A wet welcome to the World, Part 2

In Florida, it rains a lot. Most of the rain is sporadic. We rarely get days where the rain lasts all day. My husband's favorite saying when discussing the weather here is, "If you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes."

Today, that would not be the case. We walked outside the hotel to pile in my husband's heap (my minivan is out of order) and drive to WDW, and were greeted with threatening skies. I stopped dead in my tracks and thought for a minute. "Eh, it will pass." Wrong-O, but I didn't know. We head out. About 5 minutes into our journey, the first telltale drops of water hit the windsheild. I reach for the wiper knob, and it's missing. I vaguely remember my husband mentioning using a pair of pliers to turn the little stick, so I begin a frantic search for the pliers while hurtling down the road at 50 mph in the rain. Yeah, I know, not smart, but never fear... my mother-in-laws frantic screams to pull over alerted me to that fact rather quickly. I found the pliers and continued on in the rain, expecting it to stop at any minute.

The biggest clue as to what was in store for us should have been when we entered the Magic Kingdom parking lot. We drove past empty lot after empty lot until we were directed into a space within eyeshot of the ticket and transportation center. We were so close to the front that we laughed at the sign alerting us that trams don't run in that part of the parking lot. It never crossed my mind that this was a bad sign, that perhaps all the other potential Disney-goers that day had watched the weather report and knew that we were in for a flood.

We ran through a sprinkle to get to the monorail, slipped and slid through a sprinkle to get to the entrance. We were happy and laughing. I stopped for a stroller, and as I was buckling the girls into it, I heard this whooshing sound that is unmistakable to anyone who has ever been rained on. I turned slowly to see - wait for it - rain. Buckets of rain, so much rain that we couldn't see down Main Street USA. No biggie. My MIL was clapping and squealing again, so I pulled the last bit of optimism from the depths of myself and trudged on.

One hour later, we were huddled under a covered area in Tomorrowland, trying to decide if it was worth the race toward Space Mountain. This is what we saw:



Not cool. We spent $30 on ponchos, which I have never done - I am the queen of preparedness, and a firm believer in the dollar store poncho. We spent about two hours in the park, did exactly three things, and decided we were too wet to stay.

Fast forward to the ticket and transportation center, where we were to return to the car. We came out and stood looking at the parking lot. "Do you remember where we parked?"

"Ummm, no, don't you?"

Oh, no.

I vaguely remembered the "no tram" sign, so I knew it had to be close. The path around back to the parking lot looked soooo long, so we decided on a shortcut. There was only one row of hedges between us and the parking lot, and we were going to brave it. We raced across to the bushes and located a sparse spot. It was slightly downhill, and covered with wet leaves. We were all in flip-flops. This should be fun. I grab Abby's hand and lead the way, shoving branches back and mucking up the wet leaf carpet. Abby stopped every six inches to look at something. Leaves, bugs, sticks, BIG bugs. I stopped, screamed, "This is NOT a nature trail! MOVE IT!" and continued on. We broke through the hedge, excited to see the parking lot.... on the other side of a green fence that was beautifully hidden behind the bushes.

Seriously? Okie dokie, then. We followed the fence to an opening, which led to a path. That path was about 6 inches underwater, so we swam waaaaayyyy down to the end of it until we found an opening. There was a huge sign that said "Cast members only" at the opening. MIL was concerned that we'd get in trouble, as if tearing apart the hedges wasn't something that we maybe shouldn't have done.

In spite of our crimes, we had finally reached the parking area. Wooohoooo! Unfortunately, we were about three lots from where the car was, and it took us another 20 minutes to locate it. I was more than a little unhappy. The kids were unhappy. My mother-in-law was glowing. "That was FUN!"

I love her, but I suspect that the woman might possibly need medication for her delusional disorder.