Halloween 2010 at the Fort with the TCD Gang!

[FWRR3]

TCD, I'm really enjoying the great photos. I didn't get to look around much on Halloween, so it's great to see what I missed. But I did see some great costumes. Congrats to Rocky!

 

[YodaGirl]

Congrats, Rocky!

Enjoying the TR, TCD. Great pictures, as usual.

Oh, and now I want moon pies. Thanks.

 

[thegooftroopfla]

good job rocky. AWESOME so far

 

[tennants4]

wWe have been going for 11 yrs.now and will not miss it!We were also on the 800 loop

 

[daddyphat808]

Way to go Rocky!! Great report as always!

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Congratulations to Rocky. Good job.

I am thinking I need to enter my two dogs next year. They could go as Dumb and Dumber. And if you think I am being mean, you haven't met my dogs.

Sounds, great Dave. And, it also sounds like you won't need costumes, so even more reason to enter your pups!

TCD, the campsites on the backside of loop 800 IMO is the reason we fell in love with that loop. It has so much room and really gives you the feeling of camping in the woods. I guess as you know, you need to view these sites from the dog walk or experince them first hand to see how cool they are.

Agreed. I asked for the 800 loop on this trip. But, the Real Man of Genius and his cohorts beat me out!

I'm going back to the dirt in a partial site for my next visit.

I'll have a photo coming up toward the end of the report which will explain why.

what did the sign say below 'no trespassing'

The sign said: "No Trespassing." And, then below that it said: "Owners Only and or Their Guests." It looks like the sign was stolen from someplace. I think it was just a joke.

At least I hope it was.

GRRRRRREAT trip report!

I'm torn between the first Flintstone Cart and the Hearse Cart. Both were amazing!!

Kudo's to the Rockster!!! He is "Top Dog" at the Fort!

Yep.

Rocky is a Rock Star.

Just like FtWildernessGuy.

But it wasn't easy.

Please read below for the rest of the story.

I have to say I'm glad you were outnumbered on Rocky's costume. As much as Musket Mickey would have been cool, Rocky Balboa is hilarious. I love it!

Great Report so far. Can't wait for TOT photos.

TOT photos will be coming very soon.

And, there is a bit more to the Rocky costume story, which you can read in this post, below.

Just got home from the Fort, was there for my second Halloween as TCD said at the start this was the best so far. Sorry did not introduce myself to the others was to busy with 2 little ones and getting caught in the cart traffic jam in the 600 and 700 loop during the trick or treating festivities.

Traffic jam on the 700 loop you say?

I believe I have a photo or two of that!

You must have been by the TCD site!

I might even have photos of YOU!

The TOT photos will be coming up soon!

TCD, I'm really enjoying the great photos. I didn't get to look around much on Halloween, so it's great to see what I missed. But I did see some great costumes. Congrats to Rocky!

Well, next time you need to come for more than one night.

I wish that I had seen your display over on 800, but I didn't know you were there!

Congrats, Rocky!

Enjoying the TR, TCD. Great pictures, as usual.

Oh, and now I want moon pies. Thanks.

I want a moon pie too.

But, last week, I thought I never wanted to see a moon pie again for as long as I lived.

I'm glad that didn't last!

good job rocky. AWESOME so far

I thank you.

And, Rocky Thanks you.

What loop were you guys on?

I don't think I saw your brother's Blue Bird.

wWe have been going for 11 yrs.now and will not miss it!We were also on the 800 loop

11 years?

Really?

Halloween didn't used to be as big a deal, did it?

Way to go Rocky!! Great report as always!

Thanks.

And, now for the rest of the story about Rocky's victory.

Rocky hasn't always been the champ.

In fact, some thought he was washed up before he even had his chance to shine.

The week before Halloween, they had a new Fall event at our church. I believe it was called a Noah's Ark Celebration, and everyone was invited to bring their pets to be blessed, and for fun activities, including a costume contest.

We thought this would be good practice for Rocky.

So we went.

Here is a photo of how Rocky looks when he stands up in his costume:

Notice the muscles. And the "ROCKY" across the waistband.

Pretty awesome, huh?

Well, in a great injustice, Rocky came in 3rd place at the Noah's Ark Celebration.

See?:

He got beat by a little dog dressed as a unicorn, with a princess riding on his back.

And, another little dog dressed as a punk rocker.

Rocky didn't care.

But I did.

From that day we ran every morning.

And went down to the docks and punched big slabs of meat.

And drank raw eggs.

And did a lot of one-handed push-ups.

And then ran up the library steps and looked over our domain.

Rocky was determined to be the champ!

