What made this event so much fun was not just the parks and the rides, but the fun we had along the way. Meeting lots of people from all walks of life and especially those who share the craziness. Who else would endure the heat and the dust and the crowds? None, I tell you, but those warriors who joined us on this tour.
Of course, nothing went absolutely perfect--there were plenty of last minute changes and alterations in the plan. One coaster, Superman: The Escape, didn't even open as planned and caused a huge scrubbing of schedules, but the big hope was that it would open sometime later in the summer so that we could jet out to catch it. No luck--it didn't open at all during the summer months, marking it something for our next edition of the tour.
On the pathway back, we were stopped by cops who suspected us of drug smuggling--funnily enough, a bad shortcut had taken us onto a major drug pipeline and we had a headlight out. We were just asking for it, but ended up chatting amiably about smog, the price of gas and how nice Disney is. We even arranged to have lunch with one of them.
We soon bailed out of Texas and got into the glorious state of Louisiana early in the morning. Bleary-eyed and strung-out, we limped through the bayous into New Orleans where suddenly, spirits got perky and walking through the French Quarter invigorated the senses. Our final stop before heading south would be lunch at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaraunt and club, where we had dynamite drinks and some really good Jambalaya.
With our eye on Orlando, we climbed into that black Chrysler LeBaron for the last time on this tour and made tracks down interstate 10, our bloodline through most of the country. Destination: Disney.