I put my pictures in a separate entry. Here’s the deets on the reason for the trip.

Back in January, I took the online Jeopardy! test. I’ve taken it the last couple of years. Don’t know if I’ve passed it before — usually there are too many sports or bible questions, which are my Kryptonite. I think I lucked out this time with my standard “if it’s a basketball question, the answer is Kobe Bryant” approach. Because I’m pretty sure it actually was Kobe Bryant.

Anyhoo, got an email back in March letting me know I’d passed the test, and I’d been chosen randomly from among the test-passers to go to the in-person audition. I immediately wrote back saying yes, please, thank you. Booked the vacation time, booked a cheap hotel (well, cheap for the Miami beach area) and this past Thursday, we hit the road.

We killed thousands of lovebugs on the way down. The trip was a little over 200 miles each way, and I have to admit, I’m not up to distance driving anymore. It’s hard to believe that back in 2007, we drove anywhere from 9 to 13 hours per day to get from Seattle to Orlando in 6 days. Even 4 hours on the road (we made several stops to clean off bug bodies) is too much now.

Got to our hotel, checked in, scouted the area. Hoofed over to the Atlantic:

Then we rustled up some dinner, and visited a local mall so I could look for a shirt. I’d brought a shirt with me, but I wasn’t entirely happy with it — the paperwork asked for us to dress as we would if we were appearing on Jeopardy!, so I wanted to make sure I looked the part. Happily, I found a great item on the clearance rack at The Limited — a dark blue button-down. Plain and classy.

Back to the room, and then we suited up and visited the pool for some night swimming. Not only did we have a pool and a whirlpool available, but there were also ladders down to the Intracoastal Waterway. Scott wouldn’t let me even climb down and dip my toe in, since it was 8 to 10 feet down a slimy ladder into questionable and very dark public waters. Full of wildlife. Oh well.

Friday, we kicked around the room for much of the morning, and managed to catch some Lazy Town dubbed into Spanish (WTF that show, I don’t even know) and part of The Abyss (in which the effects don’t hold up). Then I put on my fancy pants (and new shirt, and shoes with heels), we checked out, and we ambled down to the Westin.

Scott set up with his gadgets and headphones in the beautiful lobby, and I headed upstairs. There were a couple of guys there already, but I was one of the first, since I’m always way too early for everthing. I filled out my application form, with full disclosure that I work for WDW (the rules state that nobody can be on the show who works for CBS/Sony Pictures, but this application also asked about anyone working for ABC (Disney), NBC (Universal), or any local TV stations. So I don’t know what kind of grey area I’m in as far as eligibility.

Eventually, there were 20 of us. Some dressed appropriately, some not so much. A t-shirt with a cute skirt? Not good. Ren-faire-inspired clothes? Not good. A ratty, beat-up golf shirt — well, at least it had a collar. But not good. We got checked in, had our Polaroids taken, and moved into the conference room. The casting folks, all very nice, talked a little about what to expect in the audition, and then we took the written exam. Just like the online test, it was a 50-question exam, with 8 seconds to answer eash question. They collected our tests, went out to score them, and the room exploded into “what was the answer to this one?”

We’ll never find out our scores, by the way. It’s totally pass/fail — get 35 or more right, you pass. 34 or less, you fail. Period. And I think I cut it pretty close. I aced the pop music and movies stuff, but there were some sports and poetry and such that I know I got wrong.

Either way, pass or fail, nobody found out their results. We all moved on to the mock game, and they explained that the audition process used to have everyone who failed go home, but they decided to invite fewer people and let them experience the entire process instead. I applaud the choice. So onward to the fake game! We got up in groups of three, and got to use the genuine buzzers. I’m delighted to say, I got the country music question correct. A fluke!

At the end of a dozen or so questions, we got to do a little one-to-two minute interview. And I know I aced this part — clear eye contact, enunciation, personality. It was kind of shocking to me how many people mumbled their answers while staring at the wall above the casting peoples’ heads. But I guess the ultra-smart sometimes aren’t known for their social skills.

They asked me what I do at WDW, and I told them that I host a game show about Velcro. At which, the other woman in my group laughed out loud and said, “Oh my god, that’s where I know you from! We did that show when we went to Epcot for my birthday!” As they say, it’s a small world after all.