And, so when he entered the Fort Wilderness contest, the poor other dogs had no chance.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Next year, we are planning to go to a communist country and compete against their dog costume champion.

Or, maybe we will skip that and just come back to the Fort.

I'll get back to you on that.

TCD

Next up- We resume following the trip report already in progress.

pps-

One more Rocky costume anecdote.

My oldest DD emailed a photo of Rocky in his costume to one of her friends.

The friend thought it was awesome that Rocky was going to be The Situation for Halloween.

I guess some kids these days don't know about Rocky Balboa!

 

[Tri-circle-D]

It's time to move along.

Or else this report will never get done!

So, it is now Sunday afternoon, October 31.

We hang around the Fort.

And do some looking around.

On a soda run, we came across the #2 Flintstones cart:

This happened a lot over the weekend.

Most folks left their carts decorated.

So, it was fun to see them driving around.

Or parked.

On Sunday, we saw that signs had been posted at the campsites which had been declared winners in the site decorating contest. I'll have some photos of the winning campsites coming up.

Until then, here is a beautifully decorated site:

We decided to take a spin around some of the cabin loops to see if we could spot any cabin winners.

Here are a few of the decorated cabins:

This one is great:

We loved this cabin:

The guests staying in the cabin with the Snow White decorations were out when we drove by, so we chatted with them a bit. They said that as far as they knew, the winner of the cabin decorating contest had not been declared. They made all of these decorations themselves. I didn't see a cabin with better decorations, but we never did find out who won.

This cabin had decorations both in front and behind:

After a long bit of looping, we hung out at the site.

Rocky was dog tired:

There was a small pine tree behind my site that was in the way of where I wanted to tie up my hammock, so I spent a good part of the morning sawing it down. You can see the tree in the background of this photo:

OK, I didn't really saw down that tree.

But, someone did.

It looked like there had been a bit of clearing done back behind my site.

Which was awesome.

Because my site backed right up to old right-of-way for the Fort Wilderness Railroad.

It was cool camping here.

Earlier in October, this loop hosted a group with million dollar motor homes.

And, now here the TCD gang was with our almost 11 year old pop-up.

I bet none of the millionaires enjoyed hammock time with their dogs.

But I did!:

And so did the DD's:

A bit later in the afternoon, the TCD twins got our pumpkin carved.

And Rocky supervised:

If you look back behind the girls in this photo, you can almost see the road that leads to the Settlement Bus Stop. It was right there. Somehow, I enjoyed hearing the buses coming and going all day, and late into the night. It was neat being so close to the action.

The 700 loop decorations were great.

Here are a couple of shots of some of the sites near the beginning of the loop:

At about 5, we went ahead and got our site set up for the trick-or-treaters:

The official start time for trick-or-treating was 5:30, but we had our first visitors before that:

Here is Mrs. TCD manning her post:

It was about here that one of the DD's pointed out that we had missed some of the scheduled activities, but that we still had time to visit the pool for a terrifying tattoo. So, we made a tattoo run. They were giving out the tattoos right on the porch at the pool:

We scored a couple of free tattoos. But they weren't very terrifying. What can I say-- you get what you pay for.

You may have already heard from other reports that there was increased security at the Fort for Halloween. These reports are true. Each evening, there were castmembers posted around the Fort. If they saw folks breaking rules, which would mainly be those on golf carts, they stopped the violators.
Here is one of the castmembers at his post near the golf cart entrance to the Meadow Recreation Area:

He had a big box of candy with him. When we drove by, he told us to stop by later and trick-or-treat. We asked him what was wrong with now. He said nothing. So, he hooked us up with some candy.

Nice.

And, Rocky was on the cart.

I don't think dogs are supposed to be in the Meadow Recreation Area.

But, I guess it's OK if they're on a cart.

As we headed back to the 700 loop, I snapped a couple of photos of site 301. These campers won First Prize in the site decorating contest:

Here's another security castmember, at his post at the entrance to the path leading to the Settlement:

And, here we are heading back into the 700 loop. There's Hilda and Charlie there in site 734 all ready with their treats:

Next up . . .

The trick-or-treating begins!

And, a special TCD Real Man of Genius Award (I created a new category for this guy)!

TCD

 

[stefa70]

Congrats to Rocky! "ROCKY, ROCKY, ROCKY!" That chant is now stuck in my head. I believe Rocky was robbed at the church function and I would have demanded a recount of votes! He is beautiful and so patient for wearing that costume. My golden retriever would have ripped it off faster than we could have made it to the contest. To top it off, I think you should have dressed as Adrian.... "YO, ADRIAN!!" But I guess you were a.....Gator fan?!?! Great job on your TR, as usual!

