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| 1: The Great Tanner Road Trip |
| "Amy and I are about to embark on an extensive road trip vacation. From September 6-22, we'll be traveling in a big circle around the eastern United States. It should be quite an adventure! It all starts bright and early at 5 a.m. tomorrow. Here we go!" |
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| 2: Welcome to Ohio! |
| "I write this at mile marker 25 on the Ohio Turnpike. It was an early start for us today as we got up at 4:15 a.m. We left a little later than planned (5:20 a.m. vs. 5:00 a.m.), but are making good time. That's pretty easy to do with Amy's lead foot!" |
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| 3:
Lunch on the Turnpike |
| "Interesting thing about tollroads vs. traditional Interstates... you won't find a whole lot in the way of picnic facilities (like you'd find at a Rest Area). Obviously, these toll folks want you to purchase from their food court vendors instead. We didn't." |
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| 4: Beautiful Pennsylvania |
| "We entered the state of Pennsylvania. We've been winding our way up and down hills and even through them. We've gotten our second wind and have decided to keep on going all the way to the Haymarket, VA area." |
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| 5: All this for a Chick-Fil-A? |
| "Those who follow Amy and I on road trips are quite aware of our long-standing "No Chain Rule" when we travel, but we also enact the "Fazoli's Exception". In this case, we went out of our way to track down a Chick-fil-A... bringing us to Fredrick, MD." |
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| 6: Spending the night in Manassas, VA |
| "Our goal was to make it as far as Pittsburgh, PA. We're happy to report that we exceeded that goal, making it here to Manassas, VA. Amy booked us a nice hotel on the road, where we not only have free WiFi, but also a fridge, microwave, and free breakfast." |
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| 7: Disney's America |
| "Haymarket, VA, was location of a planned Disney theme park called Disney's America. Announced in 1993 and canceled in 1994, it was to be a regional theme park with a historical theme in the greater Washington D.C. area." |
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| 8: Watching Gabrielle |
| "As Amy and I are here on the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula, next to the Atlantic Ocean-facing islands of Chincoteague and Assateague, we've been keeping an eye on Hurricane/Tropical Storm Gabrielle." |
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| 9: Assateague Lighthouse |
| "Today, we returned to our passion over visiting lighthouses as we climbed up the Assateague Lighthouse, situated inside the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on Assateague Island. This isn't the first time we've visited this lighthouse, however." |
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| 10: Look, it's the ocean! |
| "Eventually we ended up at the beach in the sun. As a bookend to a photo I shot in January 2005 where Amy was sticking her hands in the Pacific Ocean for the first time, I took a photo of her doing the same thing in the Atlantic." |
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| 11: What's a server move? |
| "Yes, I'm on vacation, but I also have had to work a little as well. Namely, poke my head in on a project that a few of us at Kidology have been working on for the past 3-4 months. In summary, we moved Kidology.org to a new server last night. What does that mean in English?" |
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| 12: To Crab Or Not To Crab |
| "Amy got to do what she always likes to around here, and that is go crabbing... and some fishing too... but mostly crabbing. We headed down to the crabbing piers and marina to try our hand. (By "we" I mean Amy and her Dad... I sat and read a book.)" |
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| 13: Bonus Boardwalk Day |
| "We had figured that it would be a wash due to the pending tropical storm. However, the storm never came. So we drove up to Ocean City, MD, a oceanside touristy area known for having a historic boardwalk." |
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| 14: Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel |
| "Take the 23-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Just long bridges over water, then every now and then it dips below the water into tunnels for certain sections. In fact, they had to build a few man-made islands to make this whole thing work." |
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| 15: North Carolina doesn't welcome us |
| "Well, we're now in North Carolina, though the state hasn't welcomed us so far. As soon as we crossed over from Virginia into North Carolina, we hit road construction. In fact, the construction prompted the closure of the North Carolina Welcome Center." |
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| 16: Long time, no see! |
| "We met up with my college friend, Jason Fletcher. He and his wife Amy were kind enough to meet us for lunch outside of Raleigh, NC, near where they live. I haven't seen Jason since 1998, when I visited back at my alma mater for a homecoming event." |
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| 17: We made it to South Carolina... er, Georgia... er, Florida! |
| "Let's just say that it was not the kind of place we really wanted to stay... The first indicator of that was the guy in the parking lot who was grilling his dinner in the back of his pickup truck over a charcoal grill, constantly adding streams of lighter fluid to flame it up." |
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| 18: Vamos a la playa! |
| "Having spent the night in Jacksonville, FL, Amy and I headed to the beach... two beaches, actually. From 1981-1986, Amy lived in Neptune Beach, FL, right on the edge of town, facing the Atlantic Ocean side of things. We checked out some of her memories." |
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| 19: We're at Walt Disney World |
