Everything is related – The Paris Edition

Posted by TakingItAStepAtATime

Back in May we went on a trip to Paris and London. There are so many things that DC can relate to in London without me having to come up with them for him, that I wasn’t worried. Before London though, there would be a 4 day stop in Paris.

Relating the things that DC loves to anything else just helps to make it more enjoyable for him. DC loves to travel, but if we are not traveling to Disney World I will always try to come up with something to make the trip more interesting and exciting for him.

We were going to be staying in Disneyland Paris for the four days, one of those days would be spent in the city. I knew the day in the city would be very boring for him and I really could not come up with very much that he could relate to in Paris other than Madeline, so I went with that. I was later very surprised at the ‘relations’ he was able to come up with on his own.

So here we have the 5th installment in the “Everything is related” series – The Paris Edition:
Yes, this could possibly all be a ploy to make you look at my vacation pictures (be thankful, not all :), but every picture you see here is relatable to something for DC.

Again, we begin with Disney. There would be no problem here. We arrived at our hotel – New York, what could be better! DC’s very favorite city! This was a “two birds-one stone” kind of relation – Disney and New York City – together!



There were of course; Princesses!

“Oh my God, it’s Cinderella!” – during this trip he came out with a few lines I had never heard him say before – “Oh my God”, being one of them.

What could be better than a princess? Four princesses, of course…..

….especially when they are willing to spin for you!

The Princess Room in Disneyland Paris is a little bit different from Disney World. In Disney World, you get in line to get into the room where you can meet 3 or 4 princesses one by one. In DLP, we had to make a reservation to see the princess. The reservation gets you in to see one princess (there are two inside, to keep the line moving). You are not told what princesses are in there and you do not know who you will see until it is your turn and you round the corner. The people managing the line are not allowed to tell you which princesses are inside and they change them every half hour. The line manager saw how excited DC was to see a princess and pulled me aside to ask me which one he wanted to see. I told her he would be happy with any princess, but she insisted. We had the choice of “Brave” and “Ariel”. Of course, I chose Ariel. I have spent too many hours standing in line at “Ariel’s Grotto” over the years to let an opportunity to see Ariel pass us by. I wish I got a picture of his face when he turned the corner and saw her!

After he had her dance with him and of course spin, he said: “Please say hello to Prince Eric for me” – another new line; correct grammar, correct pronoun.

Needless to say, Disneyland Paris was a big hit.

Now onto Paris.

DC really loves all of the Madeline books. I am sure he has them all. He especially loves the Madeline movie that encompasses many of the stories from the books into the one movie.  This was really all I had to go on. Knowing full well that sightseeing in Paris was not going to be very exciting for him, I really tried to push the Madeline angle before we arrived. We talked about the Eiffel Tower and the time that Madeline and Pepito became trapped at the top all by themselves.



We went to the top. It took a while. It was so crowded. It was cold. There was a nice view. He was impressed, but only slightly.

Moving on……

Before we visited the tower, our first stop which happened to be right where the train in let us off was the Arc de Triomphe. Thinking that he would not be at all impressed with this because to him it was an arch, nothing more, I was surprised when he  recognized this arch – from Anastasia. I had forgotten all about that movie. I was kicking myself for not remembering it and looking into more Anastasia references before we left on our trip.



Thinking I had reached the end of Paris ‘relatables’ for DC, we opted for a Seine River Cruise just to get in a few sights quickly without sending him completely over the edge of boredom. On our way down the river I realized that this was the same river that Madeline fell into and was rescued by a dog they later named “Genevieve” (yes, I have seen this movie more times than I’d care to admit).



He was impressed for a minute or so.

Continuing down the river, the tour guide announced that we were coming up on Notre-Dame Cathedral. DC chimed in with:

“Chris-mar-a-dull”
What???
“Chris-mar-a-dull”
“Es-mer-eye-da”
“DC, I don’t know what you mean. Can you spell it for me?”
“Mom! Chris-mar-a-dull! Es-mer-eye-da!”
He was getting exasperated with me.
“HUNCHBACK!!”

Another reference that I completely missed – Quasimodo and Esmeralda – The Hunchback of Notre-Dame! (I did have to write those pronunciations down right then and there so I didn’t forget).


Our decision to take this tour instead of sightseeing on foot turned out to be a good one. It started to pour! This did not upset DC as much as one would think for some reason, but it would have been the END of the day in Paris had we been out walking around.
Boat = Saving the remainder of the day.


It was still raining when we got off of the boat at the Louvre. I did remember that one part of the Madeline movie took place inside the Louvre. I mentioned it to DC as we headed in that direction. We had no plans to go inside but it was close to a few restaurants and the metro.

While running through in the rain, DC pointed out the Louvre Pyramid.

