Carmella's Hang Out

I am not going to have finished the account of my family vacation, before leaving for my second one!! oy!
So lets see, where was I?

Oh yesss. We had spent some time in the ER with Dad, and found we were all feeling a bit down because we had gotten strep. Praise the Lord, Dad was starting to feel better within the first day of taking the meds. He got it the worst of all of us, and was really sick while we were in Glacier, so he was not able to enjoy it to the full extent that he would have liked to.

We then went to Yellowstone. The heat in the actual park is just unbelievable in places. We spent three nights in a camp ground something around 50-60 miles outside of the park. It was close enough that we could drive to the part during the day and back to camp at night, but also far enough away to not be RIGHT in the park or park area. It also meant we were farther away from the fires that were raging through some of the woods in the park. That didn’t mean we were not affected by it. Our things were covered in a fine layer of ash every morning when we woke up.

We all woke up freezing too!! One morning, the first we were to spend at Yellowstone actually, the three kids and David were still asleep, but the rest of us had gotten up and gotten dressed. It was so cold with the wind, that Dad, Mum, Tiff, and I spent an hour or so, before the others got up, in the van talking!! We didn’t want to be out in the ‘elements’. I, thinking it was going to be like that the rest of the day {Canada had tended to be on the cooler side, and my mind had not flipped back over into warm weather mode.} so I put on a long sleeve zip up jacket shirt. Not wanting to go overboard, I didn’t put a teeshirt under in….hoping that if it did get cooler, the lack of a second layer would work in my favor. Nope. I forgot we were going into a place that had boiling lava on every side!! lol. It was not horrid, I even managed to get a sunburn so some of me was not all covered up!! heee!! It was on the hot, hot side {yes, David….shopping shopping, or whatever the words are….} but it was not horrid, as I said.

Some of the others were not impressed by parts of the park, due to the lack of green and living things. What had not been demolished by fires or just the heat of the geysers, had been scorched by the sun or died due to lack of water. I on the other hand, liked it because of that. I’m not sure if it is just cause of the mood I was in or what, but the death all around just seemed to be right. I so much wanted to be able to write a poem that would describe what I was seeing, and how I was feeling about it, but I just couldn’t. The only thing I was able to come up with was this lame little prose of sorts:

“They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So what do you do when you have no camera available, and the beauty has stolen all thousand of those words?”

Yeah…see….I guess my brain dies on vacation! I could think of nothing!

I had told my friend Sarah that, while I was gone for the three weeks,  I would give myself some homework. That would be to write a poem about a farmer story I had come up with. I must have started that thing over 10 times during those 21 days, and had to scrap all of ‘em. I just could not think in rhyme! Even now, I have tried to write about what we saw while there, and just how it was to be there, to see that, to feel the heat and know that hell was fifty times worse at the very least. Many days, I was near tears walking the park. Here I was in a national park, with my family, looking at some of the things I have heard stories of for years…..and I had some of my friends on my mind. Wondering if I had told them enough of the love of Christ. Worrying that I would get home and find one of them to have been killed, and knowing I had not done all that was in my power to lead them to the Lord.

After one such day spent in the park, I went back to the tent and wrote out a letter to one of the friends that had been heavy on my mind and heart that day. I then prayed he would still be around when I got back home, so I could send it to him. He was. And he reacted pretty much like I figured he would. But at least he knows now.

I can not say enough about what we saw while on our vacation. Both the US and Canada have a ton of “prettiness” to offer. Some of my lack of words will be helped when I get my pictures posted. That will be sometime in the future, and then I will be able to have some visual aids to go along with my exclimations…..

I love how unique my family is, and that is always brought out even more by our vacations. I am 22 years old, but really truly enjoy being jammed inside an eight passenger van for hours at a time with the seven other members of my family!

From Yellowstone, we began our trip home.

We stopped for a night in Wall, South Dakota. If you remember, that is where we went on vacation last year. Not only did we stay in the very same camp ground as last year, we stayed in the same camp spot!! It was really neat! Funny though, we got after 7, and set up our site. We then took off across the street to Wall Drug to get something for dinner….at 8. Turns out….Wall Drug closes at 8, and being a town that runs around the drug store….nearly everything else closes at 8 aswell. We did find a gas station that had a Subway in it, and we were able to get dinner there, since it didn’t close till 9!! lol We left early the next morning.

