Let me begin my recount of our vacation disaster by saying this:
For almost two months we talked to the boys
every day about our trip. We talked about the pool, the water slide, roasting marshmallows and seeing the stars. We took out pictures of previous trips and discussed how Blue Boy's first trip took place when he was five weeks old.
Once a year, my husbands company has a two week shut down for maintenance on the building and other such things, and each year we take that time to go camping somewhere, even if it is for only a night.
The children look forward to having mom and dad be un-distracted by game systems and the internet, And we look forward to a relaxing few days with just the kids and nothing else.
Some of you have said that camping is no vacation, but to us, If we were given the choice of camping under the stars and going to bed with dirty,dusty feet and bellies full of marshmallows or a five star resort, we would pick camping with no hesitation.
Seeing my boys faces when we had to tell them we had to pack up and leave, watching Rainbow Man's lip quiver as he tried to hold in tears. Hearing
him apologize to
me that the camping trip was a bust over and over again, becuase he
knew we were looking
so forward to it, it broke my freaking heart.
Reading yesterdays comments made me realize there are way worse things that can happen then what we dealt with, but I am still upset and I won't apologize for it to anyone.
I don't care if some of you decide to email me and accuse me of being melodramatic and blowing things out of proportion. To US, it IS a big deal.Stuff that in your pipe and smoke it!
Thursday night we went to the city and picked up BFF Kissy and her trailer. Friday, The husband started work at fiveAM and Kissy and I packed the gear. The boys are hyper excited.
Finally, after such a long long wait, we were going.
We missed our turn off and The husband and Kissy had a great time laughing and threatening me with Valium. I'm not a very good passenger! When we finally realized we were going the wrong way, we had added a full hour to our trip and ended up at the Park Gates at about four thirty. Life was good.
And then the car stalled and would not start.
Temperatures ranged in the 100f mark, and all of the water and what-not was buried in the trunk of the car. The kids were very hot, over-excited and very hot. It was also very hot.
We assumed that the car overheated, and let it rest for ten minutes that turned into almost an hour. Have I mentioned that the car was hot?
It took us another hour to go the two miles from the gate to the park office where you pay for the site. We had to stop quite a few times to let the car cool.
During all of this time, we watched person after person pass us and get their site. By the time we arrived, all of the electric, and non electric sites were full.
No matter. Last time we were here, Overflow was the same as a non electric site, minus the trees for privacy.
Unfortunately, The Provincial park had change things since we had been there last.
Over flow was now a large field beside a swamp. No fire pits, no picnic tables, no washrooms, nothing.
So there we sit, a car we cannot trust, it's hotter than hades outside, and we don't know what to do. We are also a little confused. Why would they put us in overflow when twenty feet to our left is whats called group camping. Its a big field, just like over flow, but each site has a fire pit. And it's empty.
With out the fire, you have no food and you have no heat. You have no reason to sit up with sleepy eyed children on your knee talking about anything and everything. Camping and fire go hand in hand.
We sat there, unsure of what to do, and finally decided we should set up the tent and trailer. Make the best of it, though God only knows how we are going to feed the kids.
And thats when the little park worker drove up in her golf cart and invited the family next to us
(the only other people in overflow) to move to the group camping site. She stops by us, and we were expecting her to tell us the same thing, instead, she asks how we are
(fucking DUH - Horrible!) We asked if we could move like the other family and she told us that they are not allowed to let people move.
When we said but you just let them, she looked blank and said, "but I can't let people move to group camping, its the rules".
So. Now we are mad, but what can we do right? We continue to set up camp talking about how we are going to get the trailer and BFF Kissy home by Sunday - she had to be back at work for Monday.
We can't pull the trailer with the car and risk being stuck on the side of the highway in the heat. We ended up calling around, and got a hold of BFF Kissy's mom. Only, the only night she was able to pick up the trailer was
that night.Decision time. Do we stay or do we go? Leaving then means the kids are upset, but if we stay, how do we feed them? Sure we packed snacks, but I was not going to let the children eat chips for three days! Also. If we leave now, we have someone to follow us home so we don't have to worry about three kids in a hot car and a deserted highway.
Stay and no food and no safe way home. Or leave.
We chose to leave.
Labels: I'm Important Too