Well, it's a fresh new morning here at the Fort. The sun is shining and the temperature is a crisp 66 degrees. There's that fresh scent of falling autumn foliage mixed with smouldering campfire embers from last night.
According to the notice posted at our Comfort Station, a burn ban is in effect. So we're not burning campfires, but that's not stopping many other folks in the 1900 loop!
Time for the Troll to update his trip report.
First, more fun with comments:
I'm 99% sure I just saw DNA test kits for dogs at Sam's Club for $50-ish.
Thanks! Didn't know they sold them at Walmart! That makes it so much easier. We definitely have to do it. The curiosity is killing us. Plus, so many people ask us, "What breed is she?" and I have to say, "All kinds!"
What kind of impact did the nekkid Fort have on your psyche? To me, it's kinda sad to see it all open and barren. It has somewhat lost its cozy feeling.
It was a pretty heavy blow for me. I'll be talking a lot about this in future installments, but for now, yes, I agree, the missing foliage takes a lot away from FW. For those folks who never saw FW with all the foliage in place, they don't know what they missed. It's a surprise to me, really, because the original Disney planners used the foliage in designing FW the same way the Imagineers used building facades in MK. With all the foliage gone, the illusion is ruined.
Makes the place look much, much smaller.
And somehow less grand.
My suggestion for the shaving is go to Big Lots or Wally World and get a fog proof mirror so you can shave in the shower.
Yes, Leslie bought me one on her Walmart run. It works fine. The only issue remaining is that I shower at night, so I have five o'clock shadow at 5AM.
OK, now on to the update!
So as I reported last night, Leslie headed out to Walmart to stock up on perishables and things I forgot, leaving Zoe and me to fend for ourselves in the wild wilderness. My plan was to do some exploring and photo investigative reporting.
But first I needed to get online. How else would I get these updates uploaded?
We definitely weren't going to pay Disney ripoff rates for WiFi.
Instead, at the suggestion of a Dis'er on this board, we got this:
It's the Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go USB device.
It's got its pros and cons.
On the pro side, it's much cheaper than paying for Disney WiFi. And once you get it installed and activated, it's very easy to get going. You just plug it in and click CONNECT and boom! You're on the Internet.
On the con side, it's certainly not anywhere close to high speed Internet. Faster than dialup, but much slower than high speed cable. But that's OK. The really big con is that it was a major pain to activate. I'm a computer guy at work (software developer), and it's a good thing -- otherwise, you wouldn't be reading this right now. The setup "wizard" was anything but intuitive.
But I got it figured out.
So Zoe and I hopped in the Kenny Cart to start our exploration:
I wanted to check out the Meadow Recreation area:
OK, before we go any further, a word of warning -- I love signs, lamps, and lanterns. You're going to see lots of them in this report.
Lots.
So we stopped first at the foot bridge that crosses over the canal from the road to the walkway leading to the rec area. I also like bridges, so I decided to get a few shots:
Look at that! Two for the price of one -- a lamp and a bridge in one shot!
And I like this shot:
I'm shooting with a nifty Nikon DSLR that I really love, but I've been fighting it over autoexposure. It has a tendency to overexpose in bright light. I guess I can claim I intended to overexpose the shot. Ha ha, yeah, that's it.
I'll have to play with the exposure settings to get it to reduce the exposure somehow.
From the bridge I saw this heron:
And then this little guy:
And here's a rather uninspired shot of the volleyball court:
Does anyone play volleyball anymore?
When we got over to the other side of the bridge, I noticed this post:
It's a bit nicked up. A spot of paint might be in order.
By the way, Zoe was with me the whole time. I didn't see a sign that said, "No pets." And if there was one, oh well. So I bent the rules a little. I am a troll, after all. Us trolls are allowed to bend the rules a bit.
Ha ha.
Joke.
No hate mail, please.
After the nicked up yellow post, I noticed this odd fence over by the cart path leading from the main road to the sing-along area:
It's very odd.
Totally unlike all other FW fences.
It's all alone.
And look closer:
There are two cross members...and they're not actually bolted in. They're loose. I could lift them:
What's that all about?
And next to the lonely, one-of-a-kind fence was an odd sign:
What makes this sign odd, you ask? It's just out there. It's not on a path, not by a road. It's just out there in the middle of the grass. You'd never see it unless you were wandering around like me, looking for details.
OK, so it's time to wrap up this post. But don't worry -- there's still
lots more Meadows rec area to come.
Lots.
But before I leave you, I left the best for last.
Can someone please give me the scoop on this:
It's the water tower by the pool slide.
I'm sure most of you know that.
But wife Leslie says she read that it's the water tower from River Country.
But it doesn't look like an RC fixture. It looks like a steam train water tower!
And that's what the lettering on it says.
So is this the famous water tower from the famous and ill-fated FW Railroad?
Was it once a functioning railroad water tower that was moved to RC and then moved to the swimming pool?
But look at it. It doesn't look like a FW original to me. It has a cartoonish bulbousness to it. It looks like something out of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" or a prop out of "Splash Mountain." That is, it looks too...modern. Modern trying to look old, but in a cartoonish way.
The original FW Railroad all looked...well...to scale, for lack of a better term.
Did you know that I road the FW RR? Pop took us all on it many times. I remember Pop just brimming with enthusiasm about the RR. I found it boring. I was a kid, of course, and I didn't understand Pop's enthusiasm.
"It's just a stupid, old, slow train that bangs you around on the tracks and takes very long to get anywhere," I thought.
Funny how as a kid you have zero appreciation for things that are so well designed and engineered. But then as an adult it dawns on you: "Holy crap! That thing was awesome! They built those steam engines from scratch?!"
Interesting tidbit about the water tower and the FWRR you may not know --
there was only one water tower on the entire circuit. The steam engines were small so they could easily navigate through the heavy brush of FW. But that meant they had a very small boiler, and if the train crew forgot to fill up with water at the one water tower, the train would overheat and stall in the middle of the circuit, leaving all the passengers stranded! This happened numerous times! The train would have to be towed back to the station.
And the crew would most assuredly get a thorough tongue-lashing.
Too bad the old railroad is gone.
Too bad lots of things are gone.
Still to come: Much more of the Meadows rec area and we go on our first looping expedition.
And any neighbors afraid of dogs will thank you too. 
the TR !
