Melanie, and look at her hat, covered with pins, and they are all of the evil women of the Disney films… hmmm… Beccy arrived with two of her three boys, Christopher and Jason. I called out greetings as Beccy claimed my abandoned ECV for a seat. I then gave Melanie’s young beautiful redheaded daughter Victoria a quick drawing lesson, Mickey’s head. [Melanie writes, “Thanks for teaching Victoria how to draw Mickey. She has now shared her newfound knowledge with her brothers, sister, and Dad. I have Mickey heads all over the house now. It is wonderful.”] And then suddenly people were leaving! Barbara reports that, “We all had a very nice lunch and learned a lot of good pointers thanks to my CM hubby.” But alas, I missed that! Must have been during the drawing lesson!

Those of us remaining, Barbara, Tony, Beccy and the boys, and me, headed over to Ghirardelli’s for ice cream, even though the boys didn’t want any (what’s with that???) but this was the bribe which had brought Tony to the meet. We placed our orders and got a table, and after way too much time had elapsed, I gathered together our three order number stands and started waving them like one of those guys guiding a plane to the ramp. Someone noticed and laughed and got going on our order, which appeared very shortly thereafter. The kids had gotten a kids grab bag, which included hats, so Christopher and I donned them for a picture.

Eventually that ended with the decision for the next meet to be at Beaches And Cream over near Epcot, and after much back and forth with Beccy and the boys, it was decided Christopher would go with me to SeaWorld for the afternoon and Beccy would pick him up there after the Shamu show. But before we left, I had to race back over to that store where you get the special Tinkerbell postmark to get the four postcards mailed, with one being held for a later date by a co-operative Cast member! As I came back, I noticed a new corner on the World Of Disney Store, as a crowd had gathered to get spit on by a giant Stitch as Pirate! Argggg!!!

Then Christopher and me were off to the World of Sea, with Jason’s cell phone in my pocket so Beccy could stay in touch. We entered and headed straight over to Journey to Atlantis, and apparently I am a disappointing wimp, cause I made it “boring” by sitting in the back (and thus avoiding getting soaked), but Christopher decided against doing it again. We headed over to the other side of the park stopping at the arcade on the way for a couple of games of skee-ball, then into Shamu’s newly refurbished play area where I discovered the newly opened Shamu kiddie coaster! Then Christopher climbed aboard the new water-cannon equipped pirate ship and then into the unique fabric mountain climbing area, then headed up to the giant rope and tunnel climbing construction. Noting that there were several exits on this giant attraction, I headed up to join him. We hauled ourselves up three stories of netting, not at all as simple as it looks, and made it to the top, just as the announcement came that it was being closed due to nearby lightning, so off that and we headed over to take our seat s for the Shamu show. Wasn’t long to wait for that, and it was great, but the screens weren’t moving, some technical problem, but the show was still so impressive!! After the show I called Beccy and she was on her way, so we did Wild Artic to cover her travel time and then headed out to the front gate and thus ended my time with Christopher.