“From Madeline!” – I have seen that movie many times but I do not recall ever seeing the Louvre Pyramid at any time during the scenes at the Louvre. He recognized it – so I’ll take it!


It was a long day and with the rain, the Pyramid was our last sight for the day. We stopped for dinner and headed back to Disneyland.

I definitely dropped the ball relating Paris to DC’s world. I am happy and a little bit impressed that he was able to pick it up and run with it, this time around.

Everything Is Related - Dr. Who

Relating the things that DC loves to anything else just helps to make it more enjoyable for him. DC loves to travel, but if we are not traveling to Disney World I usually rack my brain to come up with something to make the trip more interesting and exciting for him. Recently we took a trip to London and Paris.

One of the items on our agenda would be a trip to Cardiff and the Dr. Who Experience – have I mentioned that before? :) . DC loves Dr. Who, but he gravitates more to the David Tennant Doctor and Rose. He eventually warmed up to Matt Smith, but he is having trouble relating to the Peter Capaldi Doctor.

On the recommendation of Autism-Mom we watched the Paddington Bear movie before we left. The movie is centered in London and I was hoping that he would warm up a bit to Peter Capaldi as he is a very funny character in the movie (two birds – one stone kind of relating for DC). He liked the movie and above all, it gave him a few more relatable items to bring to London and to Cardiff.

Paddington Store – Paddington Station

Paddington Station

So here we have the fourth installment in the “Everything is related” series.

Dr. Who is one of the very few “relatable(s)” that did not come directly or even indirectly from Disney. I happened upon the series quite by accident. I happened to be flipping channels one morning at 5am and there it was, on the Syfy Channel. I had missed the beginning and had no idea what this was or what was going on. (I had to do a little bit of research today to try to determine how long ago this was; I am guessing somewhere around 2008 as they were already into the David Tennant seasons. I assumed that the SyFy channel was showing the season that had just ended and not brand new episodes.). I discovered later that the episode I saw that first morning was“Gridlock” – it is still one of my favorite episodes.

I sleep with the TV on. Listening to whatever is on distracts me from the “mind race” I seem to have every night when I try to get to sleep. I know that I have mentioned that TNT (‘Two-Five’ in DC-speak) is the default channel in our house. I got into the habit of watching (half asleep/half awake) the 4am episode of“NUMB3RS” and then the 5am episode, fully awake with coffee before DC woke up. For some reason the 5am episode was not on the schedule on Friday mornings. Not wanting to give up my “sitting in bed with coffee ‘me-time'”, I started flipping channels searching for anything that was not an infomercial.

I was totally hooked on NUMB3ERS and when TNT removed it from their lineup entirely, I had to just purchase the entire series. But on the upside, due to TNT’s very odd Friday scheduling, I had become an official “Whovian”. I went out and purchased all of the newer revamped seasons that were available at the time.

Quite by accident again while I was watching my newly purchased Dr. Who DVD’s,  DC walked into the living room just in time to see a burping trash can. Over and above anything else, DC is a male, therefore anything having to do with bodily functions is just hilarious to him. He was hooked.

We purchased our Dr. Who Experience and train tickets months before we left on our trip. It was a two hour train ride from London to Cardiff  and then a short cab ride to Cardiff Bay. I have to say that I was just as, if not more excited as DC was.

Inside was a snack area and quite a few very lifelike figures. DC did his best not to “Blink”.

Don’t Blink

I did not know what to expect inside the “Experience”- I imagined something like the old Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas – a virtual ride. It wasn’t like that at all but still a lot of fun. Of course, photos are not allowed inside the “Experience”.

Star Trek Experience Quark’s Bar

The exit from “Experience” brought us into an area of props – TWO Floors (exciting!!!). Photos are allowed in this area so I am going to post a few… Please understand that I am using a great deal of restraint in not posting every single one!

Cardiff Bay, the area around the Dr. Who Experience was very pretty, filled with shops and restaurants. There was a walking tour that was part of the ticket price to the Experience. We chose not to wait and since we had a map, we took the tour on our own. To be honest all I wanted to find was the entrance toTorchwood. As it turned out it was right in that same area and impossible to miss. While DC and Doug rode the carousel, I walked over and took a few photos of the Torchwood fountain (the secret entrance to the Torchwood Institute).

We had a nice lunch at Bill’s and opted to walk back to the train station. I would definitely recommend Bill’s for lunch, maybe not the walk back to the station.

We had little time before our train was scheduled to leave so we took a quick walk up to Cardiff Castle where a few Dr. Who scenes were filmed and where the Tardis landed in celebration of 50th Anniversary of the Dr. Who Series. It was only a five-minute walk from the station, but we really did not have the time to go through the whole castle. I wish we had scheduled it into our day ahead of time. Normally DC loves a castle, any castle but he was exhausted at this point so viewing it from the outside was just fine with him.

