Wednesday, February 22, 2023- Heading Home

     Julie refused to say it on camera, but she has said a couple of times that we won't come back to Disney until Abby has outgrown the need for naps.  We'll see.  Although we slept pretty well last night, we agreed that we were not ready to tackle a theme park today and were glad to be headed home.  Scott walked out to the front of the resort to pick up a mobile order breakfast for all of us and brought it back to the room.  We enjoyed Mickey waffles, eggs, bacon and sausage and Abby had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We packed up the room and got ready to go.  

     We had several different alternatives to do this morning, but we settled on heading to Lakeland to go to the Lakeland Antique Mall.  We had seen on YouTube that there were some amazing Disney collectibles that go on sale there, including things from the park.  There are many vendors there, but the one that specializes in Disneyana from the parks is called "Recycling the Magic."  There are park vehicles there like one of the rocket ships from Tomorrowland's Astro Orbiter that can be yours for a mere $35,000.  There were a lot of smaller items too.  There were lots of Disney pins of all kinds, sippers and popcorn buckets, and all kinds of things. What caught our eye the most was the stuff from the pirate themed rooms from the Caribbean Beach Resort.  We loved the rooms when we stayed there with Julie's parents back over Christmas break 2021. However we heard since then that the rooms had been redone, and didn't have the pirate theme anymore.  Everything that they had taken out of the rooms seemed to be for sale here- the beds shaped like pirate ships, the dressers shaped like crates, the map tables, the shower curtains, and even the barrels that had the refrigerators.  The refrigerator barrels ran between $135 and $150 depending on their condition, and Scott was intrigued enough by them that we worked out how to repack the car in order to fit it in.   Ultimately, we didn't buy one because we didn't know where we would put it when we got it home.  [Below is a picture the same kind of refrigerator barrel in our 2021 room.]

      Traffic getting out of Florida after that was not much fun.  With the traffic jams and accidents, potty stops and everything, it seemed like we couldn't make any time.  It took us about 5 hours to get out of Florida.  We continued to drive until about around 9:00 at night and stopped for the night in Orangeburg, South Carolina.  Abby's been really good so far, considering she's been strapped in a car seat for so long.  She's got Emma's old iPad and that has kept her interest for most of the way.  We may have a hard time getting her back into a car after tomorrow, though.

 

     Post script: While we were sitting in the hotel room in SC, we had the Weather Channel on because a big ice storm is heading Buffalo and the Midwest tonight.  We were surprised when we saw a shot of West Seneca being shown as they were talking about the storm.  We were quite concerned for the family, especially Emma.  She had to drive herself to UB on Thursday to take a midterm.  In the end, she said the weather wasn't so bad for her.  Julie's parents lost power for a while, though.  

     We pressed on, on Thursday.  There's not much to say about the drive except that we had to keep stopping for potties.  Anna said that the roads weren't bad at all, and by that point they weren't.  The worst part was when we parked in the driveway at almost 1:00 am.  It was a thick sheet slick ice from the car to the garage door, and Scott was afraid that he might not make it.  The trees next door were creaking eerily as we came in.   We're home now.