Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

As you may remember from the last episode, we left our intrepid travelers somewhere in the middle of nowhere, but not lost. We arrived at the hotel that we booked through Priceline. Bill Shatner has come a long way from commanding a starship and getting all of the alien babes. Now he’s the huckster for this “budget” trip site. Now, if you have had a great experience with Priceline, happy-happy-joy-joy for you. I didn’t have a great trip with this one. Got a 2 star for $35 (plus hidden charges and a couple of taxes). Then I read the fine print for the stupid room I just bought. “This room most likely will only have one bed. Any larger or additional beds will require an upgrade charge. (Or something like that.)” Dadgum. Why didn’t they say that upfront. We get to the hotel and I walk in. And yes, for some of you wondering – right hotel, right day, right city. I walk up to the desk like I know what I’m doing (‘cause ya’ll know I don’t, right?). I am in the system the little computer shows...

Days of waiting and living with the expectation of vacation was maddening. We spent the days of that last week counting down the days. I had lots of time to ponder: what are we forgetting? Did I get the planes right? Do I have all of the ADR’s planned? Is there any way the kids can stay home at this point? That last one was not true. I was committed to taking them. Just not excited. I kept having flashbacks of the last trip. And Lisa was threatening them with not going. So I didn’t have to. Friday arrived. This was Trip-mas Eve. We were driving out on Saturday for Kansas City. But Friday night was special, too. For #1S. He had a slumber party. 9 7- & 8-year old boys. Talk about the craziness involved with that. Amongst yourselves. Cause we were content. Only one child to deal with was a vacation in and of itself. Plus we had some friends take us out to dinner. Thanks again, y’all. And thanks again for that other thing. Saturday dawned bright and beautiful. I’ve heard that somewh...

We are preparing for our trip. We are at about 1 ½ months to go. It is becoming Fall-ish. And that means one thing – state fair time. Oklahoma is blessed with two state fairs. Huh? How’s that, again? Yep. Two state fairs every year. The Great State Fair of Oklahoma and the Tulsa State Fair. The GSF is in OKC. The Tulsa SF is in….Tulsa. We are close to Tulsa. We don’t like the TSF. We like the GSF. So I like to go to the website and see who is coming each year. A couple of years back, we discovered that Disney On Ice was pretty cool. We saw Toy Story 2 on Ice. At that time our #1S was really into Toy Story. I checked the website to see what was coming and knew in a flash we had to go. The Incredibles are going to Magic Kingdom. WoW! What a co-inky-dink. The show was also going to be at the TSF. But a couple of things stood in the way. First was that we don’t like the TSF. Second was that it would happen while WE were at WDW. Then I looked on the activities list and saw another Disney li...

We live in NE Oklahoma. We are about ½ an hour from Tulsa. Tulsa has a nice little airport. It is serviced by most of the big name airlines: AA, Delta, Southwest, you get the picture. But Tulsa doesn’t have one thing that many other airports have: special discounts on airfare. For weeks I compared Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, and Dallas/Ft. Worth. I have flown out of 3 of those airports. So I was kind of familiar with them. When I was researching airfare, guess what I found. The best price was at an airport I have never been to. And is 4 hours away. But it was a really good price. Because Tulsa’s prices stink. Even though the paper said it has the best prices in NE OK, NW AR, SW MO. You know why? It’s the ONLY stinking airport big enough to land a bunch of big planes. So I start looking for airfare. But gas is climbing upward. Buy now or wait? Chance a good price now or chance a fare hike to match gas? Gas is shooting up (at this point we were seeing 2.30’s). Ever one to pla...

Now, this last mistake that I can’t live down is really a painful one. Because I can’t blame anything or anyone else for it. It is wholly and completely my fault. We used a touring company for our last trip. The same one that we are using this time. Our TA was great. She took care of everything. But the one thing she didn’t handle was the plane tickets. I am internet savvy enough to book a flight on a plane. So I get our plane tickets purchased and we are ready to go. When the trip comes, I print everything off and put it in my Passporter. Never had one problem while we were there. All of our dining ressies went off without a hitch. Room was perfect. Memories were made. Some resolutions were resolved: never take other family members to Disney World. And we were off to head home. When we get to the airport, we are unloading the 4 gajillion bags that we brought, and I do curbside check in. It goes something like this. “Hi, we are on flight such and such to Dallas.” “Mr. Berg...