I am not going to give away what goes on inside “The Experience” itself because, you know, “Spoilers Sweetie” but I will say that DC found the final “piece of the puzzle” and inserted it into the proper place and helped to save the universe……

It was a great day all around for us, but more importantly –  for the universe.

I see London, I see France…… (Part 2 – London)

Posted by TakingItAStepAtATime

I should first explain that I have an aversion to subways. This began back in the 80’s when a group of 8 or 9 of us went to NYC to see Phantom of The Opera. It was Good Friday and we all had the day off from the bank. We went into the city early to spend the day there before the show. At some point during the day, we had to take the subway. We started through the doors and because there were so many of us there was not enough time for all of us to get in before the doors closed – my friend Linda was left on the platform as the doors were closing. Two other friends, Lee and Michael pryed the door open so she would not be left behind. That was it for me! I am still to this day terrified that the doors will close leaving someone behind…. So my complaints about the Underground may be just my problem…..

My intention was to write another installment in the “Everything is Related” Series from our most recent vacation, and I will do that next, but there were so many other things I wanted to say about our trip that I decided to put those off for now. There were tips I found and received before we left that came in handy and I wanted to pass them on along with some of my own observations  for anyone else that may be heading out to Paris, Disney and/or London.

Really, the only thing that I did not like about London were the trains. Trains, Trains, Trains. They really were the hardest part of our trip for DC as well. The trains and stations were just so very crowded. He did not like having to stand, he did not like having to go from train to train. He did get a bit anxious about it after a day or so. To lighten the mood, I started repeating his “Done” video to him inserting the word “Trains” each time he started looking like he’d had it. “Done” is a video I took of him in Las Vegas when he was “Done of Walking! Done!” – he still remembers it because he was so mad at the time. Making a joke of something he is upset about can help at times.. I can guarantee that if you asked him right now, he would tell you he was “Done of Trains”.  He really did not like it at all.

I, of course was anxious from the beginning. I do have rules in place for trains and elevators anyway (did you really think I wouldn’t?) – Due to my train terror explained above – DC has to get on and off arm in arm with me. If the door shuts at least we will be on the same side of it – together. I have elevator rules as well. DC never gets on an elevator first or last, always in the middle. If there are only two of us, then again – it is arm in arm with me. If the door should close, he will be with me on whatever side we end up on and not by himself.  Also there’s the Rosalind Shays elevator scene that still haunts me to this day (20 points to anyone that gets that without having to google). So yes, I have always had rules about elevators and trains.

The stations were all very crowded as well. Paddington Station actually holds people at the top of the stairs behind a rope when the Underground gets too crowded.  DC really does not like it when I hold his arm, but it was just so crowded everywhere that I had to. It wasn’t up for discussion.

“Mom! My arm is bothering you!”

We did get Oyster Cards for the trains – I believe they can be used for buses as well. They can be pre-loaded for as many days as you wish. The cards need to be swiped to get in and to get out of each station. They are available at the stations, but you can also purchase them on-line ahead of time.

Below are two posts from Autism-Mom with some good information about traveling to London with a child on the spectrum – including a link for the Tower of London “Visiting with children on the Autistic Spectrum”, believe it or not!

THE AUTISM CONNECTION – #1000SPEAK
and
Tripping Across the Pond. What I Learned from Autism Mums in Other Countries

Autism-Mom also tipped me off to Fast Passes or “Fast Track” tickets.   I would not have thought to even check for something like that. As the name suggests, the passes will get you into the attractions or sights faster – no lines. They can be purchased for one site or in packages of many different combinations. We purchased ours ahead of time on-line and they really worked out wonderfully. I’ve heard that the line for the London Eye could at times be a good 45 minute, if not longer, wait so I was especially thankful for the Fast Track. We used the Fast Track for the London Eye and the Tower of London, it was very simple.

I was really concerned (as I was in Paris) about finding food DC would eat. This really did not prove to be a problem at all. He did, every once in a while, have a difficult time understanding that chips (“NO Chips! French Fries, PLEEEESE!”) were French Fries. I explained this to him many times before we left on our trip and he seemed to understand it for the first few days.  As it turned out many restaurants called them fries or potato wedges. After a few days of reading many different descriptions, I think he just became confused and would no longer understand that chips were French fries.

The train ride from Paris to London was about two hours long. The ride from London to Cardiff was a good two hours as well.

I won’t say much here about the Dr. Who Experience because, you know…… “Spoilers, Sweetie” but I will say that DC had no problem with it. I did, after we came home, for informational purposes,  check to see what if any accommodations they might have in place. I was able to find some accessibility information – most of it was for wheelchair access and mobility.

