16 Hour Day at Racers

I arrived at The Mickey and Friends parking structure at 6am. Parking lot opened at 6:30am. I then walked over to Disney California Adventure Park entrance to see if I could come in with the Extra Magic Morning guests. It worked. Came into the park at 7:08am. Got to Racers at 7:13am. 

In the first ride of the day, the cars stopped moving at 7:20am. I was in car next to Sheriff. The delay kept getting longer, waiting for the ride to start back up. Got me thinking how many times I've been evacuated from the ride. Twice at Frank's. Once at tipping tractors. Twice at belt check, once at starting line. Once before crossing finish line. I was walked out under the finish line. So I counted that lap. One time after the race, I was at low bank. And one today at Sheriff. They turned power off and I was taken out. Now the waiting game until they can get the ride operating again. I took a couple selfies with the crew and just hung out waiting. I was first in line when they started to walk us to the load area of the ride at 9:24am. I got in a car at 9:27am. And away we go part 2. Turned 2 laps and at 9:50, the ride powered down again. Maybe the ride is testing me today and wants to see if I can last until 11pm tonight. Challenge accepted.

The ride was running again at 11am. I waited for the single rider line to open up. They let in Fastpass guests first. At 11:05am they opened single rider line. At 11:10am I turned lap 3 for the day. At 11:49, lap 4 for the day was completed. Then the single rider line was all the way to the front entrance. I visited with cast member Catalina, who was at single rider entrance. Then at 12:12pm, I got back in line. By 1:50pm, I was at 6 laps for today. About ready to take my first break for the day. Took break from 2:35 to 3:10pm after lap 7. 

At 5:30pm, I turned lap 10 for the day. Five and a half hours to go. At 6:40pm, lap 11 was achieved.

Lap 12 at 7:30pm.

Lap 13 at 8:31pm.

Lap 14 at 9:22pm.

Lap 15 at 10:00pm.

Lap 16 at 10:23pm.

And using my readmission pass from this mornings evact, lap 17 at 10:45pm. I'm tired. I need days like these to see if I really want to reach my racers goals. 

I need to bake cookies for the Crew in a couple weeks.

Ivan, Andrew and Doug

Mary, April and Teddi

5000 Newspaper Article and Year End Goals

On Monday November 16th, I got a Facebook message from Keith Sharon, a reporter from the Orange County Register. I was at Radiator Springs Racers at the time. He wanted to meet up and talk to me about my 5000 laps. We got together at Flo's Cafe in California Adventure. We talked for about a hour. We went over my back story and how I came to turning 5000 laps at Racers. We also got on the ride together. I was in the front row and Keith in the back row. He also got to see how I interact with the cast members. He came to understand the fact that I continue to turn laps at Racers because of the great support and encouragement from my Pit Crew friends. 

The next day, the newspaper photographer met me at the ride. We walked in the single rider line and got in a car twice. He sat in the front row and I was in the back both times. He took several shots of me on the ride. He also got a shot of me as cars raced behind me. And shots of my little notebook. You'll see the photos in the article. Here is the link to the story.http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hale-692628-cast-disney.html

Now, what is going to happen the rest of this year? Some cast members are asking me what my next goal will be.

I have two goals to finish off this year. One will be fairly easy. The second goal may not happen.

Goal number 1: reach 2600 laps for this year. I'm currently at 2355. Only 245 laps to reach this goal. 

Goal number 2: reach 5500 laps all time by the end of year. This one will be tough. I'm currently at 5127. 373 laps to hit this goal.

So let's see how the year will end. Everyone's support will be needed as always. The encouragement from cast members and Facebook friends will keep me focused. 

Photo courtesy of OC Register 

Photo courtesy of OC Register 

5000

As usual, got to parking lot 10 minutes before it opened at 8:30am. Looked a bit crowded. Probably because the parks do not open until 10am. I walked over to DCA entrance without getting on the tram. I got to the attraction at 9:45am. I talked to one of the leads, Mark R. He told me because of some cast members "calling out", they were short handed and probably could not do lap 5000 until 2pm. 

A brief window opened for a try at 11:00am, but I still needed one lap before 5000. I got in single rider line and did not get on ride until 11:08am. So the cast members had to go back in rotation. I had friends show up at 11am. Sandra, Heather and Dorise, Michelle, Claudia, Erin, and Mark and Brittany. Most of them could not stay. I was grateful they came in and we got some 5000 photos ahead of time. Former ride cast member Katie H. came in on her day off. And current Pit Crew member Carlene B. came in before she had to report to work.  Katie was able to stick around and Carlene had to go change into her Racers uniform and report to work. My friends Heather and Dorise H. were able to stick around. So Katie, Heather, Dorise  and I went and ate lunch at Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta. 

We got back to Racers at 1:40pm. Ruth, Catalina and Carlene were released from current rotation and along with Katie, we got into car Red 5 at about 2:26pm. I had the 5000 sign Angela S. made for me. Cast members were able to autograph the sign before the big day.  Katie had my Go Pro on her wrist, and we got video of the race. We won. But we also did not race against anyone. A win is a win. We got post race photos. Some normal and some goofy shots. Heather had my phone and took the photos. She also shot video of us getting in the car and leaving the station. And a great clip of the car coming across the finish line. Also took photos with Heather, Dorise, and Brittany.  The photo pass crew gave me the ride photo and another photo that Carlene, Catalina, Katie and Ruth signed for me. Carlene also handed me a card, the Pit Crew members signed. After saying goodbye to everyone, I went back to racing. Getting congratulations and photos with my cast members friends, along the way. Ended up with 12 total rides for the day and 5010 all time on Racers.

I am very grateful to everyone for making the 5000 lap possible. The leads for letting the cast members ride in the car and my cast member "sisters" getting in the car with me. My friends for showing up even if they had to leave before the big lap. The fact they showed up was great. And we did get 5000 pictures even if they were before the ride. Also Heather using my phone to take some great video and pictures of the event. It was a great day. 

What's next? The real "goal" is to eventually reach 10,000 laps. It will take anywhere from 2 to 3 years. For the current year, I'll like to end up with 2600 rides in this calendar year. I got 2400 laps  last year. So with 2600 this year, I will have 5000 laps in 2 years. In 2012, I got on the ride 56 times. In 2013, 316 times. So I would need to reach 5372 for this to happen. 

It has been a great adventure so far. And we all the love and support from the crew and friends, I see no reason to stop racing. Plus I still need a lot of 5000 photos to take.

All photo tags are left to right,

Catalina, Ruth, Katie and Carlene

Catalina, Katie, me, Carlene and Ruth

Goofy shot

Erin, Sandra, Dorise, me, Heather, Claudia, Mark, Michelle and Deshawn 

Goofy shot

Jordan

Vanessa

Heyse

Andrew

Carlene

Catalina

Ruth

Alicia

Melissa

Grace

Amos