Walt Disney World 2001: Three Days, Four Parks
Sunday, March 9th, 2008
Excitement was mounting as we departed the Gelm family reunion on the evening of Sunday, June 10, 2001 as we left Howey-in-the-Hills (pop. 956) behind and headed the fifty miles northeast to Kissimmee, Florida. Here we parked Mom’s van and ourselves at some little dive on the outskirts of the Disney property. In those days, all we cared about was air-conditioning, swimming pool, and a free shuttle to the theme parks. This place had two out of the three. One night after our return from the heat of one of the Disney parks, we were greeted with a room that had no air-conditioning. I had to make them give us another room. Read the rest of this entry »
The first vacation for our new family commenced on Friday, June 8, 2001. Carolyn, Ashleigh, Briana, and I borrowed my Mom’s white van and headed south for a week of humid merriment. Naturally we made our first pit stop in Forsyth, George – continental breakfast capital of the world, before rolling on to our final destination on Saturday, the microscopic town of Howey-in-the-Hills. The reason for our stay in this dusty little town was for the traditional annual Gelm family reunion at Carolyn’s Aunt Carole and Uncle Jim’s house. 
The Spring brought forth new life for our family. Carolyn, Ashleigh, and I were all comfortable gliding into our time together. Ashleigh’s 11th birthday came on Wednesday, March 21. Since this is smack dab in the middle of the week, I’m not sure if we celebrated early or late, but we allowed Ashleigh to have a gathering of her friends over for a slumber party. Like always, Carolyn went all out to make this a special party, decorating, and making two cakes. 
January 1, 2001 was the official start of the new millenium – and for me it was really the start of a new life. My marriage with Lisa came to a somewhat abrupt ending just a couple months before and I was now embarking on a new and serious relationship with Carolyn. With reckless abandon, we dove headlong into a new life together. In retrospect, of course, we probably moved a bit too fast. We were both so genuinely pleased to have a partner that we were so attracted to on numerous levels, that we overlooked most of our differences – both in our personalities and common interests. As time went on, we found we were polar opposites in so many things, it was almost outrageous: Republican vs. Democrat, Catholic vs. Protestant, health food vs. junk food, country vs. rock ‘n’ roll, teetotaller vs. imbiber, chick flick vs. anything else…you get the picture. But for now, all of this discovery lay ahead of us.