| "I'm happy to report that we're now at Walt Disney World, camping at Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. We've got our vintage pop-up camper on the site, along with two tents. Oh, I should also mentioned, it rained quite a bit this evening. That Tanner curse continues!" |
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| 20: Hot and Wet |
| "The weather is quite odd here at WDW. Not what we expected at all based on historical research. The sun has been shining during the day. Too much, in fact. Temperatures are insanely hot. Tomorrow's expected heat index? 100 degrees!" |
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| 21: A Beautiful Sight |
| "It's Spaceship Earth, minus the "Epcot Wand". And wow, what a beautiful sight it is! The wand was originally added for the Millennium Celebration in 2000... and remained. Thankfully, sponsorship influence got it axed in August 2008." |
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| 22: Green Team: Because Death Stinks |
| "We've talked previously about the Mission: SPACE attraction at Epcot that opened in June 2003. Disney spent millions on this space simulator ride and it's had a storied history since it opened. During our last visit in January 2006, we didn't ride." |
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| 23: Whiz Quiz |
| "As seen above the urinals at Disney's Animal Kingdom: "Q: How much do elephants pee each day? How far can rhinos and tapirs pee?" Do you care to make a guess? Join in the fun on what Steve discovered in the bathroom!" |
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| 24: Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day! |
| "I know I'm a little late with this, but given that today is Talk Like A Pirate Day, figured I'd share this photo I shot last night in Adventureland... it's the 'Captain Jack Sparrow version' of Pirates of the Caribbean over at the Magic Kingdom!" |
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| 25: Leaving Walt Disney World |
| "We have left Walt Disney World. As we headed to the exit of the resort, we drove by a sign that said "See You Real Soon", which was obviously a callback to the 'Mickey Mouse Club'. Yes, we're sad. It's always so depressing when you have to leave WDW." |
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| 26: Happy Birthday Mom! |
| "Disney offers free buttons if you drop in at Guest Relations and have a birthday, so we went ahead and got Mom a "Happy Birthday" button. They put your name on the thing -- and apparently all Cast Members are encouraged to give you birthday greetings by name." |
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| 27: Phun with PhotoPass |
| "Back in January 2006, I explained Disney's PhotoPass system. While we didn't use it much on this trip, we did capture a few decent shots. The system continues to improve, as Disney is working to incorporate the on-ride photos into the system. (A great idea!)" |
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| 28: Can't Refuse the Refuse |
| "Unlike previous trips to WDW where I've gone a little overboard on showcasing the Trash Cans of Walt Disney World, I've tried to be a little more restrained this time around. But still, my final tribute to the rubbish containers of the Florida theme park empire!" |
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| 29: Febreze? I don't think so! |
| "We just pulled into Tifton, GA, for the night... roughly 180 miles south of Atlanta. I had to chuckle at the little sign found in our room when we walked in. I can tell you from personal experience that it doesn't smell like any Febreze scent I've ever used!" |
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| 30: Eating under Vs |
| "We just got done eating lunch at a Rest Area about 70 miles north of Atlanta. Of interest is the design of the picnic shelters with V-shaped roofs. Georgia has had these for as long as I can remember... we saw them all the time on previous drives down to Florida." |
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| 31: Good times and tunes in Nashville |
| "We arrived in Nashville around 4 p.m. yesterday. I must admit that it was great to sleep on a really soft hotel bed last night vs. inside a tent without air conditioning like we have for the past week! Why are we in Nashville? Well, because we love Nashville!" |
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| 32: Lose your feet at the next exit |
| "We just saw a sign for Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, home of the Superman: Tower of Power... yes, the amusement park attraction that chopped the feet off a girl not too long ago. And sure enough, looking over from the Interstate, there it was, sitting above the horizon." |
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| 33: Upside Down |
| "Amy snapped this photo out our back window as we drove on the shoulder. There was a car flipped upside down with no other car around. We didn't see what became of the driver, even though there were a ton of cops, fire trucks, and ambulances in the area." |
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| 34: Pancakes, Ribs, and Birds? |
| "We started out with a late brunch at a local breakfast place, the Pancake Pantry. We then hopped over to Nashville's Centennial Park, Cooter's Place, Grand Ole Opry Museum, Jack's Bar-B-Que (it was great to be back to our favorite BBQ place!), and Bluebird Cafe." |
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| 35: We're home! |
| "We arrived back at our condo in Chicago. Whew, what a long trip! It's hard to believe we were actually gone for 17 days. Amy set the trip computer before we left, and once we pulled our RAV4 into the garage, it tabulated that we had driven 3,156 miles! Wow!" |
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| 36: Orange Team: Because I'm not a wimp! |
| "It's been almost a month since Steve & I returned home. However, I couldn't let any more time go by before informing all of you that I braved the Orange Team on Mission: SPACE and I'm alive to tell about it! I joined Karen & Brian on our final half-day at WDW!" |
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