Okay, that last post was long winded. But I get paid by the word. There was another incident at Disney that cannot be lived down. And this one, I am ashamed to admit, is somewhat offensive to some sensibilities. So if you are offended by bodily functions and the natural processes the body goes through to digest food, you may want to go on. Now. EPCOT was fairly new. Back then it was cool to go into the communication center and call and book your dining when you got into the park. It was supposed to be a cool thing to do. {Reflective pause} Kinda lost something over time, didn’t it. Like color T.V. And their shows. So we went to EPCOT to enjoy the newest, non-Magic Kingdom experience. And while gadgets and science are all cool stuff, I was looking forward to the World Showcase. I always like exploring and seeing new places. As we were looking through the dining option, we settled upon the Mexico pavilion. So lunch plans were set. We toured the coolness of E...

Now before we get to the trip in earnest, or Orlando if you must be specific, I feel I must share some historical milestones along the path to this trip. Why??? Filler, people. It’s something to chew on whilst you wait for the start of the actual trip. So, picture this: 1984. I am the plucky young age of 13. I was a chubby, nerdy type; even then; as now. Only now I have less hair. My family (consisting of my Aunt, my Mother, me, my sister {it ain’t grammatically correct - - it’s chronological}) wings our way to Orlando and stay offsite. We do this because we weren’t going to spend all of our time at WDW. And we were cheap. This was before Disneyitis had set in in my life. So we do MK and EPCOT. Because that was all there was then. At that time, there wasn’t a Test Track. Or the Living Seas – even Nemo-less. If you asked who Nemo was, the answer would have been the captain of the Nautilus (for literate types) or some cartoon on Captain Kangaroo. Now I must digress here to share a tra...

Part 3 – The use of free dining Like so many millions before, we jumped at the chance of the free dining. For those of you who may not be Disney nuts, I will explain. Disney sells vacation packages - room and park passes. But they also have upgrades. One of the most popular upgrades is a dining plan. For about $40/night, you get one sit down meal, one walk up counter type meal (like a fast food restaurant), and a snack (just about any tasty treat or drink under $4). Well Disney also runs promotions where you get the dining plan free. That's right - FREE! Free food! I love food. So when we knew we were going back to the World, we got right to the menus. Where, o where, shall we eat? One problem really stood in the way of enjoying all of the great eats: #2S. He is not a finicky eater. He refuses to eat anything outside of his own approved menu. Which is only about 5 items long. And changes hourly. How picky is this kid, you may wonder? Pizza is a great example. He loves piz...

Part 2 – The Plan is set….No wait let’s change that. So in November of 2005 we set about the plan to go to the World. I am a planner. I love to plan things. I may not do them, but I love the plan. So I am looking at how many days, where we would eat, when we should go, how long we need to save the money up to go for as long as we want, eat where we want to eat, and the earliest we could go. We set our eyes on the Fall of 2006. I prefer vacations in the Fall. My summers are busy. “Wait,” you say. “You are a pastor. You only work one day a week.” Well that is true. NOT. I am very involved with Methodist youth camps in Oklahoma. And those occur during the Summer. My slow time begins in August and ends in October. So we knew that September/October was best. Then I began to get a whiff of something. The salty sea air. I began to read about the Disney Cruise Line. “Hey Lisa,” says I, “what would you think about a cruise?” “What about it,” says she. So we begin to lo...

For everyone interested, I will be posting trip reports on the blog. I will post each day a little of what is happening. For the next 8-9 days will be the pre-trip report. Me – Todd – 35 – United Methodist pastor, Disney nut, nerd, and all around introvert. If I don’t speak to you, don’t take it personal. DW – Lisa – I’ll let her give her age – Office manager for the same church I pastor (my boss), sweetheart, Fantastic wife and mother. She is the better side of me most of the time. #1S – Nick – 7 – My clone, only much better with people. Wants to be a food scientist. #2S – Andrew – 4 – Lisa’s clone, only much funnier all of the time. Will likely end up being a character in a theme park. This trip begins in 2005. November, if I am not mistaken. Well, no. It starts in 2003. See that was the first Bergman Family trip. We hastily threw together a trip to WDW. We were wanting to take a vacation (I rarely do so…take one…I want one daily). So we planned a trip for Fall. But the...

Well, back to my heroes. Remember that my heroes are people who have impacted my worldview. They are not necessarily people who have done something remarkable. Spiderman was first. This week I will share with you why Dave Ramsey is my hero. Let me take you back to college. I was out on my own for the first time, ever. I had an apartment with a classmate from college. I wasn't a party-animal. In fact, I was employed at a campus ministry. That was good work, just not great pay. I also had a student job on campus in the library. Government Documents was my office. Processing government documents into the library collection was my job. Not much fun, but interesting at times. Also, not great pay. But I was getting by. It was during my time out on my own that I learned about my propensity for procrastination. It occurred to me when I realized that I would pay rent a little late. Not overly, evicted soon, late. Just a day or so. "Can I bring it on Friday?" late. When I graduated...