Vacation 1984: The randomness
We did a lot less freelancing on our 1984 vacation than we did two years earlier. Less exploring, more structure. I'm not sure if we were on a tighter schedule or just planned it better. No matter, it was fun either way, but I'm having a more difficult time recollecting some of the little things. But I'll give it a try ...
-- My sisters had the entire back of the station wagon to themselves and had a lot of fun back there. They wrote a sign asking passing driver to honk, then held up another one saying "thank you" that always elicited a smile from the other car.
-- I played Astro Blaster at the hotel in Atlanta and Space Odyssey at the one in Orlando.
-- We went to what might have been an outlet mall one evening in Orlando. I bought a Steelers hat and found an old issue of Dragon on sale at a bookstore for $2.67. I even found a picture of it to add here. I also remember accidentally leaving a store and not looking and crossing right in front of a couple. I apologized, but they were still quite rude to me. Orlando away from the tourist spots isn't supposed to be that great a city -- or at least it wasn't back then and was a little crime-ridden. Maybe that explained the bad moods ...
-- After famously getting infuriated by someone trying to sell us a timeshare in our first vacation, my dad was much calmer when he told marketers on the Orlando strip to buzz off.
-- The hotel in Atlanta was hosting a prom, and I saw a live DeLoriean in the parking lot for maybe the only time in my life, driven by a teen in a way-too-white tux.
-- When we first arrived in Orlando, a gentlemen in the elevator commented about how he couldn't believe the weather, maybe because it was only in the high 50s. My mom said that we thought it was nice, because "we come from cold."
-- On the night we left, my dad asked the Indiana tollbooth worker if he ever got lonely working that late every night, when barely any cars were coming through. The worker was nice about it. I hope he eventually got a better shift.
-- Finally, I remember staying up to watch "Friday Night Videos" in Atlanta. It was a rerun (I watched this show a lot in eighth grade) and included "Radio Ga-Ga" by Queen. I hope I turned it off soon after; I'm sure everyone else was asleep and I just couldn't doze off. We would go to Six Flags the next day, then head home that Sunday, but that's for the last two posts in this series.
-- My sisters had the entire back of the station wagon to themselves and had a lot of fun back there. They wrote a sign asking passing driver to honk, then held up another one saying "thank you" that always elicited a smile from the other car.
-- I played Astro Blaster at the hotel in Atlanta and Space Odyssey at the one in Orlando.
-- We went to what might have been an outlet mall one evening in Orlando. I bought a Steelers hat and found an old issue of Dragon on sale at a bookstore for $2.67. I even found a picture of it to add here. I also remember accidentally leaving a store and not looking and crossing right in front of a couple. I apologized, but they were still quite rude to me. Orlando away from the tourist spots isn't supposed to be that great a city -- or at least it wasn't back then and was a little crime-ridden. Maybe that explained the bad moods ...
-- After famously getting infuriated by someone trying to sell us a timeshare in our first vacation, my dad was much calmer when he told marketers on the Orlando strip to buzz off.
-- The hotel in Atlanta was hosting a prom, and I saw a live DeLoriean in the parking lot for maybe the only time in my life, driven by a teen in a way-too-white tux.
-- When we first arrived in Orlando, a gentlemen in the elevator commented about how he couldn't believe the weather, maybe because it was only in the high 50s. My mom said that we thought it was nice, because "we come from cold."
-- On the night we left, my dad asked the Indiana tollbooth worker if he ever got lonely working that late every night, when barely any cars were coming through. The worker was nice about it. I hope he eventually got a better shift.
-- Finally, I remember staying up to watch "Friday Night Videos" in Atlanta. It was a rerun (I watched this show a lot in eighth grade) and included "Radio Ga-Ga" by Queen. I hope I turned it off soon after; I'm sure everyone else was asleep and I just couldn't doze off. We would go to Six Flags the next day, then head home that Sunday, but that's for the last two posts in this series.
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