To Clarksburg, West Virginia- Friday, Feb. 13, 2026

     Julie knew she needed something to look forward to in order to get through what was probably going to be a tough year at school, so she started planning again for a trip to Disney World over our February break.  It has been a cold winter— colder than usual even, with Buffalo experiencing 19 straight days in a row with temperatures below freezing (not a record, but still more than we've seen in almost a decade).   Julie has been looking forward to feeling the warmth of the sun and being outside.  In fact, the thing that she says that she has been looking forward to the most this time is just sitting outside and eating, especially a breakfast of Mickey waffles.

     We were reluctant to go back to Disney after last year’s trip.  It wasn’t exactly a disaster because we always have fun when we are on trips, but it certainly was a more subdued trip then we were originally expecting.  Abby’s fears and anxieties, combined with Julie’s bad knee and Emma’s need to get some schoolwork done while we were there, all meant that we took things a lot slower and in a more measured way than we otherwise would have.  But Julie’s knee surgery last year did wonders for her, Emma is finished at U.B., and Abby is a year older.  Even if Abby is still reluctant to go on some rides, we are confident that we can find lots of ways to have fun. 

     It’s Friday the 13^th, but we counted on our good luck and left today.  We  are driving because we thought Abby would have trouble flying.  We are taking our new Ford Explorer, which we got less than a month ago.  Scott has a planning period each day during 8^th period, so he took part of the day off and left school as soon as he was done with students at the end of 7^th period.  His first stop was to get Abby.  She was a little disappointed to miss time with her “STEM buddies” and the Valentine’s Day activities at the end of school.  At least she had her swag bag full of valentines and goodies from her classmates.  We swung by the house and got Emma, and then went to pick up Julie as she left her school.   

     We were on the road shortly after 2:30, headed to our first hotel in West Virginia.  We stopped in Pennsylvania at a Perkins for dinner.   It was a little underwhelming, but the highlight was when Abby and Julie won a tie-dye colored bear from the claw machine.  It took them $3 and six tries to do it.

      We made it to our West Virginia hotel well before 9:00, and after we dragged our bags in, we took Abby to the pool so she could enjoy it before it closed.