It took a little over 2 hours for everything, then we were set free. I gathered up Scott, changed out of my fancy duds into shorts, and we hit the road back to Orlando. We could have stayed another day, but we opted to get back home so we could have a leisurely Saturday off here. And happily, there were a LOT fewer lovebugs on the way home. I don’t know if the swarm moved on, or if they’re more active in the mornings, or what. But we didn’t have anywhere near the same death counts on the return trip.

So now, the waiting game. None of us will know if we passed the test or not, or if we made the contestant pool or not, until we maybe possibly get a phone call at some point in the next 18 months inviting us to LA to appear on the show. So for all I know, I’m in. But for all I know, I failed the test. Or it may be that my employer eliminates me from consideration. I’m not going to wait by the phone with bated breath; if a call comes, it’ll just be a fantastic surprise.

In the meantime, we had a fun road trip with many a laugh, and I got to walk on some beach. And have a fun experience that few people get a chance to have.

So we just got back from a quickie trip down to Miami (Well, okay, to Hollywood. Which is right next to Miami.) for reasons I’ll explain in the next text post. I figured I’d make a seperate entry for my snappies.

First off, BUGS! The first 100 miles or so of our trip from Orlando to Miami was through lovebug country. If you don’t know about lovebugs, count yourself lucky. You could look them up on the Wiki, but the short version is that they’re pairs of bugs joined at the junk, both of them trying to fly at the same time, which ends up in a staggering, shambling trip through the sky. I don’t know if it was time of day or location, but the bugs were heavy over the turnpike.

This was just after the first stop. We had to wash the windshield, and I scraped corpses off the bumper. 40 miles further along, we had to make another stop for another wash-n-scrape. My car looks like it has a flame job from all of the bug guts. We’re hitting the car wash this morning.

We stopped at a couple of service plazas along the turnpike on our way down. They’re so much more than a rest stop — it’s like a rest stop meets a food court meets a truck stop. A few quick-service restaurants, large restrooms, stands selling perfumes and belt buckles, and tons of brochures and coupon booklets. We were surprised to find Earl of Sandwich representing, so we had that for lunch.

Our hotel was the Crowne Plaza at Hollywood Beach. I priced it out at $170 per night, then managed to get it for $75 at Hotwire. This may well be the first hotel I’ve stayed at that supplied fluffy white robes. I think the only problem is that there aren’t enough pillows.

Here’s our view to the east. Our room was on the top (10th) floor, on the north side of the building. As you can see, we’re right across the street from the Atlantic Ocean. Faboo!

And our view off to the west of the Intracoastal Waterway. There’s our hotel’s pool down below, too. Nice pool, nice hot tub, expensive pool bar beers. I mean, five bucks for a Miller Lite?

And there was Friday’s goal: The Westin Diplomat. About 5 blocks to the north, on the beach side of the road. Man, that place was nice. But I wasn’t about to pay $300/night to stay there.

After all, we were already staying someplace with the gall to charge five bucks for a bottle of water.

We did walk over to the beach and got our sandals full of sand. Which I guess is what they’re made for. I find with the Atlantic, approaching the beach is prettier than the beach itself. Because the beach itself is just a uniformly wide strip of sand, lined with hotels and condominiums.

So yes, Miami was lovely. Well, not actually Miami, but Hollywood. And more technically, Hallandale beach. Did we have fun? This sign says it all:

Next month, we’re going on a little road trip down to Miami. I’ve been invited to the callback audition for Jeopardy!*, which is very exciting for me — I’ve tried out for it several times, and this is the first time I’ve made it to the second round.

The callback will last from 2 to 2.5 hours, and will consist of playing a mock game and taking an additional trivia test, as well as some light interviewing. I don’t actually expect to make it into the contestant pool (I’m a fairly terrible auditioner) but I’m definitely doing it for the experience.

I just booked our hotel room this morning, and here’s what tickles me. We were looking at booking a room at the Crowne Plaza hotel — it was the cheapest of the nice hotels. Which still means that rooms were going for $160 per night. The other options were the ultra-fancy resort where the callbacks are taking place ($280/night) or the little mom-and-pop questionable-quality beach resorts ($40/night). We’re not fans of questionable quality, so we were going to splurge.

