Are You Frickin’ Kidding Me? An Aug/Sep Surprise Trip... (12/01) Hakuna Matata

[ForeverDance]

Wow that's a lot of changes I can't wait to read all about it

Yep definitely a lot of changes. It did give me the opportunity to put my excellent planning skills to good use... over and over again.

 

[ForeverDance]

The Trip Starts Out With a Bang

August 21, 2015
Most of the time departure day is a cause for celebration BUT when you have to put in a full day of work first its torture. Slow. Agonizing. Torture.

Luckily I had Grumpy to help me through.

Grumpy: “10 hours 37 minutes”
Me: “What?”
Grumpy: “That’s how long we have left. 10 hours 37 minutes… no 10 hours 36 minutes”.

Yep really helpful. Counting down the minutes until I got off work and I hadn’t even started yet.

Grumpy: “10 hours 35 minutes”.
Me: “Seriously I might murder you if you keep it up.”

It continued all day

At work I tried really hard to find something productive to do. Unfortunately, I was too organized earlier in the week and had already passed along my current projects to my staff to support while I was gone. This meant I had no projects to work on and basically nothing of substance to do. I tried really hard to do some research but maintaining any kind of focus was just not happening.

Lesson learned boys and girls, procrastination is your friend.

At 3:20 I got another text from Grumpy: “40 minutes”.
My reply: “Or 10… only time will tell”.

You see earlier in the day I had taken a gamble. We normally get 1 hour unpaid for lunch. On occasion, we are able to skip our lunch in order to leave early. Unfortunately, I knew since my boss was away that I couldn’t leave a full hour early. But, I could possibly leave ½ hour early… if nothing came up that required my support. I was taking a chance. If I only took ½ hour for lunch I could leave at 3:30 but if something came up then I wouldn’t get to leave early and would have worked through half my lunch for nothing.

Grumpy: “29 min”… “17 min”… “10 min”
Me: “Yeah or …”

I jumped through the door. That is to say I opened the door and jumped across the threshold. I did not actually jump through the door. I’m not hulk.

We had packed the car the night before while BGirl was gone to basketball practice so all we needed to do was grab those few items that were used during the day and get PrincessK loaded into the car. We quickly and efficiently checked off the last of the “to pack” items and in a matter of minutes we were loaded and ready to go.

Grumpy: “Ready to go”?
Me: “Yep. All Set… shoot I’ve got to go grab something. You get PrincessK in the car I’ll be there in a second.”

I ran up the stairs and pulled the retirement present for my dad and the documents for BGirl out of the closet. Then I stood by the bedroom door waiting… and waiting… and waiting…

It felt like 56000 years.
I think it was < 2 minutes.

Grumpy walked in the door “are you coming or what”?
This was it, the cue I had been waiting for.
“Yep”. I bounced down the stairs. “Just had to grab the gift for dad”.

I walked to the living room where BGirl was standing by the table and Grumpy had strategically placed himself in front of the big window that looked out to the front yard and, more importantly, PrincessK sitting in the car.

I set the present down on the table, “Can you please leave this out on the counter when you leave for rookie camp. Its grandpa’s retirement present… and this one is for you.”

I handed her the letter.
She stared at it. Then looked at me. Looked back down at it. Then back at me.
I nodded encouragingly. “Go ahead”.
She opened it up and read it.

“ARE YOU FRICKIN KIDDING ME??????”

Cue hysterics.
She stood there. Hands shaking. Not breathing.
Grumpy rubbed her back “breathe honey”.
She took a breath in… and cried.

I could see it all there on her face. The excitement of going somewhere she loved, the disbelief that we were really going, but mostly the pure joy of knowing that we were actually going to be able to take that last family vacation before she moved away. Something that I know she desperately wanted but never thought would be possible.

I may have cried too.

Grumpy and I gave her a big hug and we all laughed… and then internally I groaned. Why had I not thought to have a camera ready for her reaction?

We spent a couple of minutes briefly going over the logistics and getting some after the fact pictures. Better late than never as they say.



Then Grumpy and I gave BGirl a final hug and headed out to the car where PrincessK was waiting patiently.




At 4:11 we were on the road. And at 4:13 we made our first stop.



Note: This picture was actually borrowed from Google since I totally failed to take one myself.


That’s right. Every road trip must start with Timmies. Seriously. Doesn’t matter if we’re leaving right after breakfast, in the middle of the day, or late at night. We always start with Timmies. Since it was actually pretty hot we opted to forgo the usual coffee and instead I went in and grabbed us some delicious Ice Cap’s with Mint Chocolate flavour shots. Mmmmmm.