We had hoped to stop off in Iowa and see family there. Tiff and I became very close to much of our extended family in that area, when we spent that six weeks there almost two years ago. Any chance to see them, is one I like to take. Our trek was going to take us about two hours away from Des Moines, but it was looking like it was going to be a better idea just to drive right past and go home, by passing DM all together and goin above.

I was not very good at hiding my disappointment. It was not at all that NOT going to Iowa was going to ruin vacation, and I hope that Dad knows that. I kept thinking that too as I was mulling things over in my head. I knew that there have been times where I have spent all day with the kids and then we don’t get to do one thing in the end, and they are really disappointed. I know that them acting sad about it does not mean that they didn’t like the rest of it, but I also know it can seem like that at the time. Maybe I am making no sense at all…..but at this moment I am kinda thinking out loud and kinda hoping that both Mum and Dad read this! lol. {It will make more sense to them, because they know about the Festival on Saturday and all….but I am probably making even less sense now, and I am even loosing myself. Really, its ok not to get what I am saying right now.}

ANYWHOO….getting back to the subject at hand. While I was disappointed a bit about not going to see everyone in Iowa, I was ok with it. And just as I became really ok with it, and had given my disappointment over to the Lord……Dad, seeing I was sad about it, made an executive decision. We would drive into Des Moines, go to the Sonic that is there {Tiff and I knew right where it was, cause we had driven past it a ton of times when we were there, but had never gotten the chance to EAT there} then call my cousins and my Aunt, letting them know we were in town and all that wanted to come should meet us there for a visit.

YAY.

So, the plan became to call them when we were about an hour outside of Des Moines, we would call.

Then, about two hours outside of the city…..while we were still in Minnesota, Mum felt that there was a problem with the van. Pulling over to the side, she could not tell what it was but knew it was not getting better. At Dad’s suggestion, she turned the van off to see if it would go away, but when she tried to turn it back on, it would not start at all. We were once again stuck on the side of a road, with family about two hours away, unable to do anything….and it was after 5 again. lol.

We had a word a prayer, and then Dad took off down the road, on foot, to look at the mile marker so we could tell a tow truck where to pick us up. When he was about half way to the marker, he turned around and came back. We all gave him a confused look and asked if there was a problem, and he said “No, look!”. Behind us, two MN State Troopers had pulled off to see what the problem was.

See, 99.99% of the roads we traveled were under construction. This one was no exception.

They kindly offered to call a truck for us, because even though we had cell phone service this time, we were no closer to knowing who to call than before. They called a place, but they had sent everyone home for the night, and had to call a man in to come get us. It helps to have a cop be the one calling, eh?

While we were sitting there waiting to find what the outcome of the call had been, I joked, “Hey, they have two cars, they can always wait with us till the truck gets here and then take us where the van is going so we don’t have to call another cab!” I think it was David that said, “No. They don’t have time for that. Its nice enough that they are calling for us, lets just be happy about that. They wont drive us too.”

Do you know, not ten minutes later they told us they were going to wait with us, and then transport six of us with them, to wherever the van needed to go! PRAISE THE LORD!! No expensive cab ride this time!!

One of the men said he thought it would be best to get two of the kids in the backseat of his car, and have one of us adults with them, to get them off the road and to safety. We found out, they both had kids. Both men were VERY concerned about the three young ones and making sure they knew they were safe and had nothing to be scared about. I took Sam and Caeley with me to the car, and got them settled in the back seat. Tiff and David had Katren in the car ahead of us, while Mum and Dad went in the tow truck with the van.

Traffic being heavy, and the shoulder being small, both cops got out and directed traffic while the driver of the wrecker put our van up. Then off we went.

Conversation in our car was so funny! The kids were not at all scared, and the policemen just kept a constant banter going with all three of us. Every few minutes he would look behind him {yes…turn! He didn’t just look in the mirror. In fact, as we were pulling out into traffic, he had both hands off the wheel, so he could type up a report about what they were doing!!! lol} and ask “You two ok back there? You feel ok? You’re not scared right? Everything is going to be ok!” He said he was impressed by the fact that we all seemed to be taking it in stride, and that the kids saw everything was going to be ok! The two nuts were so comfortable with being in the back of a cop car, that they even began to make up stories. From my seat in the passenger side, I heard “So….what are you in for?” from Caeley, then from Sam, “Oh….I murdered my brother. You?” “Oh they got me for robbing a bank.” Both kids had placed their hands behind their backs!!! rofl!!! They had entire stories made up!! I made sure to remind them that there were recorders in the car, and they might not want to talk like that. So instead they went about trying to find the microphones!!! And they did. heh.

