One very important thing for any traveler to remember is if you are going to rely on taxi cabs as a mode of transportation it is very important to make friends with the driver. This is the person who holds the fate of you and your family for the next several miles.
He needs to become your new best friend.
I had no Xanax and had no clue where Scruffy was.
We always make friends with the cab drivers, I never knew some people just get in the cabs and quietly travel to their destination. He seemed a bit nervous that we were chatting so much with him. Our driver was a very nice man with a heavy accent.
I realize I just described many, many cab drivers.
The heavy accented cab driver brought us to the gate of Epcot in a matter of a few minutes for the bargain price of $22. I handed him $30, and he told me I gave him too much money.
This was my first and only encounter in the state of Florida where anyone ever tried to give me money back.
He doesn't work for that bad company, you remember the bad company, right? (psss...star limo/taxi)
I explained to the very nice cab driver with the heavy accent that it was a tip. I paid for a lot of my vacation with tips and I am a very good tipper in return.
Apparently, tipping is a small town in china to some people.
We were laughing, singing, having a ball and gathered at the turnstiles for our usual routine of ticket exchange when I noticed Em.
Em was still ticked for being mistaken for a boy.
But Em was walking very bowlegged. Big smile on her face, swinging her arms, singing "Hakuna Matata" but keeping her feet as far apart as she could. I stopped her to see what the problem was.
"I have a rash." She calmly says.
This child obviously had no sense of pain. She had more than a rash, the skin between her thighs was completely raw. I was thinking that we should go back to the room and see what could be done about it, but Em wasn't leaving and I really needed HER there to solve the problem.
The little boy that loved Chuck & Dave was become a true Disney Commando. By the time she's her sisters age she could easily be Master Gunnery Sargent.
Commando Nikki has the great idea of getting her a stroller to ride around in so the "rash" doesn't get worse. (I never thought of going to first aid, not once.)
This was the day I had a whole new respect for people who must push a stroller or wheelchair around Disney. I earn my living from being a driver, you would think a stroller would be a piece of cake.
It's not.
I bloodied some people that day.
We went into the "golf ball" first where we were quickly educated about the 'stroller parking lot'. CM's don’t want you to try to stuff the stroller in the ride seat with you. They get 'funny' about it.
We began our journey through the history of communications and I sat back, prepared to enjoy a bit of a rest and some air conditioning.
But it was hot in there and getting hotter.
We get pretty close to the top of the ride, just before the seat turned around and the ride came to a complete stop.
We were getting sweaty.
We were told to remain in the seats that the ride would begin again soon. Dh & I were behind the girls who were having trouble maintaining the no skin-to-skin contact rules.
By the time we emerged from the golf ball we had stopped three times. We were all a sticky sweaty mess. This is also the point that I realized...
We all have sunburns. That is why it was so durned hot in there.
Sunburns to my crew are weapons.
We had forgotten about the stroller, because the 'stroller parking lot' isn't anywhere near the exit. Em had to walk a few bowlegged feet before we remembered.
Tough kid.
Dh ran back to collect the stroller when Commando Nikki and Beatlebum had an altercation of some kind, Commando Nikki touched Beatlebum sunburned shoulder and said "Love ya, mean it."
See, a fun new weapon.
We wanted to go on test track to test the degree of sunburns we had, but the line was out
the door and they weren't giving fast passes.
Norway was looking pretty good. Not because of the beautiful people there, but because of the beautiful desserts they sell there.
Our crew thought eating around the world sounded like a fun thing to do, so we stopped in Norway first for our beautiful desserts.
On the way, I took out three innocent bystanders with the stroller.
It has been years since I personally pushed a stroller. I have become accustomed to things with motors and brakes. Whenever I had to stop short because the one-zillionth person walked in front of me, I nearly went over the top of it.
There were a lot of "Love ya, mean its"
We arrived at the beautiful dessert store in Norway and I thought the stroller would fit seeing where there was no stroller parking lot near by.
It didn't. I got the stroller and Em stuck sideways in the isle.
Commando Nikki was acting very strange, hiding behind her hand, looking everywhere except where Em & I were trapped. I asked her several times to help me out, but she wouldn't acknowledge me at all.
What’s wrong with you?
Em bailed on me. She took off in a bowlegged run to the display case. I was on my own, still trapped.
Dh came to my rescue, un-wedged me and the stroller from the isle where several people had started to 'bunch up'. He took the stroller away from me, the wisest thing he had done to date.
Commando Nikki was still acting very strange. She had ordered a beautiful strawberry tart thing and another lady came along and took it from her. Just walked in the shop and took it right out of her hand.
Normally Commando Nikki isn't one to back down from someone, especially someone who took away her beautiful strawberry tart thing. But she just giggled and looked at the floor.
Normally I would have spoken up to this lady, however, she had two really wild kids in tow and I felt sorry for her. She had enough to deal with.
I paid for all our beautiful desserts and told them we needed them to go. Everyone except Commando Nikki had a lid. I told her to go back in and ask for a lid.
"No." she said
"Why?" I asked
"Can't" she said
"Why?" I asked again. We can do this all night, love
She looked at her feet. Her sister, Beatlebum cleared it up for us. "Because of the cute boy in there."
The beautiful Norway boy has now replaced the hot guys in kilts with electric guitars over in
Canada.
The World Showcase is for teens after all.
We continued to Japan to the "Yucky-tori" house. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but the only thing we could eat was the rice. I got Dh saki.
He has never had saki before.
He didn't like it, or so he said. I never saw him take a drink of it, he seems pretty concerned because it was a hot drink and all he kept doing was smelling it. I took it way from him and I DONT KNOW WHY sat it in front of Beatlebum.
She didn't want it either.
We threw out the rest of our meal, because it was really yucky. "That’s why its called the Yucki-tori house" Em explained to me. I know she is still baffled by why we would deliberately go to a place that tells you right up front that its 'yucky.'
We settled down on the ground in front of America to watch Illuminations and eat our beautiful desserts. I was sad Brother was missing it. I was a mix of emotions, I wanted to get away from her but she took Brother with her. Dh knew how upset I was, and put his arm on my shoulder.
Right on my sunburn.
Love ya, mean it, Don't touch me.
As the fireworks started and the kids jumped up to watch, I happened to look at my cell phone for the time.
That is when I noticed I had a message.
It was Brother.
I wanted to cry a little, I missed him and was sorry he had to go back to Tennessee.
"Hello, Sister, it is Brother. We have decided to try to stick it out for another day and see how it goes. I thought I'd let you also know that...."
The battery went dead on my cell.