We got back on the road and at 5:35, after a quick restroom break, we arrived at the Bluewater Bridge.

Now, anyone who knows southwestern Ontario is likely thinking. Bluewater? Shouldn’t they be at the Ambassador Bridge?

Nope. Despite the fact that Google says it adds 20 minutes to the trip, we always cross at Bluewater. We have found the waits to be overall shorter and the border guards to be just a little less… I don’t know… abrupt?

Anyway, this was the only part of the trip I was nervous about. Because our whole trip hinges on whether or not this one person decides we are worthy of entry. It doesn’t matter that we are perfectly upstanding citizens. If they don’t want to let us in they don’t have to. It’s all in their hands.

We were also a little concerned because PrincessK still didn’t know about the surprise. She still thought we were going camping and we weren’t sure how the guard would react to our attempts to continue the rouse.

Just as we were about to pull up, they changed guards.

Grumpy: “Oh great. A fresh one’s gonna be more thorough because they aren’t tired of doing the job yet. We’re gonna be here all night.”
Me: “Huh. I kind of thought it’d be a good thing. Then they won’t be tired of all the idiots and might be in a better mood.”

We got the go ahead to pull up and so, hearts pounding, Grumpy inched the car forward to the gate.

Guard: “Hello Sir”
I hand Grumpy our passports.
Grumpy: “Hi”
Hands the passports to the guard.
Guard: “Citizenship”
Grumpy: “Canadian”
Guard: “Where you headed?”
I hand Grumpy the Disney confirmation with the big mickey head on the outside. He flashes it out the window.
Grumpy: “It’s kind of a surprise.”

The guard looks down and we hold our breath… and then it happened… something I’ve never seen before… he smiled.

Guard: “Gotcha. Can you open the back window please”?
Grumpy complies and the guard moves himself to the back of the car and peers in.
Guard: “Hi there what’s your name”?
PrincessK: “PrincessK”
So far so good.
Guard: “And how old are you?”
PrincessK: “3 years old“
Guard: “Wow. You’re pretty big for 3. I thought you were 26”
PrincessK: <giggles> “Nope I’m just 3. But I’ll be 4 on my birthday.”
Guard: “Oh? And when is your birthday?”
PrincessK: “October”
Guard: “Oh. Well you have a fun trip okay?”
PrincessK: “Okay thanks.”

I was so impressed. He smiled the whole time and managed to get exactly the information he needed to confirm her identity without scaring the pants off of her.

He moved back around to Grumpy’s window.
Guard: “Alright sir. Enjoy your trip.”

At 6:00 we were back on our way. Score 1 for getting a “fresh” border guard

Soon after crossing the border we stopped at a Burger King for dinner. Generally I’m not a fan of Burger King but it was getting late and it was convenient. No one got sick so I guess it worked out.

When we got back on the road after dinner I hopped in the back with PrincessK to do her “breathing”. She does chest percussion therapy twice a day to help keep her lungs clear of all the sticky mucus. At the time this was something that we normally did right before bed so after we finished she started to realize that we had been in the car a long time.

PrincessK: “Are we getting there soon”?
Grumpy: “Nope. We have to stay in a hotel tonight and then drive all day tomorrow too”
PrincessK: “My head’s gonna explode!”
Grumpy: “You have no idea”.

At 8:26 we hit the Ohio state line and despite the many construction zones, we were making okay time. Eventually around 9:30, PrincessK fell asleep. Normally she’s not great at sleeping in the car so we were pretty happy to see that she had decided to stop fighting it. Around 10:45 Grumpy and I were happily discussing the plans for the next couple of days when all of a sudden we could see something black in the road, directly in the middle of our lane. This was not something small. It was big and did not look terribly squishy.

There were cars on either side of us and behind us. There was nowhere to go. Grumpy did his very best to get out of the way of it, but without causing a major accident there was no way we were going to avoid it. He positioned the car all the way against the left edge of the lane and then

BANG!!!

We hit the truck tire square on the ride side. This was not a piece of a tire, but the whole dang thing (minus the rim). We sat there stunned and quiet.

I saw a sign for a rest stop 3 miles up the road so we decided to pull off there and assess the situation. Once there we got out of the car and since it was my side I arrived first. On first glance it looked okay. A few scratches, but it appeared intact.

“It looks okay.”

