We took a road trip last week from our homes in Columbia and West Columbia, South Carolina, to Orlando, Florida, to celebrate granddaughter Ella’s sixth birthday on the first day of October, 2025. Parents Drew and Caroline with grandparents Nana and Naynay left on a Monday with granddaughters Ella and Molly two days before Ella’s birthday and returned on the Sunday five days afterwards which meant we were gone for seven days in case anyone is counting. We stayed on the premises of Walt Disney World for a fabulous, fun time arranged by Ella’s mother Caroline with the help of a woman she met in her business networking group.
The 450-mile drive down the I-95 corridor should take 6 hours and 30 minutes (unless you stop several times along the way including an hour visit to one of the countless Buc-ees in Georgia where Ripley’s Believe It or Not should know it’s possible to spend $8. per minute.)
and I have the receipt to prove it
Ella the Birthday Girl looks happy to climb a light pole
in Buc-ees parking lot
are we there yet? not yet
Day One: Typhoon Lagoon at the Orlando water park
Ella leaps from a canoe while Molly a bit more cautious
Both Ella and her younger sister Molly (three years old, will be four in January) are water lovers – what could be easier to start the magic of a Disney vacation and work out the kinks from ten hours in the car on Monday than a Tuesday at a pretend beach with a pretend ocean to begin to get a sense of the fun we would experience every day for a week? What could possibly go wrong?
Sigh. These days, if there is a way for me to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, I am apt to do it. Day One took a frightening turn for me when I wandered around the entire circumference of the Typhoon Lagoon with little Molly in tow while I looked for our family in their beach chairs. The more we walked, the more every part of the lagoon looked the same. I realized we were lost.
Suddenly Molly broke free from my grasp and ran toward one of the large water slides. I had a sickening feeling as she climbed the steps with the much older children, smiling at me when I yelled for her to get down. A teenage girl who was the life guard sat at a little table at the top of the stairs but seemed oblivious to my calls and gestures for her to stop Molly before she reached the big slide.
Then she vanished. By that time I was also moving as quick as I could through the water to climb the stairs. I can’t see my little girl, I screamed at the lifeguard. I think she just went down your slide, and no adult was there to catch her!
What color suit was she wearing? Pink, I answered.
I think I see a little girl down on the beach in a pink suit. She looks like she’s crying. You can’t see her unless you go back down the stairs, she added.
I turned around, flew down the stairs (again “flew” is subjective for a 79 -year- old woman), and there stood a tearful Molly with a kind random couple who were trying to understand her tears. Molly’s look was relief mixed with what? I’ll never know for sure, but I do know she was happy to see me.
Minutes later the search party of Molly’s daddy and Nana reached us to rescue us from our wanderings. Frantic cell phone calls from Nana had identified our location. Once upon a time we were lost, but now we had been found. All was well at the Typhoon Lagoon.
Ella was happy to have her little sis safe in her arms
Travel tip: make sure Naynay remains where you last saw her. Trust me – she did.
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Mystery of the Missing Legacy Award Solved by Pretty and Drew
Teresa found the award in Drew’s truck when we were packing for our trip. He didn’t know we didn’t know he had it! It’s appropriate for us to place it in our den in front of Drew’s high school football picture, don’t you think? Whew. So thankful to have it home where it belongs – not nearly as grateful as I was to find Molly, though.
I'll Call It Like I See It 
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