The Continuing Adventures of Jud

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I spent the night in my van, slept pretty good, and then hit Target for a new DVD player for my mother that would play jpegs, then headed over to UNI IOA. First stop was to check Lost & Found for my hat: no hat- never recovered. I then called Tony West, the former Disney animator I had met a few months before, and got his answering machine. I left a message that I would try again later, and did Marvel Super Hero Island, everything except HULK which is starting to bother my neck, then over to Bluto’s Bilge Rat white water raft ride for a good soaking down! I did 5 runs, then sat and watched the scenery, shot some pictures, found Plymouth Rock, then headed over to Seuss Landing.

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They have completely repainted Seuss Landing in new vibrant colors, and it looks really good! I again called Tony and much to my surprise, (I have talked to his machine many times!) he answered! His office is on the other side of Circus McGirkus so he just came on over. We talked a bit, until I interrupted him to get a shot of the Trolley running through Circus McGirkus. He asked in surprise, “What is that?”. Though he is right there, he very seldom gets the chance to do the parks and had no idea of this new ride. I asked him if he wanted to give it a shot, so we went over and rode each run. Then we agreed to meet for dinner later, deciding on Mythos, another thing he had never tried or heard anything about, and parted.
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I went to my van and napped, then back to Seuss, plugged in my depleted batteries and walked over to the Trolley for another go round- beautiful views! Coming off, I saw Tony waiting at McGirkus. We headed straight over to Mythos and after a few minutes were seated and we ate and talked and talked and talked... Dinner was good, but I paid little attention to it- talking to Tony was so fascinating! I mean this guy was there! Is still there! [see Dream On Silly Dreamer] We just yakked on endlessly. You know, you start to answer a question and mention something and off you go on a tangent and then another and another... I gave him one of the CD's I had burned for the list meet and it had my shots of the 75 Mickey’s on it and he was thrilled: he had wanted, but never gotten the chance to see them. We took our drinks out onto the veranda overlooking the lagoon and the other side of the park on this warm evening and continued talking.
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Then it was approaching 9 and I realized it was too late to make it over to the Universal side for the new 360 Show I had wanted to see, but I had so enjoyed our conversation that it was worth it. So, instead, we rode the trolley to see what it was like at night, and then parted: Tony had to make some calls to the West Coast concerning a new project. He also said he is going to send me a DVD of his “reel”, a portfolio of his animation work, which includes a couple of scenes cut from Lilo and Stitch!!! Wow!
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I did One Fish Two Fish, then checked out the newly discovered sub pulled up to the edge of the lagoon, stopped to do Cat in the Hat but there was breakdown and I didn’t wait for the test run to make sure it was okay to go again, instead cruising about a bit and got a nice shot of Marvel Island through the spars of Hulk. Headed out and came home.
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I had brought the print copy of my new book on the Passholder Preview of the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride with me to IOA and showed a couple of the crew at the ride and they were all excited: they have no pictures of themselves. I gave one my e-mail addy and told her I would send her the e-version. (Applies to anyone.) I had the girl who demonstrated the dance for me sign my copy. I had also showed the latest Adventures of Jud to Dawn, the whale trainer at SeaWorld featured in the shots on the preview show there, and had her sign it- she was thrilled, as was I: that show is outstanding!

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Spent the next two days writing this and preparing photos, so I hope you enjoyed this!