It's been a while and I could use a laugh right now...So I'm gonna tell 'ya a little story about a trip to remember...
Yes...It's a story about getting to Disney World. I'll begin with how the idea came about. I was a single mother with two small boys. Didn't have much money but my boys talked about Disney World all the time. I wanted t do something special for them.
My mother was a godsend and could also be a tyrant. She did a lot of things for my boys. She loved them but she also liked taking credit for everything. When she found out I wanted to plan a trip to Mickey Land she said "no problem...I'll pay for it and we'll have a good time". Nope. This Mama was going to pay for it and we were going by ourselves. My boys were gonna remember that their Mama made this happen. So the process began by coming up with ways to make some extra money to make it happen.
I sold party cosmetics. I sold Tupperware. I sold Christmas trees....on the side of the road and in my backyard. I remembered a man that I had once worked with in Pinehurst whose family had a Christmas tree farm. Took a while to locate him but he said sure...come on up in October and we'll pick you some out. Went up to the NC mountains and tagged my trees. There was no delivery so I had to come up with a way to get 'em back to Lillington on Thanksgiving weekend. A dear friend, Tommy Wood, had a business that used big trucks. He offered to help me get the trees home. And home they came. My backyard in the middle of Lillington was piled with trees wrapped up in jute roping. First on my agenda was to get the BIG trees sold to local banks and large businesses. Check. My trees were in about every business with 14 foot plus ceilings. Thank you, Lillington! Set about 20 up in my backyard and the boys helped me make signs for the front yard. Folks started comin' by and pickin' out trees. Thank you, Lillington! Wow..I had a bunch of trees! So after work and the next few weekends I loaded 'em up on a pick up..wrapped up the boys and dog in warm clothing and we set out to the busiest highway section in Harnett County. Stupid or smart, it worked. Don't know why the highway patrol didn't stop us but there we were. Me, kids, dog and Christmas trees. Set up in the median where people had wrecks almost every day. Whether people felt sorry for us or just loved our beautiful trees we sold a lot. Most of the rest were sold out of our backyard with flashlights and laughter in the evenings. A week before Christmas the rest were donated to some folks who couldn't afford our beautiful trees with some ornaments thrown in. Success! I now had enough money to plan our trip. My mother was not very excited as she didn't think I could pull it off and she wasn't going to get to go.
Disney...Here we come!
I spent weeks going through the internet on my old computer lookin' for the best deal for a great trip. The boys had never ridden a train so I wanted to go by Amtrak from Raleigh to Orlando. Piece of cake.
Our family business always closed for the week of July 4th. Who wants to go to Disney World in the middle of July? We did! With our dream vacation booked to a tee my faithful friend, Johnny Todd, agreed to take us to meet our train at the station in Raleigh. Needless to say the kids were overly excited and we were overly packed. On arrival at the train station I told Johnny to just unload us and head home. No need to come inside...it was 8:00 at night and he needed to get back home. We all waved bye bye as he drove off into the night. We couldn't wait to get into the station and onto the train. When I got to the ticket counter I was informed the train was gonna be a "little" late as it had experienced some problems further up north. No problem. We'd still get there by tomorrow morning.
Not. The announcements kept piling up delaying MORE time for it's arrival. Rumor had it that the train had lost it's electrical power cutting off lights and air but it was being fixed and the train would just be late. When it pulled into the station about midnight there were people hanging out the windows, some were vomiting out the windows and ambulances were pulling up to pick up passengers who needed to go to the hospital. The stench comin' from those windows was unbearable. The boys were lookin' at me and i was lookin' at them. We were trying not to get sick lookin' at all the other people who were sick. When the stationmaster announced that we could choose to wait for them to clean the train up or get our money back we got in line for a refund. Why did we let Johnny go? There were no cell phones back then. The boys were cryin' and i was cryin'. We could go home and cancel....or figure somethin' out. How could I disappoint them?
Stood in line to use the pay phone and called a taxi. We were gonna head to the airport. Leavin' the stanky train behind and gonna fly off into the wild blue yonder. Now the boys were excited about their first airplane ride. Yeah!
The taxi picked us up and dropped us off at RDU airport. Tired Mom and two tired young'uns. And lots of luggage. What? The airport doors were locked! When I finally found someone who knew anything we were told there were no more flights out and the airport was closed down until in the morning. What to do? What to do? The gentleman told us there was a hotel at the airport and pointed the way. They didn't have rolling suitcases back then, either! Somehow we got to the hotel, with our luggage. I got the boys to bed and got on the phone to the airlines for tickets to Orlando...as soon as we could get on a plane. As the boys were snoring and whimpering in their sleep beside me I was told we could get tickets for the next morning for about $600. $600! Who had that kind of money? Our trip was carefully planned out down to the last cent. As I sat there on the bed, crying of course...I became hell bent and determined that we would get to Disney. I could NOT tell my boys I had failed.