 

[Born 2 Fish]

Uhh,,is it just me,,or is that the first time I've seen Mrs.TCD ??

 

[thegooftroopfla]

we were on the 500 loop. my brother didnt get to make it. he had a big test at work on monday and wanted to study before it. he firgured he would not study in disney. he is going up in december instead with the family.
maybe next time we will get to meet up. i am surprised i never bumped into you at the dog park we were over their with our lab quite a bit.

 

[indimom3]

Loving your report!

 

[Jarrshel]

Great report as always TCD !

 

[Lil' Lisa]

Uhh,,is it just me,,or is that the first time I've seen Mrs.TCD ??

I think you are right. I was starting to doubt her existence...

 

[BradyBz12]

In all the packing and dancing around the house whistling happy tunes... and counting the hours until we leave... I can't believe I almost missed a TCD trip report!

Great job so far - and congrats Rocky. A role he was truly born to play.

 

[stacktester]

Uhh,,is it just me,,or is that the first time I've seen Mrs.TCD ??

I heard she doesn't like to be told to turn the golf cart lights on after dark.

 

[Shan-man]

Uhh,,is it just me,,or is that the first time I've seen Mrs.TCD ??

She has made a couple of brief guest appearances in past reports. But, yeah, pretty rare!

For instance:

or

or how about a vintage Mrs. shot:

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Congrats to Rocky! "ROCKY, ROCKY, ROCKY!" That chant is now stuck in my head. I believe Rocky was robbed at the church function and I would have demanded a recount of votes! He is beautiful and so patient for wearing that costume. My golden retriever would have ripped it off faster than we could have made it to the contest. To top it off, I think you should have dressed as Adrian.... "YO, ADRIAN!!" But I guess you were a.....Gator fan?!?! Great job on your TR, as usual!

It was surprising that Rocky didn't seem to mind wearing his costume.

And, yes, I was dressed as a Gator fan. But, to be more authentic, I should have had on my jorts and crocks.

I thought that my not having a costume on had sunk Rocky's chances.

But, when one of the young ladies who was judging the contest congratulated us, she also said "Go Gators!"

Got to love the Gator Nation!

Uhh,,is it just me,,or is that the first time I've seen Mrs.TCD ??

It's just you.

She appears every now and then.

Mrs. TCD is a lot smarter than me.

She figured out a long time ago that it is a sweet deal when Mr. TCD takes all of the kids camping, and she can have the house to herself.

She ain't no dummy.

we were on the 500 loop. my brother didnt get to make it. he had a big test at work on monday and wanted to study before it. he firgured he would not study in disney. he is going up in december instead with the family.
maybe next time we will get to meet up. i am surprised i never bumped into you at the dog park we were over their with our lab quite a bit.

Yes, it is surprising we didn't meet up at the dog park.

I'll keep my eye out for the Bluebird if I'm at the Fort in December.

Loving your report!

Thanks! I think we have passed the half-way point as far as photos are concerned, but there are some good ones coming up!

Great report as always TCD !

Thanks!

I think you are right. I was starting to doubt her existence...

Trust me, Mrs. TCD exists.

Just ask Donnie.

In all the packing and dancing around the house whistling happy tunes... and counting the hours until we leave... I can't believe I almost missed a TCD trip report!

Great job so far - and congrats Rocky. A role he was truly born to play.

I understand.

It doesn't look like I'll have this one finished before you head south.

I hope you have a magical trip.

And, I look forward to your report and photos!

I heard she doesn't like to be told to turn the golf cart lights on after dark.

Ha Ha.

Donnie found out the hard way not to mess with Mrs. TCD.

She has made a couple of brief guest appearances in past reports. But, yeah, pretty rare!

Nice research there, Shan-man.

I especially loved the vintage photo.

You can see Mrs. TCD had the girls working on some kind of craft.

Now, let's move on!

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

In our last update, we were heading back to the 700 loop just before 5:30 pm.

This year, the Fort management made a pretty significant change with the Trick-or-Treating rules. For the past two years, trick-or-treating was scheduled to take place between 5:30 and 9:00 pm. But this year, they published 7:30 as the stop time. In the past, we did not have many trick-or-treaters before dark. This year, everyone got an early start.

I ended up liking that.

You could see every-one's costumes.

And, it sure felt a lot safer.

Anyway, here we are looking in from the exit of the 700 loop. You can see the TCD campsite there in the background. This shows you how close we were to the big guns, Hilda and Jeannie:

As soon as we got back to camp, we had a steady stream of trick-or-treaters. And folks came from both directions. here are some of our visitors- also look who is set up across the loop:

Yes, it's DaveInTN's girlfriend. Two-timing it with a demented clown.

Sorry, Dave.