There were a few loud noises and flashes and some yelling of directions and a few scary areas but he did well. The explosions at Charlie and The Chocolate Factory – The Musical, a play we saw later in the week in London upset him more than the explosions in the Dr. Who Experience. Below is a list from the website of what one may have to deal with inside:

Low light levels throughout
Light effects with variable light levels (no strobes or lasers used but occasional flashes)
Special effects (moving floors, smoke and haze)
Involves walking and standing for up to 30 minutes
Various floor surfaces including optional steps
Interactive and static exhibits
Loud audio soundtrack with speech, music and effects

Afterwards there is a walking tour which was maybe a mile, if that. The route was all flat paved surfaces, no hills and really no traffic to contend with.

Back in London…..Camden Market, Piccadilly Circus and Portobello Road are all very crowded areas, Camden Market being the most crowded. I would have liked to have spent more time there, but DC was really having a hard time and then it started to POUR, so back to the train we went. DC is used to walking in NYC but this was much more congested and hard to maneuver because of all of the vendors out on the sidewalks. He did well and made it longer than I expected he would.

Restrooms: Unlike Paris, there were public restrooms to be found, most of which are “pay” Water Closets. They seemed to run anywhere between 20 and 50 pence – so always carry change with you.

The flight home: Vowing that I would never do this again after our flight in to Paris on Open Skies in my crabby post from France, the flight home on American was like night and day. The seats were normal size and there was no juggling involved.

But really, other than the crowds on the trains, DC did well in London. He found food he liked. He saw places he recognized (We will talk about that more in “Everything is Related” The UK (and Paris) Edition. People were friendly and…… they did not put foam in my coffee.

I see London, I see France…. (Part One – France)

Posted by TakingItAStepAtATime

My intention was to write another installment in the “Everything is Related” Series from our most recent vacation, and I probably will eventually, but there were so many other things I wanted to say about our trip that I decided to put those off for now. There were tips I found and received before we left that came in handy and I wanted to pass them on along with some of my own observations (and maybe a little bit of whining and/or venting) for anyone else that may be heading out to Paris, Disney and/or London.

The flight: We fly often – I don’t like it. I don’t think I ever will. I am not afraid of flying I am just so very uncomfortable and I am one that can’t ever sleep on a plane – try as I might, I have never been able to sleep. We flew out of JFK and airport security was surprisingly easy. We were whisked into a Priority Line (I don’t know why) – we did not have to remove shoes, jackets or take anything out of our bags. DC did a great job and the TSA Agents were very nice and easy-going. I never even had to mention his autism.

Having said that –  I am always amazed at how many ways the airlines can come up with to make each flight sheer torture. We flew into Paris via Open Skies (Part of British Airways).  The seat was THE smallest seat I have ever seen and me with restless leg,  knew right away that this would not be good. The smallest seat in the world already had a blanket and pillow in the seat. What do you do with those if you are not going to use them right away? They went into the seatback pocket which only served to limit the amount of room in the smallest seat in the world that much more. Would it not make more sense to distribute them later? Not long into the flight the attendants distributed ipads. Now I have the blanket, pillow and an ipad to juggle in this tiny space. Within 10 minutes after the ipads were distributed they began taking dinner orders! Now we are juggling the blanket, pillow, ipad and a dinner tray. Would it not make more sense, if they were serving dinner so early in the flight to pass the ipads out AFTER dinner?

DC did well during the flight. He will not eat the airline food, so we did have snacks ready for him. I do not eat the airline food either, but always get a tray so DC can have my roll, butter and dessert. So refusing the tray for extra space was not an option.

There were times that I really thought they were going to come and take me away with all of the jumping around in the seat I was doing and there may or may not have been tears (mine) more than once trying to sit still, but I made it – vowing never to do this again.

Paris and Disneyland Paris: A week or so before we left I came across a blog, 10 Tips You Need to Know Before Visiting Disneyland Paris that had some very good information.
We were booked at a Disney Hotel, so everything was right there. A few feet away was Disney Village (Downtown Disney). At the end of the “Village” were the entrances to Disneyland and Disney Studios. The Village and the Parks were set up much like Disneyland and California Adventure in California. I happen to like Disneyland much more than Disney World, FL. Walk-in, Walk out. I love that.

It looked to me as if they were still using the original disability access method. We have not used the special needs access since DC was very young and I have no experience with the updated method that has recently been put in place in the US. I did look into it later and for information sake and yes, it sounds close to the way I remember it: Info here. Fast passes are available as well but many of the kiosks were not open.
Both Disneyland and Disney Studios open at 10:00 am. Staying on Disney property allows you access to Disneyland two hours earlier, at 8:00 am. The downside to this is that only 4 or 5 rides are open and entire sections are closed off. This only proved to aggravate DC as none of the most popular rides were open. He did get to go on “Small World” and “Alice’s Tea Cups” before the park opened.

