Goin' Out To Cally – Part 40, Disney Land And The Rebel Alliance

It was about one hour into our day at Disney Land that the growing tension between the travel companions began to rear its ugly head with one small sentence…

“Can we go home now?”

The sentence was spoken by Sunday.

Sunday in Disney Land.

The question was innocuous in and of itself, but the impact was great. As mentioned before, Tim and I have a belief that if you’re going to go somewhere important or special… some place where you’ve never been or may not return you should spend as much time as you can there. So, whenever Tim and I would go to themes parks we would get there when it opened and leave when it closed. That was our expectation.

It was not Sunday’s.

Her question immediately threw everyone’s frustration levels into overdrive. The answer to the question was obvious… “No, we’re not leaving yet.” But, the question itself led to one inevitable fact… it would be asked again… perhaps repeatedly.

Leaving after only an hour was so outside of our perceived approach that it seemed absurd… inconceivable. Yet after only an hour in the park full of people from all over the world enjoying themselves, reveling in the experience, we had to justify why we would want to stay in a place designed specifically for fun… a place for which we had paid full admission about sixty short minutes earlier.

Pete in Disney Land.

Through the rest of the day we did our best to juggle our activity, trying to balance somewhere between being frenetically busy while, at the same time, trying to not overtax everyone as to give anyone an excuse to want to leave. If we could walk that tightrope, we just may be able to get through the next 12 hours with a minimal amount of times having to answer “Can we go home now?”

Tim in Fantasy Land.

One of the rides we were most looking forward to experiencing was a new simulator ride called Star Tours. We knew very little about it and Tim’s brother, Paul, was pretty hush-hush about it as well, only stating that we would really enjoy it.

Beth on her way to Future Land.

Growing up in the age of Star Wars, the idea of going on a Star Wars themed ride was pretty exciting. I will never forget the first time I saw Star Wars… sitting in the theater seat watching in awe as the Empire ship in the opening scene seemed to reveal itself forever… getting bigger and bigger until is almost filled the large movie screen. Having only seen sci-fi on the small television screen in our family room, seeing a ship of that magnitude was almost life altering.

At Disney Land we went through the queue in the waiting area of the air-conditioned Star Tours ride, trying to spot small hidden items Paul had mentioned to us. As an inside joke, the designers of the ride had put their initials and birthdays on a variety of parts and moving objects in the Star Tours waiting area. We finally spotted Paul’s info on a future-looking box moving along a conveyor belt above our heads.

We finally made our way through the weaving lines and strapped ourselves into the simulator ride that held about twenty people. The premise of the ride was that we were going on a tour of areas of space in the Star Wars universe when our new driver inadvertently pilots us into the middle of a battle between the Empire and the Rebels.

Sunday, Pete and Tim on Big Thunder Railroad.

It was every kids’ dream to fly an x-wing fighter down the death star’s canyon and use the force to save the day and on this ride we actually got to scream down that canyon on that final raid. The simulator created a realistic sense of motion as the spaceship floated from side to side and avoided gunfire from Empire ships and gun turrets.

It was one of the first simulator rides that effectively immersed you in the experience and we left it reinvigorated. It was everything we had hoped for… everything we had dreamt of since playing make-believe as a child. To put it succinctly… it was really, really cool!

It was a great end to a long day at Disney Land. Despite wanting to have left about eleven hours earlier, even Sunday had a good time. That night, exhausted from walking the park and waiting in line, we were all almost unconscious by the time our heads hit the pillows, dreaming of fighting off the evil tie-fighters and joining Luke and Han Solo in bringing the Rebels to victory.

And so ended the tenth day on our trip to Cally.

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Part 40, (Text, Audio)
Part 39, (Text, Audio) - Part 38, (Text, Audio) - Part 37, (Text, Audio)
Part 36, (Text, Audio) - Part 35, (Text, Audio) - Part 34, (Text, Audio)
Part 33, (Text, Audio) - Part 32, (Text, Audio) - Part 31, (Text, Audio)
Part 30, (Text, Audio) - Part 29, (Text, Audio) - Part 28, (Text, Audio)
Part 27, (Text, Audio) - Part 26, (Text, Audio) - Part 25, (Text, Audio)
Part 24, (Text, Audio) - Part 23, (Text, Audio) - Part 22, (Text, Audio)
Part 21, (Text, Audio) - Part 20, (Text, Audio) - Part 19, (Text, Audio)
Part 18, (Text, Audio) - Part 17, (Text, Audio) - Part 16, (Text, Audio)
Part 15, (Text, Audio) - Part 14, (Text, Audio) - Part 13, (Text, Audio)
Part 12 (Text, Audio) - Part 11 (Text, Audio) - Part 10 (Text, Audio)
Part 09, (Text, Audio) - Part 08, (Text, Audio) - Part 07 (Text, Audio)
Part 06 (Text, Audio) - Part 05 (Text, Audio) - Part 04 (Text, Audio)
Part 03 (Text, Audio) - Part 02 (Text, Audio) - Part 01 (Text, Audio)