Fort Wilderness Campground, Disneyworld!
It sure felt good to wake up in a campground this morning. Nothing beats having breakfast in the great outdoors (racoons, snakes and gators included-you can keep the noseums). Jonathan Dickinson State Park has a fascinating history. It's 10,500 acres are named for a Quaker merchant whose vessel shipwrecked nearby in 1696. His book, "God's Protecting Providence" (no we didn't buy it) records the story of his party's capture by the Jobe Indians.
After breakfast we decided to take a bike ride to further explore the park. During World War II the land the park now occupies was home to Camp Murphy, a top-secret radar training school with over 6,600 men. The land became a state park in 1950. Our bike ride turned out to be close to 13 miles! We rode along the Loxahatchee River and through the pine and palmetto trees on biking paths. When we left it was 76 deg. when we got back to camp it was 89 deg.
This park also housed the infamous Trapper Nelson aka "The Wildman of the Loxahatchee". This guy was a real character. Starting in the 1930's he began living off the land, trapping and selling furs. He later opened up a Jungle Garden and Wildlife Zoo. They call him the real life Tarzan who was a trapper, hunter, alligator wrestler, gambler, celebrity host, snake charmer & woman charmer. He died mysteriously with a shotgun wound to his belly. We did buy the book about him. Who could resist a picture of him, naked from the waist up, with a woman in high heels and palmetto leaves covering up her almost naked body!
We finally arrived at Fort Wilderness in Disneyworld at about 3 this afternoon! Wahooo!!
Camping at Disneyworld is an experience in itself. As you can imagine everything is pristine and over the top. They discourage driving cars in the Fort Wilderness Park so it seems that almost everyone has rented an electric golf cart. All ages are driving them too. There are special bike paths to take you everywhere, but for the most part people are favoring the carts, which works well for us.
Upon check-in we got our personalized wristbands, with "Debster" and "Ned" embossed on them. They are our key to everything, boat rides, entry into the Magic Kingdom, reserving times for certain rides, restaurant reservations and even using the laundry room and comfort stations.
We synced things up and then decided to check the place out on our bikes. We rode just in the Fort Wilderness part of the resort and put another 10 or so miles on our bike.
FYI - there's a bottle of Pinot Grigio in that bag bought from the Trading Post:)
We decided to ride our bikes over to the Fort Wilderness Lodge. It's amazing! It's modeled after the great lodge of Yellowstone, complete with gigantic totem poles.
I thought it was a bit much to have a fire going in the big fireplace, afterall it was 99 degress when we got to the park this afternoon! (Polly I took a lot of pictures of the lodge and grounds for you. I'm looking forward to sharing them with you).
There's also an extensive water feature that starts in the lobby, bubbling out of the ground, which then becomes a roaring waterfall outside and ends up as a pool area for the guests. Ned sitting at the "headwaters" complete with fake fog.
We had a picnic dinner on the beach then decided to take in the campers Sing-along with Chip and Dale. It was great fun singing to all the old songs..."On Top of Ol' Smokey", "Oh Suzanna", "She'll be Coming Around the Mountain", "Hokey-Pokey"...
They also had several blazing campfires going for the kids to roast marshmallows. We cracked up watching everyone burn their marshmallows to a crisp. Also, I had no idea the things people put on their s'mores. Peanut butter cups...really?
I even got a chance to have my picture taken with Dale!
After the sing-a-long there were Disney cartoons and Cinderella playing on the big outside movie theatre.
We didn't stay for the movie, but instead went back down to the beach to share some ice cream and watch the fire works.
And this was just our first half day here! I'm planning on waking Ned up at 6 am tomorrow so we can catch the first ferry over to the Magic Kingdom. Ned can hardly wait.
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