He was excited to find Snow White’s Scary Adventure. He always loved that ride at Disney World but they did away with it a few years ago. There was also a Pinocchio ride. I don’t think we’ve ever seen that one. One of his other favorite’s is Peter Pan’s Flight. It was a little bit disappointing. Most of the time you are just in the dark. Much of the “scenery” that your ship flies over at Disney World is not there. It was a very bumpy ride, lots of stops and jerks that I really didn’t think were intentional. The words “plummet to our death” may or may not have been said when I had to go on for the second time.

Disney Studios was very much like the one in Florida and California. Unfortunately they did not have “The Great Movie Ride”, one of DC’s favorites. DC was happy to ride the Aerosmith Coaster, the Tower of Terror, The Back Lot Tour – some of his other favorites and the Indiana Jones roller coaster, which we had never seen before at any other park.

The one other tip I will give is to remember to bring things like Tylenol or whatever over-the counter medication that you think you may need. Being preoccupied with trying to sleep on the flight, I remembered the Tylenol PM, but neglected to bring anything else, just in case. They do not sell ANY OVER-THE-COUNTER medications on the property – nothing. If you need aspirin or anything of the sort, you have two options:

The desk will call a pharmacy that will deliver aspirin, Tylenol or whatever for 8 to 10 euros during the day and 42 euros at night.

The second option is to walk down to the main Disney Store in the Village – one of the clerks will then take you to a first aid station where they will distribute one dose of whatever medication you might need. The person needing this medication has to be present. Thankfully DC did not get sick as he did in Florida……

Tipping: Confusing, confusing. As American’s we are used to tipping, but leaving too large of a tip that could prove to be insulting apparently. We did know ahead of time that tipping is really not expected, but it’s very difficult not to tip if you’ve been programmed to do so all of your life. We did not know that service is included in the price of your meal. Good service warrants a couple of extra euros, but not the 15/20% that we are accustomed to.

If you’d like to leave Disney and go into Paris or vise-versa, there is a metro station located on the property in Disney Village, which is very convenient.

We did take the train into Paris one of the days we were there. It started to rain towards the end of the day so we decided to have dinner there before heading back to the train station. We came upon the Café De La Comédie. It was raining but there was actually a customer sitting outside. Inside there was just one couple.
What DC will and will not eat is always an issue, but he found “Pizza” on the menu. Doug ordered what he wanted and DC ordered the Pizza. I only wanted to be sure this was a personal size and not anything larger, I made the mistake of asking how big the pizza was. The waiter then went into some sort of tirade in French that seemed to go on forever and then said “personal size”.
Ignoring his tirade, which was very difficult for me and not to mention the fact that I have a child with Autism sitting there wondering why this man is yelling at us,  I said “good, then he will have the pizza”.
He then grabbed the menus looking disgusted after only taking Doug and DC’s order. I said “Can I order something too?” Now he was actually angry and shoved the menu back at me. I didn’t want to send him into another tantrum by looking at the menu for too long, so I just ordered a burger. It was a good burger I have to say.

When it came time to pay the bill, Doug left a cash tip on the table and paid with a credit card. He discovered later that the waiter added 12% to the charge after the fact. So still very confused about tipping. Maybe the 12% (over the 15% we already left – that he did not deserve at all) was really just the “American Up-charge” for horrible service.

Disney Village, Disneyland and Disney Studios were all very nice.  I would recommend visiting.  There was a language barrier but we really didn’t have any trouble. There were enough different types of restaurants in the Village to suit everyone’s tastes. There is a Starbuck’s in the Village, which may be the only place in France to get coffee, regular coffee with out foam.

Paris, the city – I could live without.

I did receive many great tips for London that I will share next time…..

Clarification, The Mighty and Airport Security

A little over a week ago as I was preparing for a trip to Paris and London, I wrote a post about the preparations and the issue we had with my son during a security check on one of our recent trips. The original post, “Off we go….. almost” can be read here.

At the same time, the Mighty was asking for travel, airline and airport stories. I submitted a portion of the story I had just written about DC and the TSA Agent at the Charlotte Airport back in October. I did not submit a photo because really, what kind of photo would I have to go with that story? The Mighty replied and said that the photo would not be a problem – they would just use clip art.
The Mighty article posted the following day, with the title My Son Did a Great Job at Airport Security. But This Guard Did Not. The clip art they used was one of a little boy holding his passport looking up at a TSA Agent. At the time I thought nothing of it. I know they use clip art. I assumed most people knew that the Mighty often uses clip art.

But then…… I started reading some of the comments! People were outraged that the TSA would send a child through the body scan. It was only then that I realized that the photo used was misleading people into thinking that a small child was forced to go through the body scan AND then grabbed and patted down.

This was partially my fault as well. I am used to writing for MY readers, all of whom know that DC is an adult. The stories I submit to the Mighty are usually excerpts or edited down versions of an original story I have already posted. It does not occur to me to add additional detail. (It will certainly occur to me going forward).