Enter Hotwire, which is one of my former boss’s favorite travel booking sites. They give you an ultra-cheap price, but they don’t show you the name of the hotel until you book it. In this instance, Hotwire offered a $75 room in a 4-star resort. Since we were already going to pay $160 for a 4-star resort, we decided to be bold and booked it.

Turns out the room is at the Crowne Plaza, exactly where we were planning on staying. But for 60% less. Man, I love the internets! And living in the future!

* You may be wondering if a Disney employee can appear on Jeopardy!, since the show airs on ABC. Turns out, the show is produced by Sony/CBS, so it’s those employees who are ineligible. Sadly, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? blocks out all Disney employees, so I won’t be able to be on that show. And merely mentioning it makes me miss the Millionaire attraction here at WDW.

What a great little trip. To start with, Continental Airlines still feeds you meals on their flights. I’d become used to Alaska’s technique of making you pay 5 dollars for a little box of various snacks. Thanks, Continental!

The shows were all great — I felt a little rusty doing the Flick, but each night got better (everyone was spectacular in Saturday’s show, IMO). As for the Jet City shows — I wasn’t prepared for the slower pace on Friday. I was freaking out a lot of the time, thinking to myself, “You’re taking FOREVER to do this introduction! Hurry up!” I relaxed for the Saturday show, and it went much better. I just had to realize that with a 90-minute show, you can afford to be a bit more leisurely.

Seeing everyone was great — I spent much of Friday with Kate, and even had a little nap on her couch, accompanied by one of her cats. Saturday I packed, then had dinner out with Mike. It was great to see and/or play with everyone.

I shopped at Trader Joe’s, and Archie McPhee, and Safeway … and took home a 35-pound Rubbermaid tote full of groceries we can’t get down here. I also hit IKEA and grabbed some catalogs; they’re already a hit in the green room here (the Orlando IKEA opens on November 14th).

The weather was ideal — cold and crisp and autumnal. It was a perfect little slice of Seattle in the fall, with the leaves changing colors and dropping from the trees, and the days sunny but cold. Yeah, it’s nice to come back to the warm weather of Florida, but it was delightful to get a taste of the autumn I’ve always known.

Whew! What a couple of days this has been.

One cable guy came out today and set us up with internet. He didn’t, however, bring the two cable cards that we need for the TiVo, so we had to request a second truck. But in between those, our power got cut off. So we had to go out to the utility company and have the power restored. But our lease didn’t quite have the right address on it, so we had to get a fax from the office correcting it. Bottom line, we have internet and basic cable and power right now, and that’s good enough for me.

Oy vey. This whole adventure, our mantra has been “one extra step”. Seems like everything goes relatively smoothly, EXCEPT that there’s always one unexpected extra step involved.

On the good side, we have some new things. We got a new LCD HD television at Costco, and we bought a new King-size bed (it will be delivered tomorrow) with a pillow top. Comfy! We planned on a Queen, but found a great price on a King. Tonight we spend one more night on our air mattress, which holds air much better now that we discovered a second valve on the underside that had to be shut (one extra step).

In kitty news, they survived the flight beautifully. We rarely heard any meowing, and only because we’re attuned to the specific noises the cats make; I doubt anyone around us realized there were cats on board. They certainly were overshadowed by the toddlers a few rows back who enjoyed screeching sporadically through the entire trip. Anyhoo, the cats have explored some of the new apartment, but are right now huddled under our bedding.

I’m getting pretty tired of hotel/motel rooms. I want my own bed, slathered with cats. I also want to cook my own food.

Almost all of the apartment paperwork is done, apparently … they were waiting on two more things when I talked to the lady earlier today. So hopefully we’ll be able to sign the lease tomorrow. I hope we do — we’d like to buy a few necessary items, like toilet paper and kitty litter, to put in the apartment so we have it when we get here for good. Weird to think that two weeks one week from tomorrow, we’ll live here. (Wow, it’s coming up sooner than I thought!)

The time zone change is still hard to wrap my brain around, and probably will be for quite some time. It’s so odd to think that it’s 5:30 here, but it’s only 2:30 back in Seattle.