Grumpy walks over and bends down. As he’s looking at it I can see the change in his posture and before he says anything I know I’m wrong.

“Really now”?

He put one finger on front bumper, gave it the tiniest push, and the fog light and surrounding casing fell in.

So not okay then.

Gumpy proceeded to pull off all the broken pieces. I have no idea what was holding it together as we drove those last 3 miles because it all came off without much effort. He pulled off each piece and tossed it to the side. And with each piece the tension grew.

I gathered the pieces and put them in the trunk.

Then Grumpy asked for a light so he could try to assess what other damage there was.

“We don’t have a flashlight”
He glared at me.
“How about your phone?”
Oh. I past him my phone.
“You don’t have the flashlight app?”
I shook my head. He glared.

After a few minutes of trying to see what was going on under there he declared that he couldn't see any other damage but he couldn't really see so “who knows”.

“Do we have something to tie this up with?”

The wire and bulb for the fog light was dangling down on the ground. Luckily I remembered that I had purchased garbage bags for the car and the package contained twist ties. Grumpy tied up the wires and then headed to the bathroom.

While he was gone I looked around for the first time since arriving. I noticed that there were 3 other vehicles with people around them inspecting their bumpers. All were driving SUV’s. All looked fine.

I made note: A gas guzzaling SUV beats a car in the “truck tire test"

We left the rest stop and Grumpy said “well we might as well keep going at this point.” And I agreed. What else would we… what is that smell? I think I smell something. OMG we must be leaking something. Don’t be silly I’m sure you’re just being paranoid. Nope I definitely smell something.

“Do you smell that?”
He glared at me.

We decided to pull off at the next gas station since it would likely have better lighting than the rest stop. We pulled in and I went in to pre-pay for the gas. Outside Grumpy got down on the ground and looked at the car. Eventually he got up shaking his head.

Well that looked good

Grumpy: “The washer fluid reservoir is busted.”
Me: “Ah who needs washer fluid anyway. We can totally live without that.”
He glared at me.
Grumpy: “Yeah well if it’s the coolant we’re screwed and I’m not totally sure it’s not.”

He spent a few more minutes evaluating where the container was and trying to track it back to the input in the top.

Grumpy: “I’m pretty sure it’s the washer fluid.”
Me: “Okay,” (treading very carefully now) “what should we do?”
Grumpy: “It seems mostly cosmetic aside from the washer fluid which we can probably live without” (sideways glance at me) “so let’s just go.”.

We spent the next hour or so on pins and needles. Every bump, sound, or smell had us on edge. Grumpy suggested that maybe we should just drive straight through and try to get there as quickly as possible in case there’s something wrong we can’t see. I understood the desire, but given how tired and on edge we both felt I just didn’t think it was the smartest course of action. Grumpy eventually agreed and so we stuck with our original plan of stopping just inside Kentucky.

At 12:26am we past the Kentucky state line and soon after we are checking in to the Hampton Inn and Suites. PrincessK, who had thankfully slept through the whole ordeal, barely woke when we took her out of the car and up to the room. After a quick potty check and change into jammies, I plopped her in bed. Grumpy very quickly climbed into bed himself and, after preparing PrincessK's medication for the next day, I climbed into bed as well.

Lights out at 1:25am.

My last thought before falling asleep: “Please, please let the car start in the morning.”


Up Next: You're On Tire Duty

 

[DisneyJo]

Oh my, how scary, I hope it wasn't the coolant!!!

 

[ForeverDance]

Oh my, how scary, I hope it wasn't the coolant!!!

It really was quite scary. As to whether or not it was the coolant... you'll have to wait to the next installment to find out.

 

[Dinohood]

i want to read more, hope the car is ok and it was nothing big on the wallet.

 

[ALEXandFAB]

I'm in! Hope the car was OK

 

[pkondz]

The last four years were very difficult. And while I shall not be airing any dirty laundry online I will say that there are days that I look back and wonder how we ever survived.

Sorry to hear that. Hope things are better for you now.

We needed to go to a place where we could be free and let it all go.

North Dakota?

The snooper extraordinaire.

It is nearly impossible to keep things from this girl. In 18 years we have never been able to surprise her.

Huh. Our 18 year old is the opposite.
We have no trouble fooling her.

Talking to yourself is only a sign of insanity if you actually answer, right? Right!

That's what I keep telling myself.

On that note. Let’s start with the perfectly sane narrator for this adventure. Me!

love video games and D&D

Oh, man. I played D&D old school... when it was brand new.