I did feel the need to reply to the comments that were there and explain that my son is an adult. The Mighty, in turn saw my comments and immediately updated the photo and wrote a clarification

“The Mighty Hi, Mighty community. We used a stock image for Vickie C.’s photo; her son is an adult with autism. We sincerely apologize for the confusion. As Vickie C. explained in her own comment, “They did not search a child or make a child go through the body scan. They also did not treat my adult son with respect.”

and an apology to me. I know this was not intentional on their part as I said earlier,  I really didn’t think anything of it until I read the comments. The facebook post photo would not update but the clarification was there.

Having said all of that, even after the clarification, my point that my child (Adult son) was treated like a non-person seemed to be lost in the body scan outrage.  My point: I first was confused by their treatment of him knowing he has Autism, actually confused by their treatment of him under any circumstances. After thinking about it and realizing that the fact that he has autism probably was the reason they did not even bother to speak to him or tell him what was going to happen is just plain wrong. This is a problem.

Since the article was posted I have received a few tips regarding airport security and accommodations. I will share them at the end of this post in the event they might come in handy to anyone that may be reading.

I don’t generally look for accommodations for DC. I do always want him to try before looking for an accommodation. If it is something that I know he cannot or will not be able to do, then yes, of course I will check out alternatives. If he is capable to doing it, I want him to do it. Accommodations are not available everywhere, they should be but they are not, so if he can, he will. The only accommodation he needed in this case was enough time for the process to be explained to him without getting too much direction from anyone other than myself – too much direction would only confuse the issue. We had that time, he did well, he listened and went through with no problem.

The treatment on the other side of the scan was totally uncalled for. Putting aside the wrongness of it for a moment, this kind of treatment can actually cause a problem where none would have existed. What if DC lashed out in fear? When he is confronted by a dog (he is afraid of dogs) his first instinct is to kick. What would have happened if, in fear he decided to kick or push or run? DC has never been violent, he has never hurt anyone but one does not know how he will react if frightened. He is a big strong boy. What would have happened then? I don’t want to think about it.

So I’d like to apologize for any miscommunication, but my point was not that DC had to go through the body scan at all. My point was that there was no reason for the treatment he received. The treatment he received could have escalated the situation into something far worse. NO ONE should be grabbed and patted down without a word or an explanation, no matter what age.
Below are some of the tips I received that you might find useful:

Check out The Arc of the US Wings for Autism program that gives families the opportunity to practice at the airport and trains TSA staff about people with disabilities. http://www.thearc.org/wingsforautism
The Arc | Wings for Autism
Is Wings for Autism coming to your city? Keep checking the schedule as more dates are announced…
thearc.org

and TSA Cares:

 Vickie, just read this post and while we haven’t had this exact scenario, separation for us (during the checks) are traumatic. We have had great success using TSA Cares and making prearrangements. We are met by a supervisor, who has a description of our situation and needs / concerns ahead of time. The supervisor escorts us through and stays with us until released after check point. We’ve even had some take us to our gate and ask what else they can do. (Can you say personal escorts with clout.)
I’ve even had a friend use TSA Cares to have his special needs child travel by himself. That boy is not much different than my son and parents were able to go to the gate with this child, and the meeting parent at other end met him at the receiving gate. They were completely satisfied and happy as well and love TSA Cares. It may be a well kept secret but we’ll worth our efforts and money well spent by our government.
We use it every time we fly.

(Please excuse the more-than-average amount of typos – I wasn’t intending to write anything today and this was written very quickly while talking on the phone and looking at proofs – multi-taking is also not one of my strengths)

Because, Because, Because, Because….BEEEE CAUSE

Right up there on DC’s ‘fandom’ meter with all things Disney is the Wizard of Oz. I can not really put my finger on how, when or where this fixation developed as it is not a Disney production, but it certainly did. DC owns every version of every book, movie and soundtrack of The Wizard of Oz.
There is nothing that would make him happier than a visit to OZ.
As I mentioned in Part One of this post (Hello Dolly)

I discovered a festival in Kansas called, you guessed it – The OZ Fest. The OZ fest is held in late September, not October, but still close enough to count as our Halloween trip. The OZ fest was the plan for this year’s Halloween get-away. That WAS the plan….. until we calculated the cost of the flights, rental car and hotel for the weekend and realized that it was almost equivalent to booking a cruise for a week.
Plan discarded…………… (for now)
But now I had OZ on the brain and I was not going to give up the notion of getting DC to OZ. I remembered seeing photos that my sister-in-law posted from an OZ event that they had attended a few years back. It was at  Beech Mountain, North Carolina. I facebooked her to get more details. She told me that this event was very popular, but only open for ONE  weekend each year; this year on October 3, 4 and 5. Tickets had to be purchased in advance. and I was told that it sold out very quickly.

