That one time we tried to go to Disney World but a pandemic started {Part 1}
We were probably a little nuts to travel by minivan across the country with our 4 and 5 year old sons…but crazy never stopped us before! I’ve never been a fan of airplanes and really mostly airports. The whole ordeal just stresses me out. Not only that, but I remember several vacations as a child and we always road-tripped. The drive to me was as much fun as the destination! At least pretty close. So I was excited to bring that experience into my kids lives as we hit the road in our sardine-packed van for Disney World on Wednesday, March 11, 2020.
After MUCH internal debate, I cleared my iPhone’s photo gallery and left my DSLR camera home. I wanted to be truly present during the trip and not bogged down with a heavy, expensive camera that I know I would’ve been nervous about the whole time. So using just my ol’ iPhone I captured some great memories of our road-trip and those are what you’ll be seeing in this post. Not picture-perfect or high quality, but important family memories all the same!
Not only was I excited to share our trip, but I planned to journal each night about our adventure. I even had my blog all set up into sections (Getting There, Being There and Going Home). But on March 12, 2020 while sitting in a hotel in Alabama, watching Pilot Pete’s ridiculous Bachelor finale on my laptop, everything changed.
Day 1
The first day’s goal was to get a bit past Indianapolis, Indiana. We went this direction because my husband Andrew wanted to make a detour and check out Who North America, a store dedicated entirely to Doctor Who! He grew up watching the classic series and when the new one came out we were just starting to date. He showed it to me and we’ve watched it together ever since.
Somehow, some way, we actually left at the time we wanted to! I put the kids in their comfy clothes to sleep, so all they had to do in the morning was use the bathroom and brush their teeth. Our dogs were already safely at their home away from home with grandma and grandpa so no need to drop them off. I even showered the night before and most of our things were sitting, packed and ready, by the front door.
Even though we crammed nearly everything we owned into 4 different suitcases, a cooler and several backpacks (we’re NOT light packers) I still had that annoying feeling that we forgot something. Eventually it went away, but it always takes a good 100 miles before I feel settled down.
It didn’t take long to begin questioning our decision to drive…the kids immediately started arguing and asking how long it would be before we got to the first hotel. My 5 year old Bennett asked, “you said we have to stay in 4 hotels before we get there… can we just stay in 4 hotels in OUR town so we don’t have to drive so far?”
Thankfully we brought movies, many lent to us by my sister in law so we could all brush up on Disney characters on the way. They were a lifesaver for sure! See, unfortunately Bennett is like me and we get car sick if we look at anything close up… reading, coloring, tablets, ALL out of the question. We planned to attempt Dramomine but with the uncertainty of it working, decided to hold off of risking it until the “I spy” car games and movies stopped doing the trick.
When we stopped at the rest area in Farmer City, Illinois for lunch I noticed a lot of hand sanitizer sitting around that probably hadn’t always been there, and people were a bit more cautious about getting too close to one another. I had kind of an eery feeling but for the most part, the world carried on as normal. We weren’t home, we weren’t watching the news, we weren’t on social media, we were just a family of 4 driving across the country to the happiest place on earth!
After the much needed quick, cold and windy rest-stop picnic of PB&J, we were back on the road. I didn’t have a whole lot planned that first day. It was mostly in Indiana and it was still pretty cold out. Not a whole lot to stop and see along the way. But we were all very excited to finally pull up to Who North America in Camby, Indiana! Andrew especially was like a kid in a candy shop. Half of the store was filled to the brim with merchandise, while the other side was set up more like a museum. There was even a Dr Who pinball machine and Star Trek arcade game that the kids thoroughly enjoyed!
We decided it was time to start looking for a place to stay and found a hotel about 45 minutes from the Dr Who store. I booked it on the way and we checked in without any issues. My plan had been to eat somewhere local to the town we stayed in because I love trying new places that I can’t get at home. But all of us were so hungry, we went to whatever was closest to the hotel…so of course, it was a Cracker Barrel. After dinner we changed into our suits and all went swimming. It felt great to move and the water was so relaxing after a long drive. It was nice to have the pool to ourselves too, probably because it was a Wednesday night and I doubt many other kids were there at the time.
After swimming and baths, we settled into our beds. The kids got to play on their tablets while we turned on the TV. Everything on the news was about the Coronavirus. It’s so strange….this is an election year and all we’re seeing is Covid-19. Watching it I thought, wow, there are so many cases in the US now and all over the world. This is getting serious. I bet within the next month things will start closing down like they did in Italy. I checked Facebook, probably liked some funny Coronavirus memes, and we called it a night.
3 days to Disney…or so we thought.
