Epilogue

It’s now August, of course. Hey, it took me less than seven weeks to finish the trip report this time, unlike the four months it took for my last trip!

It’s always a bit of a mind-bender to write these reports in “real time,” but weeks after the fact, if you know what I mean. I have to put myself back into my mindset as it was at the time, even though there have been further developments since the trip. If you’re interested, here is a wrap-up of a few things:

Facebook was a new feature of this trip, both in posting my activities there and being able to keep track of others in the chorus. I didn’t realize how much my trip was being followed, though, until I got back and found that every Facebook status update I made was being faithfully copied into a thread on StupidGuestTricks.com for my Disney “family” to follow along there. I was both honored by the attention, and a little worried that they had so little happening in their own lives that they could spend so much time tracking mine!

My asthma really was worse than it ever had been. After our return, it ended up taking about ten days, two doctor visits, three different steroids (one in pill form, one inhaled, and one injected), one additional prescription med, and maximum inhaler use until it cleared up. They all worked, though; since then, my breathing has been back to normal.

My parents and aunt and uncle all made it home safely about a week after our return, having driven to some amazing natural wonders in Utah and Colorado. My parents just celebrated their actual 50th anniversary last Friday. (Yay Mom & Dad!)

Highlights on the trip for me were these: singing around the pool with my VM brothers, dining at Club 33 – what a treat! – and riding the Tower of Terror for the first time. And, of course, getting to spend time and share these experiences with my family was wonderful as always.

Lowlights – are pretty obvious: scoring higher than any chorus in history (to that point) and still only getting the silver medal, and the exhaustion/asthma attack that slowed me down so much in the second half of the trip. Oh, and I didn’t get to see Mickey, except once from a distance!

The Vocal Majority’s silver medal has taken a lot of getting used to by our chorus. We’re still happy for the Ambassadors of Harmony (you can see there amazing gold-medal performance here), but even seven weeks later it’s hard to get our brains wrapped around the concept of the Vocal Majority losing. That’s what happens, I guess, after a three-decade winning streak! (One wag recommending adopting as our slogan for the coming year: “VM Gold in 2010: Because Second Place Sucks!”)

Still, after taking off the remainder of July, the chorus is back rehearsing and more pumped than ever about the coming year. The attitude, the VM work ethic, continues to be, “Hey, we’re proud of what we’ve done. But that’s behind us – now let’s get better.” And that is exactly what we’re working to do. (And a good thing, too – we may have to score all 100’s to ensure a win!)

Oh, one more thing – the Disney / Vocal Majority connection that had me all excited about this trip in the first place? It’s happening again, although in reverse and on a slightly smaller scale:

We’re rehearsing now for our Fall show series, and our guest quartet will be: the Humdingers!!!

Okay, you’re not excited, I can tell. But that’s just because the “Humdingers” name is not as well known as the name they usually perform under. You see, their typical workplace is Main Street U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World. Disney owns the name of their barbershop quartet, so they use the Humdingers everywhere else that they perform.

Yep. The Dapper Dans are on the Vocal Majority fall shows! (Tickets are available here!)

The VM has a full calendar of shows over the next year, plus competition at the District level in Little Rock in October and at the International convention next July – this time in Philadelphia. And so the countdown to VM’s twelfth gold has begun again!

I sincerely hope you enjoyed this trip report – thanks for reading! Just remember, if you had half as much fun reading it as I did writing it, then, well, I had twice as much fun as you. Sorry.

See you next summer in Philly!

Home again

We’re onboard for our final flight, from Denver back to DFW.

I really enjoyed the 757 and its dedicated flight deck radio channel on the audio system. This is a different plane, though, with fewer channels, and the pilot radio shares a channel number with kids’ music. On our way to California, kids' music was all it played, but... hey, here they have it switched to the pilots! Great – that will really help the time fly.

We’re pushed back from the gate and taking off shortly after 6:00. I’m curious what the reason for the delay was.

We turn south, following the Rocky Mountains. The sky is really pretty, with several layers of clouds in the darkening blue sky. This is set to be about a two-hour flight, and with adding an hour for the time change, the sun will set before we’re on the ground.

I’m again enjoying hearing the chatter between the pilots and the controllers as I watch the mountains slip off into the distance. I try to interest Brandon in listening to the same thing, but he gives up after just a minute or so – he doesn’t understand the jargon.

The captain talks on the PA system to apologize for the delay, but not explain it. He and the copilot were supposed to be finished flying for the day, but were asked to stay on to take this one delayed flight. They themselves were not told why the flight was delayed or what happened to the crew that was supposed to fly it.

