Day 19, 20, and 21

Ben Lutz:

Well, where to begin. On Thursday Ben and I spent the whole time in the Magic Kingdom at Disney. We went on all our favorite rides and saw all of our favorite attractions including getting a picture with Mickey and Minnie. We also took a few pictures in front of pirates with James and we both got a little nostalgic. It was weird seeing all the secret doors we used to go through and see all the changes they had made to the ride since we left. They took the parrot away for one thing and for this, Ben was not pleased.


After being at pirates James backdoored us onto Jungle Cruise where we had a captain who was trying a little too hard to impress her two former cp guests. We did almost everything we needed to do in the magic kingdom on Thursday including wishes and philharmagic and other various things that nearly move you to tears. However, we did not do everything we needed to, so we planned on coming back to the MK on Friday. Also, we ate more candy apples and they were delicious.

On Friday we had James main gate us to Hollywood Studios so I could see 'Lights, Motors, Action' which I had never seen before. It was kind of cheesy but pretty cool. I think our favorite part was the trivia before the show started. We also rode the toy story ride again along with 'tower of terror,’ thee great movie ride,' and 'rock n' roller coaster.' Then we headed back to the MK to go on 'peter pan,' 'pirates,' haunted mansion,' 'philharmagic,' and 'splash mountain,' to name a few. We also wanted to end our stay at Disney with another showing of Wishes, which was okay with Ben because he had already seen two illuminations. But after that we lucked out because EPCOT had extra magic hours last night. So we meandered over there to ride 'Spaceship Earth' two more times and 'Mission: Space' once more. Then we walked around the world and had some fish and chips, a funnel cake, flirted with the girl at the America pavilion, and called some uptight British girl 'love,' using an English accent. We also had a pretty good time watching all the middle aged people take advantage of EPCOT after dark which is to say, we enjoyed watching old people get blitzed.

Then as we were walking out of the park we saw some sort of bright light in the sky shooting up into the air. We found some other people watching it and asked what it was. They told us that it was an unmanned spacecraft being launched. Ben remembered that he had read something about that and we sat and watched that for about 10 minutes. As lame as it sounds, it was almost symbolic. Ben and I were leaving Disney to go back to the real world while this shuttle was leaving to go discover more 'real worlds.' Whatever, it was cool either way.

Today we woke up around 9:30 and headed for Tampa. We went to Clearwater beach and threw a little baseball, swam a little, tanned and little, and listened to a little Bob Marley. It was a perfect day at the beach. There were also lots of pretty girls around. Ooh, and I also found a huge shell which is pretty cool. Anyway, we're heading back to Louisville now and spirits are surprisingly high here in the car. It’s a bit of a bummer but I think we realize that we dominated the lower 48 and that this trip could not have been any more of a success. Anyway, were going to keep driving and hopefully find a place to stop and get some pralines. We are STILL not dead. Even I am a little surprised by that.

pictures to come later...

Day 18

Ben Lutz:

From a Kim Possible scavenger hunt to riding segways to eating in Italy we did it all today in EPCOT. We met up with James and his lovely girlfriend Heather (a hardcore UK fan) today for some fun in the Florida sun at the happiest place on earth. Honestly, we didn't do anything out of the ordinary. We did try to ride segways, but besides that Ben squared tackled EPCOT as we always have; with a feverish, frenzied, fanatical, fortitude. We did Soarin' again, checked the diagnostic on mission: space, and even watched the little Chinese dudes jump rope in the world showcase. We also got the patented Ben squared dessert of EPCOT, which as I am sure you all know is chocolate éclairs from France. The best part of the day was remaking some of the classic Ben squared pictures i.e. the outward looking piggy back ride and the Viking hat poses. We also added some knew soon to be classic poses and photo-op venues.

Ben and I also had to face our fears today and ride the new Spaceship Earth. We had heard it had been renovated but learned last night that our favorite part of the ride, the narrator, had been changed from the grizzled old man to dame freaking Judy Dench. You can imagine our horror/anger/complete and udder despair upon hearing this news. However, we were pleasantly surprised when the ride itself was actually better than the old Spaceship Earth, though we both agreed that it would be the best ride in existence if they stuck with the old guy instead of 'M' from the James Bond movies.

All in all it was a very good day in the park. But let’s be honest for a second if we can. Has anyone ever heard of or can anyone even imagine a less than perfect day in EPCOT? If you can answer yes to this question you are a liar and I would liken you to a patch of skin cancer on this worlds beautiful face. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. Also, UK lost and I hate them. Also, we still aren't dead...but we're not home yet so give us time.

Day 17

Ben Johnson:

Today we began our domination of Disney World!!! We met up with James at around 11am this morning and he got us into the parks before he had to race off to catch a Tee Time. Although James dropped us off at Epcot Ben and I decided to start our day at Animal Kingdom in order to pop our Everest cherries. Everest was real good and a worthy effort by Disney... on the flip side I still do not believe that it competes with Rock-n-roller coaster as the best roller coaster at Disney. We continued on to hit Dinosaur (amazing), Maharajah Jungle Trek, and Kilaminjaro Jungle. After this we hit Everest one more time with our fast passes and decided to move on to Hollywood studios (formerly MGM).

Hollywood studios was great, but due to short hours today we were only able to hit our favorite rides and then race over to Epcot for a few brief rides and then Illuminations!!! So we quickly hit Tower of Terror, Rock-n-roller coaster, One Mans Dream, and toy story Midway Madness (one of my new favorite rides) and then ran short on time. After we walked through the boardwalk and made our way over to Epcot we quickly hit Norway and Mexico boat rides before getting in primo position for Illuminations. Illuminations was amazing (as always) and at its conclusion we raced for the bus. We immediately went out and order some delicious chinese after we got back and are now enjoying vintage mickey, donald, chip and dale, and goofy cartoons. They are amazing.