I was NOT going to call my mother. I was NOT going to call Johnny to come and get us. We WERE going to Disney World! I didn't sleep at all, looking over at my boys and trying to figure out what we were going to do. About 5:00 in the morning I thought about a Greyhound Bus. I called and they had a bus leaving Raleigh at around 7 that morning. Woohoo! We were gonna ride a BUS! Woke the boys...got 'em cleaned up. We had only been able to get snacks out of the hotel vending machines and they had sugar all over their mouths. Called another taxi and headed to the bus station.
Now the boys were excited about a bus trip. Not Mom, especially when they told me it would take about 16 hours. I didn't realize a bus had so many stops! We loaded up. Seemed like everybody on the bus had brought food and drink...we had nothing. We were starving...and we were thirsty...and we were ill. About 2 hours in the damn bus drove towards Lillington...and turned at the intersection where we had sold Christmas trees to pay for this trip. As I looked down at my boys sleeping beside me I looked out the window of the bus and cried...again. Oh, how I wanted to ask the bus driver to stop and let us off. But I couldn't do it. Mom had to come through with her wonderful Disney trip of horrors. We should be pulling into Orlando about now on a FUN train with our tummies full from the Club Car. We were in Lillington...on a BUS. It was July 4th and we were supposed to be at Disney World...all settled in and ready for a fun day with Mickey & Minnie...ending with Disney's fabulous 4th of July celebration and fireworks. Instead we were huddled on a bus with all kinds of unsavory looking folks all around us. What have I done?
I guess the bus driver noticed that I kept crying all morning and saw me attempting to keep my two small boys occupied and settled down. They were WAY impatient, tired, hungry and occasionally crying themselves. At the next stop when he allowed folks to step off to get something quick to eat he held me and the boys on the bus. I knew he was going to give me a tongue lashing but instead he told me he would bring us back something and for us to settle down in the seats directly behind his driver's seat. For the rest of the trip he sang songs and pointed out landmarks and kept them interested in the scenery through the big front window. I should have asked him to marry me. He was wonderful.
Around 9:00 PM the bus was driving into Florida. Josh and Zack were going on and on about missing the fireworks and not being at Disney World. Up ahead we could see some fireworks being shot off and the bus slowed down. The driver pulled into a gas station and stopped the bus. He announced that we were not going to be picking up anyone but were going to enjoy the fireworks in view. I looked down and both boys had big wide eyes and open mouths, staring at the fireworks that were filling the sky. It wasn't Disney World...but it was awesome...and so was the driver.
You folks might want to take a potty break and come back later for the rest of this story..it's gonna be a long one! But if I don't tell it now it will be lost forever as old age takes over my brain.
By this time I had not called my family...I had not called Johnny Todd...I had not called anyone. They all must have been thinking we were having the time of our lives and everything was A-OK. Little did they know that I was going through the most traumatic experience of my life...all for the sake of two little boys who thought their mother could do anything. I could NOT fail.
Fast forward to we're off the bus...we've taken ANOTHER taxi to Disney World and we enter the doors of the Polynesian Resort. The monorail runs right through it and there were tropical trees with beautiful birds (some screaming hellos) and the smell was wonderful. I didn't mention earlier how bad the bus smelled. Thank me. This Mom couldn't wait to get to our room and get us all three into our PJs and hit the bed. Boys tucked in and Mom passes out. I had not slept for days!
There was a knock on the door and a voice was calling my name kinda urgent. I sat up and realized my boys were NOT in the room! Did I mention the monorail goes through the Polynesian Resort and you can get off and on? It seems Josh and Zack had awakened before me and took off exploring. They would put me in jail for letting this happen nowadays. I'm told that my boys have been riding the monorail non stop for about an hour driving all the passengers crazy as they're jumping up and down in the seats and screaming in delight at all they are seeing. In my PJs I go with the room clerk who woke me up and we wait for the monorail to arrive. Welcome to Disney. They didn't care what their punishment was...it was evident that it was worth it. They were ECSTATIC.
What was left of our week went by much too quickly and we had a ball. The nightmare transportation fiasco was forgotten and we did Disney proud. My mousekateers had made it and they were doing and seeing things they had never imagined. Mom DID succeed!
Too many stories and photos of everything that made this trip a memory to last a lifetime. Maybe later.
This blog is dedicated to Johnny Todd whose birthday is today. He and I have laughed and laughed at this story for years. He's the one who originally gave it the name "Planes, Trains & Automobiles...And A Bus". Some of the stories from this trip can't be told to protect the names of the innocent.
Memories abound...but sittin' here now we might as well dance.
Put the music on, Miss Baybay! Let's do it!
Thanks for droppin' in. While you're here, won't you leave a comment?
