Here’s the photo blog of Mickey’s trip to Georgia and Florida in July 2010.

There will never be another Walt Disney. Walt was made from a mold that was broken the minute he was born. Driven by creativity, often gruff and bull-headed, Walt Disney built an entertainment empire through his shear will and determination. And it all started with a mouse.

In WALT DISNEY: An Amercian Original, author Bob Thomas unpacks the AMAZING story of a young man from Marceline, Missouri (which would later become the template for Main Street, USA in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World) who grew up to become a pioneer of cartoons, movies, sound, television, and theme parks.

If you have ever been to any of the Disney Parks, you can understand the magic that they contain.  If you have ever looked into the eyes of child who has just ridden Pirates of the Caribbean for the first time, or watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, you know that there was something altogether different about ANYTHING that bore the Disney brand.  And Walt Disney was the driving force behind that magic.

After reading WALT DISNEY: An Amercian Original, I lost track of the number of innovations that the Disney Studios invented and employed to create their cartoons and shows.  And the untold numbers of buisinesses and industries that were either created or resurrected because of Disney.

And in the final chapters, reading about the decreasing health of the Disney patriarch, my eyes welled with tears, as I began to mourn for a man that had passed over 40 years prior.  While reading, I grieved for his family and I long for visiting Walt Disney World again, but with a renewed love and appreciation for the man who dared to dream of the impossible.  Because for Walt Disney, nothing was impossible.

QUOTABLES

• “We are not trying to entertain the critics. I’ll take my chances with the public.”
• “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”
• “Your dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.”