Saturday April 20th 2024

The forecast was correct. Today’s high temperature was north of the ninety degree mark. The sky was very blue allowing the maximum amount of sunshine. The wind was very light and the humidity was higher than yesterday. It really wasn’t an uncomfortable day. You just had to take summertime heat and sun precautions.

My day began a little earlier than expected. Around 7AM I woke up to a whooshing sound outside. It was repeated randomly several times a minute. I knew the sound, but couldn’t place it. When I finally got up and raised the shades I found two hot air balloons floating low over the campground. I heard they were common in the local area, but I have no idea where they launched or expected to land. The open areas around here are getting swallowed up by new construction every day.

Late this afternoon I went to Disney Springs. I forgot my own advice that Disney would be busy this weekend because of the Run Disney event. My plan was to have dinner and watch some of the Saturday evening entertainment. When I arrived just before 5PM, the Orange garage I usually park in was marked as full. The surface lot beside it was also full. When I checked the Lime garage it was also full. Traffic was getting directed to the Grapefruit garage that is usually for cast members. It is a big garage across the street from Disney Springs. There was plenty of room when I arrived, but seemed to be close to full when I left a few hours later. The walk in from the grapefruit garage is long. You need to cross two roads on pedestrian bridges before arriving at Disney Springs behind the big World of Disney store. I don’t think they were really prepared to use the grapefruit garage for the overflow today. All of the people that parked in the grapefruit garage were allowed into Disney Springs without passing through security scanners. The only security I passed was a sheriff with a dog. I assume the dog was a bomb sniffer.

At first, I didn’t think the crowd was very heavy, but as I walked around I found the people. They were gathered around the areas with performers and lined up to get into the restaurants. The rest were wandering in search of stuff, entertainment or food. I managed to find a seat at Cook’s of Dublin to enjoy my fish and chips dinner.

There were about four open performance areas and four more outside performers associated with specific restaurants. I checked them all out. The group on the main stage wasn’t my cup of tea. The drummer overwhelmed everyone else on stage including the female vocalist that was the headliner. As I wandered I came across a guy playing a harp that was much more interesting. In general, I had a fun evening. It would have been better if it wasn’t as busy.