October 30 - November 4, 1999: Orlando, Florida

Day 2: Epcot

6:30 am: Waking Up Early

I awoke this morning at 6:30, after only about six hours of sleep, and then realized that it was officially 5:30 because of Daylight Savings, so I had slept even less than I thought. Or would that be more than I thought? Or, since I hadn't reset my watch, maybe I actually hadn't slept at all! In any case, it was way too early and I had no business being up yet. Did I go back to sleep? I tried. I couldn't. So I got up, checked my e-mail (I had none yet, though thankfully I did get a couple from Anna before breakfast); watched some TV ("The Dick Van Dyke Show" on Nick at Nite); thought, "I should read for a while" but did not read; and finally went back to sleep around 7:00. I think I only slept for another half hour or so, but apparently it was enough.

At 7:30 when I got up for real, I took a shower and went to the EconoLodge lobby to get some of the promised free coffee and a donut. Apparently there was some sort of mix up in the office; I'm pretty sure that the woman at the front desk, perhaps in a fit of early morning carelessness, substituted the coffee grounds one would normally put in the coffee maker with weeks-old pencil shavings. I can think of no other explanation for the quality of the coffee I had there. But the donut...ah, the donut is another matter! I don't know that I've ever had a worse donut. Pencil shavings would have improved this sad excuse for a pastry. It gave me a new appreciation for the coffee.

I left Gainesville a little after 9:00 and headed for Orlando. On the way there I listened to one of the tapes from my collection of stories from The Mysterious Traveler, a 1940s radio mystery show that was created and written by Robert Arthur, who also created the Three Investigators mysteries a decade later, and who was one of my main literary influences growing up. This morning I heard an especially creepy story called "Behind the Locked Door;" it kept me riveted for most of the drive along the Florida Turnpike. And by the way, just a word of advice: if you're planning on taking the Florida Turnpike anytime soon, be sure to bring plenty of one dollar bills with you. It's a toll road, with as much emphasis on the "toll" as on the "road," I think.

11:30 am: Epcot, Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL

I arrived in Orlando by 11:00, and by 11:30 I was waiting in line to get aboard Spaceship Earth at Epcot, $177.02 poorer (yes, one hundred seventy-seven dollars and two cents), but darn happy to be there.

Aboard Spaceship Earth I saw an Animatronic Michelangelo paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (or was it an Animatronic Leonardo Da Vinci? I can never remember. I'm sure it wasn't Picasso, though. And how do you spell "Animatronic," anyway?) In the Living Seas I saw a giant sea turtle from about six inches away. In the French section of the World Showcase I ate a Napoleon that I'm surprised didn't kill me; it was huge and delicious and had absolutely no nutritional, social, or educational value whatsoever. It made me very happy and full. Sitting outside of the Morocco section of the World Showcase, I saw the most bizarre procession of stilt walkers I've ever seen; it was positively otherworldly.

5:30 pm: The Coronado Springs Hotel, Orlando, FL

I left Epcot at about 4:30 and checked into my hotel room at a little after 5:00, and at 7:30 I was sitting in the big conference room watching Eliot Massie get the TechLearn Conference going.

And once again I'm tired and it's late. I'm going to bed. Good night!

        <— Day One  | Day Three —>

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© 1999 Chris Burdett. All rights reserved.