After hearing they were home schooled {Caeley was worried that he might think I was their mother, so she brought it up, and my being their sister soon turned to the fact that them being home schooled was the reason we could all be out of the state in September.} the State Trooper stated that he was sure they were learning plenty just being on this vacation. They kids agreed with both that, and the fact that one of the things they were learning was that they only wanted to be in the back of a cop car when being helped with a broken van!!

The garage we were taken to, turned out to be a gas station aswell, in the middle of a corner of shops! We had a Walmart, Super 8 Hotel, and Dairy Queen all within walking distance, though they cops offered to drive us to the Super 8 after seeing to our van! We were saying goodbye to them, when they both went back to their cars to get gifts for the kids!!! lol. I cant even remember everything they were given. I know all they got MN state trooper cards, with a photo of the car on the front and stats on the back, and they were each given a key chain. They handed me a couple too. There was one other thing, but I cant remember right now if it was a sticker or a badge.

We spent the night in the Super 8. Learning from our first motel night, Dad asked for 2 smoke free rooms. They found that they did not have any. HOWEVER, they did have a non-smoking suit with two rooms, three beds, two tv’s, a microwave, a fridge,  a fireplace and a safe for valuables, open and for less than getting two rooms!!! We gladly took it, and were given the key cards. The room was just around the corner from the front desk, and when we got there, we found that the cards would not work. Try after try turned up the same thing. Even having the cards re-programmed twice, and the front desk clerk try it didn’t make things any better. She was going to go look for two rooms to get us, when she remembered that the suit had a sliding glass door that had access to a little patio outside. So we stayed in it, and they gave us $10 off the price of the room for the batteries in the door handle being dead. That room was one of the NICEST we stayed in all vacation, and it was the cheapest aswell!!

When we saw we were going to have to stay in MN for a night, we called our family to let them in on the funny story. They were all gathered at my Aunts house at the time, since another Uncle and Aunt from MI had been driving through and stopped in for a visit.

One of my cousins who is a mechanic, offered to come pick us up and fix the van himself, but agreed that they were quoting us a fair price and it would be ok to stay there and have them fix it for us. It was so wonderful though, to know he was willing to drive all that way to help us out! He also told Dad, that just because we had broken down, and our plans had been changed….that didn’t mean we could get out of going to Des Moines! Dad assured him we would be there the next day as soon as the van was road worthy.

The next morning was spent shopping at the WalMart, after a beautiful continental breakfast at the hotel.

Later that afternoon, they had the van fixed and we were on our way…..we were not even a mile down the road when we heard a horrid sound…..and saw something fall off the van. Hearts in our throats, Dad pulled off to the side of the road again, and he and David went looking for what had fallen.

A wrench!!! lol. They had left a tool under the van, and the driving had bumped it out!! We drove back to give it to them, and I understand they thought it was funny also!

Few hours later… saw us pulling into the Sonic, and another great visit with family. There was a nice turn out for such short notice. On the down side, Dad and my cousin {the one that offered to pick us up} did have to spend about an hour and a half, two hours at the WalMart there getting the tires of the trailer changed.

We were a loud group!!! lol.

Sonic has AMAZING FOOD!!! lol. The chicken sandwich we all had was, we all agreed, one of the best if not the best, we had ever had from a fast food joint!! Good thing too, since it was not till we got there that Dad found out we had never eaten there before!! He knew Tiff and I wanted to go there, but he thought we had been when we lived there for that time. We were both sure he knew we had never made it, but we were wrong. One of the reasons we went to Sonic, was so that I was not the first person in the family that got to eat there when I went to Texas…..and I have already talked it over with Tara….I WILL eat at Sonic again once in Texas!! lol. {See, they play the commercials for all the great Sonic food and drinks, here in MI…..but there are NO Sonics near by! It is a more Southern company. There is one in Ohio, but it is too far to drive just for lunch!}

Mum drove for a few hours after that, and got us to Chicago. Then Dad took over again and drove us all the way back home that same night….well the next morning, but he drove all night I mean. We got home around seven on Saturday.

And there you have it. My account of our vacation. A wonderful time I would do over again anytime!!!