The Terrible Catsafterme

On Friday, April 20, 2012, I was able to complete the ultimate North American Disney parks experience by visiting Disneyland. Believe it or not, I actually had visited both Disneyland and Walt Disney World within the span of one week back in 1992. But this trip slightly altered the milestone, by occurring in the same calendar week and with a visit to all six of the parks. (Animal Kingdom and California Adventure were not in existence in 1992). In actuality, with this visit, I visited all six of the parks within three days. And there were four rides that I rode one day in Florida and then the next day in California. Finally, it represents the only time that my family was at one Disney park on the same day that I was at the other. Read the rest of this entry »

The week had finally arrived for the big family Walt Disney World trip, partially courtesy of my Mom and Grandpa Murphy, whose inheritance provided some funds to supplement our park tickets. I think you all know how I treasure my vacations, so I wasn’t all that thrilled to be wasting a Saturday when we could have begun our trip on that day. But truth be told, it was nice to have a full day to tie up some loose ends, and get packed and ready for the week-long adventure. I was able to get to sleep at a fairly decent hour, especially considering that at 3:30am on the morning of Sunday, April 15, 2012, my alarm would be going off and I would be getting ready for the awesome travels ahead. Read the rest of this entry »

It was my first Disney visit of the year, but it wouldn’t be my last. Nonetheless, like any of  my visits to any Disney theme park, it was a unique, fun, and awesome experience. It came on Sunday, February 12, 2012, following another very fun and exhausting day in the Los Angeles area. I had stayed at David’s house the night before and we were up bright and early and ready to begin our day at the butt crack of dawn. We left the house in Burbank around 7:45am and met Jimmy at Knott’s Berry Farm, where we would have breakfast at Mrs. Knotts Chicken Dinner Restaurant. I had the Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Hash to kickstart the day. In a bold and dramatic move, I spilled my entire glass of water across the table. Read the rest of this entry »

Make no mistake. It’s never exactly a cakewalk getting to and from Los Angeles. And thanks to the folks at American Airlines and their seeming inability to keep a flight schedule, the getting to and fro was downright miserable this time around. But even with all of that crap, it was still wonderful to get away from Ohio and visit time with an impressive number of good friends in the western portion of America. Read the rest of this entry »

For week, maybe even months, before we actually departed for the 8th International Convention of the Sons of the Desert, my friend Jon Petering kept telling me, “Buddy, I can’t wait to get on that plane.” Yes, for some odd reason one of my fellow Kroger baggers was going along with us to Las Vegas to attend the convention. It was a little odd, because he had no real interest in Laurel and Hardy, but the allure of Las Vegas and the untold pleasures he could find there was too much to resist. In the end, his favorite quote was “Buddy, there’s nothing to do here”, and he spent a lot of his time sitting in the room watching baseball. Read the rest of this entry »