I could dance all day long and would have made some serious cash as a professional dancer… if only I was actually good at it.

Aye. There's the rub.

Grumpy. Hey don’t let that smile fool you! Deep down lurks one seriously grumpy guy.

and right about now are coming to the only logical conclusion… rift in the time space continuum

Yep. That's what I was thinking.

Not too many high school athletes are given the chance to play at the next level and BGirl worked really hard to fulfill that dream. Grumpy and I couldn’t be more proud.

And so you should be!

Yes she was planned.

Yes we are crazy.

Clever. I like that.

Grumpy: “10 hours 35 minutes”.
Me: “Seriously I might murder you if you keep it up.”

It continued all day

Lesson learned boys and girls, procrastination is your friend.

Oh I learned that a long time ago.
I just haven't done anything about it yet.

I jumped through the door. That is to say I opened the door and jumped across the threshold. I did not actually jump through the door. I’m not hulk.

Of course not. But I expect you could've danced through it.

I handed her the letter.
She stared at it. Then looked at me. Looked back down at it. Then back at me.
I nodded encouragingly. “Go ahead”.
She opened it up and read it.

“ARE YOU FRICKIN KIDDING ME??????”

Cue hysterics.
She stood there. Hands shaking. Not breathing.
Grumpy rubbed her back “breathe honey”.
She took a breath in… and cried.

That's.... awesome!!

I could see it all there on her face. The excitement of going somewhere she loved, the disbelief that we were really going, but mostly the pure joy of knowing that we were actually going to be able to take that last family vacation before she moved away. Something that I know she desperately wanted but never thought would be possible.

You're getting me right in the feels, ya know.

I may have cried too.

You too?

Note: This picture was actually borrowed from Google since I totally failed to take one myself.

Thievery!!!

That’s right. Every road trip must start with Timmies. Seriously.

The guard looks down and we hold our breath… and then it happened… something I’ve never seen before… he smiled.

Wow. That is rare!

I was so impressed. He smiled the whole time and managed to get exactly the information he needed to confirm her identity without scaring the pants off of her.

Had a very similar experience with Elle when she was 5.

PrincessK: “Are we getting there soon”?
Grumpy: “Nope. We have to stay in a hotel tonight and then drive all day tomorrow too”
PrincessK: “My head’s gonna explode!”
Grumpy: “You have no idea”.

There were cars on either side of us and behind us. There was nowhere to go. Grumpy did his very best to get out of the way of it, but without causing a major accident there was no way we were going to avoid it. He positioned the car all the way against the left edge of the lane and then

BANG!!!

Oh, no!!

He put one finger on front bumper, gave it the tiniest push, and the fog light and surrounding casing fell in.

Oh, man. I feel so bad for you guys!
You did not need that!

Grumpy: “The washer fluid reservoir is busted.”

Same thing happened to me.
Not a good feeling, at all.

My last thought before falling asleep: “Please, please let the car start in the morning.”

Fingers crossed!

 

[ForeverDance]

i want to read more, hope the car is ok and it was nothing big on the wallet.

Thanks for dropping in. I promise that more is coming... eventually. It's been a busy week.
Is anything on a car ever inexpensive? Even the most mundane things cost an outrageous amount. "Oh you have a little scratch? That'll be $500000 to repaint the car."

I'm in! Hope the car was OK

Nice to have you along. Thanks for the positive thoughts.

Sorry to hear that. Hope things are better for you now.

I'm honored and... a little intimidated that you are here! Wow I'll have to step up my game.
And thanks, things are definitely better now (knock on wood) .

Oh, man. I played D&D old school... when it was brand new.

I actually started as an adult. My cousin's husband has been playing since he was in school and he got us all into it.

Oh I learned that a long time ago.
I just haven't done anything about it yet.

Of course not. But I expect you could've danced through it.

I was going for the big "tada" so I jumped. I suppose it was more of a grand jete though.

Oh, man. I feel so bad for you guys!
You did not need that!

I think that's about the first real thought that went through my head.

Same thing happened to me.
Not a good feeling, at all.

Nope. Not at all.

Fingers crossed!

Oh yes there were! And my toes too

 

[pkondz]

I'm honored and... a little intimidated that you are here!

Don't be silly. You're doing great so far!

I actually started as an adult. My cousin's husband has been playing since he was in school and he got us all into it.

I don't even think I could play it now, it's changed so much.

I was going for the big "tada" so I jumped. I suppose it was more of a grand jete though.