Some more trick-or-treaters:

Note here that Snow White was also hanging out with a giant chicken:

The giant chicken and his girlfriend the samurai warrior were our next door neighbors on the loop. They were from Canada, and were friends with Snow White and the clown. They were at the Fort for a two week visit. They were fun to talk too, and were obviously having a blast.

I mentioned earlier that there was a second TCD Real Man of Genius Award on this trip.

Here it is. . .

Check out the custom cup rack on the back of this guy's bike:

This Real Man of Genius can carry six refillable mugs on the back of his bike!

And, if you look real hard, you can see that he has one of every type of mug sold at the Fort in the last twenty years.

So, Mr. Refillable Mug Bike Rack guy, I salute you!

And, congratulations on your Real Man of Genius (Beverage Division) Award!

Seriously, though. I want one of those refillable mug racks. If I'm biking it, I use one of those cardboard drink carriers shoved into my bike basket. It kind of works, but not very well.

Rocky loved seeing all of the trick-or-treaters, but in between he rested in the road:

These guys were a bit on the creepy side:

A golf cart crash occurred right in front of our site!

This two knew each other, but the guy in back deliberately rear-ended the man in front:

I wonder what is in the red cup?

Why does anyone think that they are hiding their alcoholic beverage by putting it in a red cup? I mean, doesn't everyone do that? So what's the point? Just drink your beer out of the can!

Or use a refillable mug.

This family brought their pup along for the Trick-or-treating.

The dog's name is Phoenix. We met him in the dog park.

I'm pretty sure that this was not a real police officer. He didn't say anything to the guy with the red cup. That's Phoenix there in the background:

Rocky thought this little girl was a real zebra. He was disappointed when he found out it was just a costume:

Here are some more customers, including a pirate on a bike:

The trick-or-treaters kept on coming:

We did have some breaks in the action:

But not for long:

Look, it's the Ninja Turtles!:

Some more canine trick-or-treaters:

We were ready for them, too.

We had a big bowl full of milk-bones to pass out to the pups. Sometimes a young kid would take one, too. I'll bet they were disappointed when they tried that treat.

Rocky took a liking to this Scooby Doo:

Scooby Doo was feeding Rocky milk-bones from the treat bowl.

Rocky liked that!

We're at our limit again.

But, there are a lot of more trick-or-treat photos to come!

TCD

 

[Total Joker]

 

[Tri-circle-D]

As promised, I have a bunch more trick-or-treat photos to share.

A bunch.

Here are yet more trick-or-treaters:

And, here's a dog in a pumpkin costume:

I'm not sure what was going on here. This guy appears to have just escaped from prison, but the guard looks a bit suspicious to me:

You know what I have some more photos of?

Trick-or-treaters:

OK, now I have something funny for you to look at.

See the big photo on the front of this golf cart?:

It's a photo of a man in a Snow White dress.

And, the man in the photo is in the passenger seat of the golf cart.

These folks were camped on the 1100 loop.

They had that photo on display at their site.

The story I was told was that the man wore the dress as a joke to his daughter's birthday party.

I don't know what to believe about this.

I think Snow White took our another restraining order, just in case.

So, DaveInTN, you are not the only one on Ms. W's list.

The trannie dad had a normal looking son who dressed as a wookie:

Here comes another group:

I liked these boys' costumes:

They said they were dressed as WDW managers.

Then some more trick-or-treaters came by:

Look at this group:

I was impressed.

I think this is supposed to be some kind of edgy Snow White, but I'm not sure:

Over at the real Snow White's site, a penguin showed up to keep the chicken company:

I told you these guys were fun!

More t-o-t-ers:

OK, you might be wondering, who won the TCD award for best costume?

The Star Wars folks?

Snow White #1?

Snow White #2?

Scooby Doo?

Who?

Well, here he is.

The winner of the 2010 TCD Best Fort Wilderness Halloween Costume Award . . .

What, you say?

I said so too.

I asked the kid who he was supposed to be.

He said Joe Dirt!

Joe Dirt!

LOL!

He gets honored with two more shots:

I say, good job, kid!

And, now, I give you more trick-or-treaters:

This last kid's costume was pretty cool. He was a robot. I think his costume was made out of a trash can. I will have another photo of him in my next post.

We have seen a lot of trick-or-treaters, haven't we?

Well guess what?

We are not finished!

There are a lot more to come.

It was at this point that we realized that we were going to run out of candy way before 7:30 pm.

Bummer.

I bought way more than I thought we would need.

Hoping that I would get the leftovers.

Well, there clearly weren't going to be any leftovers.

Because the trick-or-treaters just kept coming.

Coming up . . .

more of the same!

TCD