Dollywood the day before worked out so, so much better than expected (with the exception of the ‘Mommy-Meltdown’) – so we were excited to get to “the Mountain of Oz’ – as DC calls it. I was still a bit apprehensive about the bus ride to the top, but I realized quickly that most of the mountain drive was by car.

I didn’t realize that DC had packed his watch and was wearing it in the car. I only did realize when we started getting minute by minute updates from the back seat:

“Mom, it is Eight-‘Firty’- Seven, we have to find Uncle ‘Liar’ -

“Mom, it is Eight-‘Firty’ – eight, we have to find Uncle ‘Liar’ -

and so on……….

DC has a difficult time pronouncing most of my brothers’ names. Uncle Larry, is ‘Uncle Lally’ (he can pronounce “Harry” and “Mary” but for some reason “Larry” is impossible for him). Uncle Lyle is ‘Uncle Liar’.  He always could pronounce Ted and Skip – or so I thought. He does pronounce “Ted” correctly, but at one point  I realized that all this time, he was really calling Skip,  Uncle ‘Scamp’ – it sounded so much like ‘Skip’ all of the times that he’s said it that I didn’t realize he was actually calling him ‘Scamp’ until he wrote it down one day.

We arrived at the sky-resort where we were to catch the bus. We met “Uncle ‘Liar’, my sister-in-law and my niece in the parking lot. IT WAS COLD!!!!! My brother was disappointed that we were not in costume (they were not, but he knows me well). My title of “Queen of the Costume” was now tarnished, forever!

(Did I mention that it was COLD!!!???)

- I have to give props to the “Autumn at Oz” people for sending out more than one e-mail to let ticket holders know just how cold it was excepted to be. This would not have occurred to me and thanks to them, we were prepared – But still….. IT WAS COLD!!!

We had a little time after we checking in to have some hot chocolate and coffee. There was a couple of  buildings open for us to go and get warm while we waited.

Needless to say the Italian Ice vendor outside did not do very well on this day. Hopefully he did better on Sunday.

After our hot chocolate/coffee/heat break, we went out to board the bus. We were first in line for our bus, which means we would be seated all the way in the back. My sister in law gets a bit of motion sickness, made worse by riding in the back. She and my brother were allowed to take the front seat, while DC and I took one seat in the back and my niece and Doug took the other, a decision my niece would soon regret.

• Now we were  “Defying Gravity” on our ride up to the top of the mountain -
•  while desperately trying to “Keep  away from the Jitterbug”  -
• to  “Ease on down the Road”,  -
• on our journey to reach “The Merry Old Land of Oz”.

The Wizard of Oz soundtrack was playing on the bus on our way up the mountain; Doug, being Doug, decided, out of nowhere,  to just belt out “If I were the king of the Foreeeeest”*

I will never be able to describe the look on my niece’s face, ever. I told Doug that he was embarrassing her, but that is what he lives for. The look on her face was priceless and although I felt sorry for her, I just could not stop laughing. She was just mortified. Not being able to stop laughing actually distracted me from the ride that I had been so apprehensive about. I will never forget that face and even now as I’m writing, I am laughing.

Exiting the bus;  we soon ran into Dorothy and Toto sitting near a fountain. I have to hand it to these characters, it was so cold but they never let on, one would never know by looking at them that they were freezing.


 (It was never my intention to turn this post into a visual tour, but I can not help myself. It was impressive.)

We followed the path and came upon Professor Marvel. He warned us all about the storm that was predicted to come through at any time!

We continued on the path to Kansas and where we would hopefully find shelter from the oncoming twister.

We found the Gale farm. While waiting to get into the house, Dorothy saw DC waving to her through the crowd. She walked into the crowd to greet DC and launched into the whole spiel – She was very nervous. Miss Gulch tried to take Toto for chasing her cat. She needed to find Auntie Em to protect her and Toto from Miss Gulch.

“If you see Auntie Em, please tell her I need help”

DC ate it up. He felt as if he was a part of the story.

Heading into Dorothy’s house, the Ruby Slippers were on display and a band played on the front porch.


Once inside we found Auntie Em and DC relayed the message from Dorothy. Auntie Em was thankful and told DC that if he saw her again,  please tell Dorothy to come home.

But we had to hurry to the cellar……. the storm was fast approaching!

 “The house began to pitch. The kitchen took a slitch*. … “

Half way down the stairs on the way to the storm cellar and partially through the ‘twister’ DC said, “I am getting very nervous about this” but he continued through the dark through the storm. When the storm was over, we found the house a mess and the floors topsy turvy – it was hard to stand up straight.



We walked outside to hear the Mayor declaring the Wicked Old Witch, dead!

 “It landed on the Wicked Witch in the middle of a ditch, Which was not a healthy situation for the Wicked Witch”*

DC was happy to be out of the house and excited as he was now realizing that the journey we were on  was moving in order, right along with the story. The Yellow Brick road would be coming into view shortly.

