Marked Cars in Disney World

In 2002, we kicked off our vacation by arriving at star spangled Disney World early in the morning to beat the heat. To be present when the gates opened, our family exited our rental car with reckless abandon and determination to be in the front of the lines. Ten hours later, we returned to the Goofy parking lot a ragged overly stimulated family in no mood to be looking for our loaned car on tired feet. Without personal markings on the car or a familiar license plate to go by, every other rental car seemed to resemble our rental car. I used the car keys on a number of vehicles to no avail. A helpless feeling came over me, the only male adult in our party.

Dripping of perspiration, the kids did their share of complaining. Up and down the aisles, my wife and I searched only reasonably certain that we parked in Goofy. An hour passed before my hubris gave way to employing basic survival skills. Summer heat steamed off the Florida blacktop and the glare of the setting sun. I was getting punch drunk. Could we have parked in Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, or Snagglepuss? Could the car have been stolen? Like accidental tourists, we must have foolishly walked by our rental car a dozen times without recognizing it.

This incident occurred back when the kids watched too many Looney Tunes cartoons. Braving the elements none too gracefully, the kids got easily spooked by the hawkeyed winged predators in the sky.

One of the children asked, “Why are there buzzards circling?”

My wife and I looked directly over our heads. A gaggle of buzzards circled high above our defenseless positions. We laughed hard…after we found our car.