Friday, June 4, 2010

A Trip Begun...Barely

154/365

Perhaps I should call it North by Northeast.



We took off on our Vacation today. Much insanity with Packing, Loading, and trying to be productive finally paid off. We had to turn around 3 times for things I forgot, and I'm still remembering minor things. Oh well.

We made it all of 5 miles, not even to the County Line before our first SNAFU. Hopefully our only Snafu. As we were driving along the back of the Park, we began turning in an intersection and the car died. Stalled out in the middle of the intersection. This is 4 on a Friday afternoon, and rather than help us, people just moved around us. Our lives were in HIS HANDS. E threw the car into neutral and we coasted to a Park entrance. As we tried fruitlessly to start the car, the Park patrol came to lock the gates, which we were just outside. He took a look at how it was trying and nothing happened. He says, it may be your fuel pump, it's trying to get fuel and not getting anything. I had noticed we were low on gas, thought we would stop at Costco, Eric wanted to make it a bit further.
We called the Tow Truck, and were waiting, we mentioned that we thought it might be in need of gas, and they said No. OSHA prevents them from traveling with gas anymore. Grrr.... So we also mention we have the kids. Guess what? OSHA won't let carseats (aka kids) in the wreaker, nor can they stay in the car. We've got to have someone come and rescue the kids.
Super.
Double Grr.
So we start calling everyone we know. LUCKILY, we're still 10 minutes from home. But it's nearing Zero hour...as in if we don't get to Registration for the race in South Bend by 8 p.m., Eric can't race it, because there's no registration in the morning; makes sense it's a 6 a.m. race. Sunburst Marathon. More like Sunrise.
Triple Grr...
One friend is coordinating our rescue, and we hang up the phone, and out of frustration Eric tries the car again. It Starts! And wonder of wonders, suddenly my gas light is on. (I'm not a slacker, I knew had less than 1/4 tank, but it was still above the red, and there had not been a light, I swear.) So we go...we drove to the closest gas station, cancelling the wreaker, cancelling our friend's rescue mission, and Praying we get there on time.
We did. With a whopping 20 minutes to spare. Hopefully this will be the one and only car fiasco of the trip and we'll be good to go.
The kids didn't sleep much on the trip, they didn't get sufficient naps today, the plan being for them to sleep in the car. Chris got antsy, Sam got really Fussy. Come to find out he must've spent that last hour muddy. Can't blame him now, but boy was he giving us a headache that last hour of the trip. Best part of the trip was Chris singing along to choruses of Neil Diamond and Billy Joel! I'm so Proud.
We checked in to our hotel which is right next to the start of the race. I'm talking about next door. It will be Very Nice, it's a pretty swanky hotel. We ate at the nearest open restaurant, which was BW3's (ironic since we're eventually headed to Buffalo) for dinner. Shabby service, but all things considered the boys did well. Got back to the hotel, and the yungun's and I went to drown our sorrows in the pool. Did the Trick! Chilly, but relaxing, and once again, fate was on our side, as when we came by after dinner it was crowded, but once the boys and I went down...no crowds, just us, Sam and Chris LOVED it, were splashing and giggling, their voices bouncing off the walls: the highlight of my day!

1 comments:

Carla S said...

I hope that's your only SNAFU, too! But it sounds like a little "miracle" may have happened that E was able to get it to start again!

Enjoy your trip!