We rounded the corner and there we met Glinda. Glinda, in DC’s eyes is equivalent to a Princess. She has “princess status” in his world. He is always happy when Glinda appears, and now he would be meeting her in person!






Onward through Munchkin Land .

Leaving Munchkin Land, the munchkins told us that we had to “Follow The Yellow Brick Road*” – and so we did.

– Along the way we came across every character that resides in the Land of Oz – good and evil.

I can’t say enough about the actors that played these characters. I am told that they are all volunteers. These people were impressive. They were definitely “Disney-Caliber”. Not only were they out there all day, in costume, in the cold, but they never broke character. A few even burst into song.

Let me tell you, if DC decides to throw a line at you, you better be able to respond, in character and correctly. Believe me, his interaction with the Oz characters was no different that his conversations with ‘his’ Disney Princesses. They all had the proper response or song to whatever DC decided to discuss with them and we all know that DC can come up with the rather obscure reference. One HAS to know the movie inside and out to pass the DC realism test. Each and every one of them passed with flying colors.

Once we walked a little bit of the way down the Yellow Brick Road, the wind seemed to die down and we were in direct sunlight; the hats and gloves came off – jackets were still needed but it was really, really nice there.

The Scarecrow sang when DC asked him about his brain and then he pointed us in the direction of the Emerald City – although he could not seem to make up his mind.

DC could not resist knocking on the Tin Man’s chest
– just checking for a heart

“Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh my!”*
The Cowardly Lion……
- and yes, Doug showed great restraint in not belting out the ‘King of the Forest’ tune again.

We were now getting closer and closer to the Wicked Witch!
“I’d turn back if I were you!”*

But we didn’t turn back……. Who’s afraid of a Wicked Old Witch anyway? But, curses, we neglected to bring our buckets of water! We’d have to take our chances.

After DC and my niece both declined the Witch’s offer to join her flying monkey army, we were on our way, fully intact. PHEW!

We approached the poppy field and said one last goodbye to everyone we had met along the way.

DC, of course had to call an impromptu powwow to make sure that each of the characters were absolutely aware of who they were supposed to be….
– Just in case they didn’t know.




“We’re off to see the Wizard”*

But first……. we had to ask for admittance into the Emerald City.


I so wish I had thought to take a video of this exchange. DC went through the entire scene – he rang the bell, the door guard yelled at him and slammed the door for ringing said bell. He then followed the new directions, now that the sign was turned to the proper side, and knocked… because of course we know that the bell is “out of order” – he laughed and laughed. I think this may just have been his favorite part of the entire day in Oz.

His cousin really got a kick out of how much he was getting a kick out of all of this.


Directions followed properly – we were granted permission to enter the Emerald City and given an audience with…..
The Man behind the curtain……. The Wizard.




Finally DC had the opportunity to recite “There’s no place like home”*.
Wish granted - we made our way back to the bus, but first we came upon the characters once again, this time from the original book.


I read somewhere that the Emerald City was lost to a fire. It is a shame; based on the quality of the Yellow Brick Road – I have to imagine that the Emerald City must have been magnificent. Even with the loss of the Emerald City, the story was told from beginning to end.


We were right in time for the bus. I had photos to post so this kept me occupied on the bus ride back down the mountain.

My niece opted not to sit with Doug on the way back down.

I really do not know just what I was expecting at “Autumn at OZ” but I have to say, it was above and beyond anything I could have imagined. It was beautiful, very well maintained and VERY well staffed. It was such a fun day. Yes, it was cold, but we were warned and we were prepared. The trip was well worth it. We had a wonderful time (“terrific time” – ‘terrific’ being DC’s new word).
The whole adventure from the bus stop to the end was very well organized. There was not a long wait for anything.

I would recommend this event to anyone. It is a shame it is only open once a year, but if you are an OZ fan (even if you are not), it is well worth it. DC will never forget his trip to OZ.

I have to talk a little bit about my niece as well. My brother and his family have lived in Tennessee since DC was born. My niece and DC have only actually met each other maybe three times since she was born. So she has not spent much time with DC at all over the years. I have to say I was so impressed with her. She was not afraid of him – you might think that is an odd thing to say as he is her cousin, but believe me – it’s happened, more than I care to think about. She put up with him hugging the stuffing out of her all day. She made attempts at conversation with him, even if the response she got didn’t have anything to do with what she originally said to him. The day went wonderfully and HE is completely enamored with her.

I am so glad we had the opportunity to visit OZ with them – I think we all had a fabulous time.


Even this guy…………

In the event that anyone may be concerned ……..



after dinner with my brother and his family, we were able to find a bookstore…

*Quotes and song Lyrics from the Wonderful Wizard of OZ