The sky grows darker and darker, and we begin our descent into Dallas / Fort Worth International. We approach from the north, so we pass Grapevine and the immense Gaylord Texas hotel – the Vocal Majority has performed there a couple of times since I’ve been in – and the newer Great Wolf Lodge. Becky’s friend Wendy and her kids are supposed to be staying there tonight. We wave to them as we fly past.

Once on the ground, we’re at the gate quickly and out to the luggage claim. There’s no long delay this time before our bags hit the carousel, so we gather our still gold-threaded luggage and step out into the cool night air.

Ugh! Did I say “cool night air”? Okay, that is something we enjoyed in California, but this night air is not cool. It’s probably in the low- to mid-90’s here. I guess it’s better than if it had still been daytime.

We pull our bags out to the “shared ride” area to contact the Super Shuttle representative, and... there isn’t one. Hmm. We are a couple of hours later than planned. I call Super Shuttle from my cell, and the lady on the phone is very nice and says she’ll contact the dispatcher to have a van sent.

While we wait, a CityCab worker tries to get us into one of his vehicles. Sorry, we’ve already paid for the Super Shuttle. Can’t blame the guy for trying, though.

The van arrives within ten minutes, and we load and go. We’re mostly quiet now. That this is the end of the trip is getting more and more real. With little traffic on the road late on a Wednesday evening, we’re at our house in no time. Becky’s parents get their car and go, and we’re home at last.

As my last official act of the vacation, I update my Facebook status one last time for the friends who have been following my adventures there: “Wombat and his silver medal are home. Unpacking can wait until tomorrow. Good night.”

Denver. And more Denver.

So we have almost two hours on the ground in Denver, and it’s lunchtime, more or less. What to eat?

The central area of the United terminal at Denver International has a mix of restaurants, but one catches our eyes: Wolfgang Puck Express.

There’s a bit of a backstory to this choice, involving some silliness from our 2005 Walt Disney World vacation. We were in Downtown Disney, again looking for a place to eat, calling out different eateries we noticed to see if anyone else would be interested. I was a short distance away and only heard about this second-hand, but Linda spotted the Wolfgang Puck Express and announced it by saying, “There’s Wolfgang Puck” – which of course our funny family intentionally misinterpreted as if the person, Chef Puck, was nearby. And then Bob, not having heard this, walked up and said, “There’s Wolfgang Puck!” which set everyone off even more.

Yes, it’s kind of a “you had to be there” thing, but it’s fondly remembered enough that it influences our decision on where to eat today, over four years later.

Brandon and Benjamin share a pizza, but I like the looks of the roast chicken after Bob and Linda order that. It’s good – a generous serving of slow-roasted chicken with some kind of (tasty) sauce and a side of herbed mashed potatoes. Yum.

We’re able to take our time over lunch, but of course the boys get restless before long and want to walk around, so we let them go explore as long as they don’t go too far. Brandon goes downstairs and, while there, looks at the information screens again. He then comes back and reports that our flight is now delayed until 5:55 p.m.

Wow – another hour here? Okay, I know we didn’t particularly enjoy our rushed transition from plane to plane on our way to California, but really, we didn’t need to have the time made up on our way back!

So, now we have an additional hour to wait. Can’t be helped, I guess.

We finish up our meal and start meandering down to our gate, hoping to get a few seats in the waiting area. As we approach, though, it looks like our gate area is packed with travelers – the chairs are full, and many people are sitting on the floor and even out in the walkways. I look around and spot a few empty seats on the other side of the terminal, though. We’re checked in for the flight, and we’ll be in view of our actual gate, so this should be an okay place to begin our wait. We can move across when the mob clears out.

It’s a nice wait. I can look at the planes out the windows, or even the mountains in the distance. Pike’s Peak to the south is just barely visible in the haze.

I pull out a Reader’s Digest, one of a handful of magazines and books I always bring on these trips and never end up having the time to read. The others alternate between sitting and reading or working puzzles, and walking around. After an hour or so, the boys are asking for dessert, so they and Becky go back to the central area for a raid on the Haagan-Daz store. They bring me back a scoop of something very chocolatey. Nice people – I think I’ll keep them around.

They’ve also found that our flight, while not being delayed further, has been moved to another gate. The good news is that it is the gate right next to where we are sitting. We’ll be able to stay here until boarding time. Yay!

The wait doesn’t seem nearly as long as I feared it might, and our plane soon arrives. Time to board for the last leg of our journey.