Auburn Gal Always: The cab ride at WDW story

Monks in Merrells. (You can't see the Merrells, but they're there. Also not shown is Bev, who is "posing" so that I can take a picture of the monks in Merrells without being obvious. 'Cause I'm all about not being obvious.)

I promised you this one...

Thursday, our dinner reservations at Jiko at the Animal Kingdom Lodge were at 8pm. This was our regular meal time during the trip. If you think about it, we live in Central time zone, so it was only 7pm. And if you factor in that Daylight Savings Time began only a week before, it was realy 6pm! But if you think about how tired we were and how many miles we walked that week (65+) and that we had only had a late breakfast and a bag of chips or an ice cream cone, you'd still think we were crazy for scheduling dinner that late.

Well, you'd be right if you'd change it to "Keri was crazy for scheduling dinner that late."

So, we had this lovely dinner where we each ordered an appetizer and shared and tested and tasted. Except me, who was at the end of the table, surrounded by the kids and they ate all my delicious, exotic cheeses and interesting crackers. (Jiko would probably protest my using the word "crackers" here, but I can't think of a more accurate way to describe small pieces of crisply toasted slices of bread.) (CRACKERS, but yummy delicious, FLAVORFUL crackers!) Everyone accused me of hogging my delicious, exotic cheeses and delicious, FLAVORFUL crackers to myself. I told them that the kids were surprisingly aggressive when they're hungry.

Also, Lucky threw his styrofoam cup of Sprite on the floor, and it BROKE, leaking Sprite all over the place. I'm all "what do I do? what do I do?" and resolved the situation in a very practical, albeit rednecked, way: I put the cup in my glass, much like you'd see it in the sink at home, waiting to be washed. The waiter was very appreciative of my quick-thinking and superior problem-solving and took away the dirty-dishes-stacked-in-the-sink Tower O' Glasses from the table quick, fast and in a hurry.

By the way, did you know that a cracker can be spicy?

So, we finish our delicious meal. Berbere-braised pork shank, for me. (yummmm. Wishing I had just eaten that again instead of the 2 hot dogs with cheese and bbq sauce.) (No, I don't know what Berbere is. I think it means "fall off the bone tender and juicy and delicious".) Everyone else was pleased with what they ate. Except Lucky who was recovering from an ear infection and cutting his last baby tooth and not eating well at all still. I might know what the other adults had eaten had I not been at the end of the table surrounded by two aggressive and hungry kids.

Yes, Lucky had an ear infection while at WDW. He woke me up sometime before dawn on Wednesday with a very high fever. We spent the day at doctor's offices to learn that he had one ear infected and the other one jealous and trying to get infected too.

As we leave, we realize that our understanding of the WDW transportation system was lacking in how to get us from Animal Kingdom Lodge to Pop Century Reseort. The free buses don't go resort to resort. And there was nary a bus to be seen at this hour anyway to take us to some park and then to our resort. A cab was the obvious and quick answer.

There was one waiting for us. The typical Chevy, looks-a-little-like-a-police-car cab. Yellow and everything.

Not counting the cab-driver, there were 4 adults, an 8 year-old and a 2 year-old. We had no car seat. Our bellies were dangerously full. Someone probably had gas.

Cab-driver Man was willing to take us to our hotel, but The Mighty Hunter had to ride up front, being the biggest of all. We stashed our backpacks and miscellany in the surprisingly clean trunk. (I don't know why it surprised me that the trunk was clean. Maybe because mine is never clean. Also, I don't have a trunk.) I sat in the middle of the back with Sissy in my lap, seatbelt across both of us. Bev was on my left. Carl, on my right. Carl, for some strange reason, put Lucky on the seat between him and me and then tried to stretch the seatbelt across him that way. After a scolding and correction from the momma, the baby was correctly placed in his Carl-seat (get it? haha) and seatbelted in.

As we left the portico for the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Cab-driver Man turns his radio up just a little bit.

"Jesus take the wheel" is playing.

The irony of this playing on the radio for 5 adults and 2 children without out a carseat in a 5-seat cab does not escape me. The exhaustion of the week only added to my giggles.

When the song ended, I threw out a question to Cab-driver Man, "what would the fines be for how many people you have piled up in here right now?"

The Mighty Hunter shushed me, very emphatically.

More giggling followed, "What if I were one of those 'secret shoppers'? I'm not. But wouldn't that just stink?"

The poor guy got a $6 tip for his $14 fare.

The Mighty Hunter felt sorry for him.