I can do that! Except maybe it's not a grand jete and maybe it's more of a stumble than a jete.
So.... I guess I can't do that.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Enjoying the TR so far!

 

[ForeverDance]

Don't be silly. You're doing great so far!

Thank you. That's very kind.

I don't even think I could play it now, it's changed so much.

I'm pretty sure you'd be fine. It's like riding a bike... of course if it's me attempting to ride that bike I'd critically fail and end up in a heap on the ground with a horde of orcs trampling me.

Enjoying the TR so far!

Thanks for joining. So glad you are enjoying it.

 

[irene_dsc]

I'm pretty sure you'd be fine. It's like riding a bike... of course if it's me attempting to ride that bike I'd critically fail and end up in a heap on the ground with a horde of orcs trampling me.

Lol - that sounds like me, in both regards!

I also played almost original D&D, and our 14 yo ds is now playing, but has moved to the current version. I'm quite thankful for the high school D&D club, since it is way too time consuming for dh and me to do it with him!

Also, enjoying the TR so far! I can't believe how well the unveiling went, and the great border guard!

 

[ForeverDance]

Lol - that sounds like me, in both regards!

Yep this is me. I have the worst luck ever. I'm not even kidding. My DM has taken to giving me "magic items" that give me re-rolls 1 a day or, one campaign, I had a "magic item" that let me roll two dice and use the best one.

I also played almost original D&D, and our 14 yo ds is now playing, but has moved to the current version. I'm quite thankful for the high school D&D club, since it is way too time consuming for dh and me to do it with him!

It really does eat up a lot of time. I am soooo grateful to our DM because without him dedicating the time he does, we just wouldn't be able to play.

Also, enjoying the TR so far! I can't believe how well the unveiling went, and the great border guard!

to the TR. I'm glad you enjoying it.

I couldn't believe the unveiling went so well either. I did know that she wanted to go and her boyfriend did tell us that she was going to "go crazy" but I guess I didn't quite realize how important it was to her.

The border guard was amazing! It really was the only thing we were nervous about and it went so well. I guess we should have saved our worrying for the drive

 

[Iamthequeen]

Ok, you have me hooked. Can't wait to find out what happened with the car... and the rest of the trip.

 

[ForeverDance]

Ok, you have me hooked. Can't wait to find out what happened with the car... and the rest of the trip.

So happy you've come along for the ride.
I've started working on the next chapter so hopefully later this week.

 

[pkondz]

I've started working on the next chapter so hopefully later this week.

Meanwhile, one week later, the natives begin to show signs of restlessness....

 

[ForeverDance]

Meanwhile, one week later, the natives begin to show signs of restlessness....

Yeah.... sorry about that.

PrincessK celebrated her 4th birthday on October 1st and since every other kid who had celebrated a birthday at school had brought in cupcakes I was now obligated to follow along with the tradition (I was not going to be the first parent not to send something in). But I wanted to make something different so in my infinite wisdom I decided that I would make painted chocolate lollipops. I excitedly bought all the supplies and got down to work. I had 28 to make. That first night I made 8. It took me 1.5 hours. So glad I decided to be "different"

And then PrincessK got sick. We put her on antibiotics and for a few days things seemed better. And then the vomiting started. It's been 5 days and both us and her clinic are quite concerned that she can't seem to eat without throwing up. It's been pretty stressful and most nights I just flop onto the couch after she goes to bed and don't want to move.

BUT I have been working on it today. See I'm waiting for PrincessK's clinic to call so I couldn't go work out at lunch sooooo I don't want to commit to anything... but you should see something soon(ish).

 

[pkondz]

I excitedly bought all the supplies and got down to work. I had 28 to make. That first night I made 8. It took me 1.5 hours. So glad I decided to be "different"

That'll learn ya!

And then PrincessK got sick. We put her on antibiotics and for a few days things seemed better. And then the vomiting started. It's been 5 days and both us and her clinic are quite concerned that she can't seem to eat without throwing up. It's been pretty stressful and most nights I just flop onto the couch after she goes to bed and don't want to move.

Oh, man! I'm so sorry to hear that!

BUT I have been working on it today. See I'm waiting for PrincessK's clinic to call so I couldn't go work out at lunch sooooo I don't want to commit to anything... but you should see something soon(ish).

Oh, geez. I feel like a total prat, now.
Don't worry about it, just take care of your DD and take care of yourself!

 

[sara1215]

Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!

 

[awalker1015]

Awesome trip report. I cannot wait to read more!!!