The weather here today was around 80 degrees, cloudy with a few small bursts of rain. I don’t mind the humidity at this temperature (though I probably will when it gets into the 90s). We went to a Target that has a supermarket in it, which was awesome.

Day 6
Baton Rouge, LA to Kissimmee, FL
706 miles / approx. 11 hours

We did it! Welcome to Florida, “America’s Wang”! Right now we’re in a 4th-floor room at a hotel in Kissimmee, FL — we can see the fireworks at Epcot from our window. We can also see the backside of Expedition Everest over at Animal Kingdom. Awesome.

We could have stopped for the night in Ocala, which is around 80 miles to the north, but we pushed through and drove all the way here. It’s a nice feeling that tomorrow morning we don’t have to set an alarm, and we’ll be ready to go in the right city when we leave.

Tomorrow morning I’ll head over to the Entertainment building (which I could actually walk to from the hotel) and pick up a copy of my contract, which should come in handy as proof of employment. Then we’ll start on the great apartment hunt.

Six days on the road wasn’t too horrible, but it’s a little too intense to do again anytime soon. Those of you who know us will not be surprised to hear that we had many laughs, the only tears were due to the laughs, and we didn’t have a single fight.

Day 5
Ft Worth, TX to Baton Rouge, LA
450 miles / approx. 9 hours

We didn’t make it to Mobile, but we made it farther than we thought we would when we left this morning. When we woke up, it was snowing in Ft Worth, with about an inch on the ground. After watching the local news and fretting for a while, we got on the road around 9:30am. It was snowy and slushy through Dallas, and we ate up an hour going about 20 miles, but the roads started to clear up once we got out of the big cities. By 30 miles from Dallas, it was mostly just wet pavement with a little bit of slush, and by 50 or so miles from Dallas it was just wet pavement and sleet/rain.

We were delighted to hit Louisiana — there’s just too damn much Texas. The scenery got a bit more swampy (between Lafayette and Baton Rouge there’s a 20-mile long bridge that crosses: a swamp, a river, a lake, a bay, a channel, and a bayou) and they certainly do their own thing down here — instead of counties, they have parishes; instead of city limits, they have corp. limits. And at one point, this line was uttered: “Huh! Smells like … wax lips.”

We’re in the home stretch, guys! We’re going to give it one big push tomorrow and get as close to Orlando as we can, so we can start looking for an apartment first thing Friday.

Tomorrow’s goal: Orlando, FL (695 miles / 11 hours)

It’s 7am here, which means it’s 5am for those of you back home. Right now there’s just the tiniest bit of snow falling, and around an inch or so on the ground. Fortunately, the road underneath the snow was dry and bare, so there shouldn’t be too much ice to deal with.

We’re going to hole up here for a bit longer, and leave later than usual. Fortunately, this Holiday Inn Express has an “expanded” continental breakfast, and check-out is a delightfully late noon.

What fascinates me is that they get snowy weather like this here in Texas every three or four years. It’s kind of like Seattle in that regard, this current freakish El Nino year full of freak Seattle blizzards notwithstanding. But they seem to be handling it well — sand and salt trucks are out and about, and the drivers on the road appear to be taking it easy (as opposed to in Seattle, where every jackhole with an SUV drives just as stupidly as they would in dry weather).

Day 4
El Paso, TX to Ft Worth, TX
605 miles / approx. 10 hours

As opposed to yesterday’s four-state extravaganza, today we crossed a big chunk of Texas. Dang, there is a LOT of Texas out here. And once again, every person we came across was friendly. Weird!

The weather looked iffy — we didn’t know if we were going to see snow, or ice, or rain, or what. We decided to go upward to Dallas via I-20 instead of downward to San Antonio/Houston on I-10, and it was a wise move — apparently they closed a chunk of I-10 today. As for our drive, we didn’t see a single drop of snow or rain from the sky, and the road only had a very little bit of ice here and there. But we saw almost a dozen wrecked big rig trucks overturned in the median (I took a couple of pictures, of course).

The big cities here are very nice. The small towns are depressing when viewed from the interstate, full of broken-down machinery and deserted old businesses. We passed through Midland, the location of GWB’s ranch. My intial reaction: “It’s a shithole!”

Tomorrow’s goal: Mobile, AL (650 miles / 11 hours)