That does it for tonight! tomorrow looks to be even better!!!

Ben and Ben

Day 16

Ben Johnson

Today has been real boring... we were hoping to be to Orlando by midnight (which is a 14 hour drive from DC) , but we woke up late of course and I had to stop at a minute clinic because I got poison oak when we were trekking through Yosemite National Park and get some oral steroids to kill this crap. After wasting our time at the minute clinic near Richmond, VA for over an hour (we jumped back on the road and depressingly saw that we were not going to make it to orlando til 3:30am... ughhhhhh.

Other than that the day has been really uneventful and sadly have no pictures to show for the day. We did wake up to a ton of snow in DC... that sucked, but... whatever.

I-95 has been real boring, but other than that we will catch up with you tomorrow night when we have kickin pics from disneyworld!!!!!!!!

I will leave you with some vintage Ben Squared + James Gillis Pics

Ben and ben

Ben Lutz:

But hold on one hairy second kids, there's more! First we realized that the gps was taking us to Miami so our 3:30 am arrival time was off by about 2 and 1/2. So, as you can imagine we were stoked about the idea of more sleep. But then ben got pulled over on our way to Daytona beach (because we had to see both the pacific and atlantic oceans. we'll be seeing the gulf later so freaking stay tuned!) at about 1130 pm, so that slowed us up a bit. Then we took about 15 pics at the beach which slowed us up even more. So now we're going to be getting to our sweet Kissimee motel 6 at about 145. Easy come easy go, i guess. Its still an hour and a half earlier. Anyway, we're still not dead and we totally should be.

Day 15

Ben Johnson:

Today started slow as per usual, but ended up being an incredibly full and exciting day. We woke up around 9am and found our way onto the Subway and into Washington DC a half an hour later. We decided to kick everything off by going to Ford's Theatre (Where Lincoln was shot) and going through the tour and recap of that fateful night back in the mid 1860's. After listening to the guide for a half hour in the theatre they walked us over and allowed us to see the room where Lincoln drew his final breath. It was beyond surreal and also shocking how much more there was to the story than most of us are ever taught.

Because our day in Washington DC fell on a Sunday we got black balled on much of the other tours and events that go on with regard to federal buildings. This did not ruin our day though. We made due with the time that we had and what was available to view and closed down the city. I wont bore you with explaining everywhere we went, but will let the following pictures do the talking. One note... right before we left we had a conversation with an insane protester whose lib passives group has not left their position in front of the white house since the 80's. He was nuts. (check out his sweet tats on his head-bl) To end the day we jumped back on the Subway and headed back to our hotel. We decided to eat at the nice restaurant in our hotel and then ended the night by watching the Phenominal Rush Limbaugh speech from yesterday, iron chef, and East-bound and Down. Ultimately, today was an extreme success and now we need to get mentally prepared for 13 hours of driving tomorrow as we head towards Orlando, FL!!!

Ben and Ben

Day 13/14

Ben Lutz:

Well, what can you say about the mid-west? You can say that it is a vast, desolate wasteland that only exists, it seems, to get in your way when traveling from coast to coast. However, the mid-west is where Amy Runde hangs her hat thus making it not totally useless. It was exciting seeing someone I had not seen in nearly 5 years (for Ben j only 4 and 1/2). Sure she smells, tells bad jokes, doesn't brush her teeth, and has a taste for raw chicken, but we love her anyway. After watching some male enhancement infomercials and receiving some abuse about my sweet mustache we hit the sheets. The next day after bidding Amy a fond farewell we scurried out of Iowa around noon and entered toll road alley. From Illinois to Penn we probably spent around $40 on freaking roads. It was pretty ridiculous. To be perfectly honest we did not do very much yesterday, it was pretty uneventful. Ben and I did continue our ongoing argument on what would win in a fight; a male lion or a male tiger. Eventually we arrived in Pittsburgh where we went to Primanti Brothers to get one of their famous corned beef, coleslaw, tomato, and french fry sandwiches which I have had my eyes on ever since I saw 'Top Ten Places To Pig Out In America,' on the travel channel. Anyway, that was the highlight of the day. After that we continued to York, Pennsylvania where we stayed in yet another Motel 6.

The next morning I woke to a half flooded room. Ben had risen from the dead like sleep we were enjoying before I did and hit the shower only to find that when he was done, the bathroom floor was about 3 inches underwater. So, you know, that was mildly funny. Anyway we trekked on to Philadelphia and immediately hit 'Geno's Famous Steaks' (another haunt I have always wanted to visit ever since I saw it featured on a food network show). After asking some slick haired Italian standing in front of us in line how to order, I stepped to the window and, with confidence, ordered 'two wiz with,' which is two steak sandwiches with onions and a cheese wiz sauce. These sandwiches were freaking to die for. If some hooligan drove by and shot me in the face at the moment I completed my sweaty meat and cheese sandwich I would have had no regrets. However, I survived and no drive by's ensued. We continued on to Independence hall where the United States we invented. It was almost eerie being in the rooms where those treasonous slave owners drafted the blueprint of our Nation. I think I am safe in saying that both Ben and I were caught up in a kind of wave of respect and humility. It was pretty fantastic. (stairs to Centenial Bell)

(Original Senate room)

We then hit the Liberty Bell (boring) and the Rocky stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Then UK lost....that's all I'll say about that.

Now we are in Washington DC watching 'Man versus Wild' whilst awaiting the Marquez/Diaz fight on HBO. Pretty exciting stuff. Oh, I also got a job over the phone, so that’s pretty rad.

We are STILL not dead.