The Never Ending Day

While my faithful readers were getting organized, I was on vacation. Sorry if I misled you to think that I was actually getting organized along with you. Oh the beauty of pre-posting ... so that some evil lurker won't come live in our house while we were gone.

So let's backtrack a week ago, say, to Friday night...

Hubby and I had the car completely packed by 8pm, ready to pull out of the driveway by 6:30am the next morning. We live in a very quiet, almost rural neighborhood. I always park my car in the garage, but we couldn't because of the cargo box that was on top, ready for the trip. As I drifted off to sleep around midnight, I thought to myself, I think I left my purse in the front seat. I should probably go move it... nah, we've never had any trouble in the neighborhood in 8 years. At 4:30 am our doorbell rang. Of course our watchdog went nuts over the doorbell. My fearless hubby went downstairs to answer it, only to find no one there.

SERIOUSLY?! Who does a ring-n-run at 4:30?! I could understand 12-2 am, but 4:30 am???? Didn't that little hellion know that we were leaving to drive 17 hours??

I noticed all the other neighbor's lights were on, so I decided we weren't the only victims. After a call to the sheriff, I knew there would be no going back to sleep.

While it was disconcerting, it turned out to be a blessing. The sheriff came by and volunteered to do a patrol the whole week we would be gone. Oh, and my purse was still there. Thank you, Lord, for your protection!

Our week of vacation started a little earlier than we planned, but that's okay because we packed more into 7 days than I ever thought possible.

After driving for about 8 hours, we realized that we would be arriving at our reservation a couple of hours early.

Miracle of miracles, this happened to only be 7 miles out of the way:

How's that for starting off our vacation right?!

I discovered a new favorite: Hershey's Dark Chocolate with almonds. Divine.

We decided to stock up for the day week.

I mentioned reservations. Oh, did you think hotel? Nope. Camping reservations. Locust Lake Pennsylvania State Park.

Lesson #1: online reservations are not always a good idea. We should have guessed by the toothless park ranger who greeted us that the night would be unforgettable.

{That is not the ranger, it is my adorable hubby doing his favorite thing: cooking outside}

The lake itself was beautiful. We were expecting a view of this:
Instead, we got a wooded, gravel covered site.

Without running water.

And a toilet at least 3 blocks away.

Surrounded by 428 other campers.

Fortunately, my hubby had purchased a portable toilet for the trip. Oh how I love that man! I never thought I would see a toilet seat screwed to the top of a giant paint bucket as a beautiful thing. It was beautiful. Priorities change in desperate times.

So we pitched our tent and made the most of it. The kids enjoyed the campfire while hubby and I cooked dinner.

Lesson #2: Biscuits on a stick don't work, even if the website says they do. But bacon and eggs on the camp stove are perfect!

Since our day had begun before the crack of dawn, we were ready to hit the sack at 8:15.

8:30 a van full of teenage boys rolls into the adjacent campsite

9:00 hubby and kids fall asleep

9:30 son tells me he is sleeping on a rock

9:35 hubby, son and I squeeze onto a queen size air mattress

9:45 I roll off the air mattress onto said rock

10:00 party next door gets started

11:15 I consider politely asking them to tone it down, but weigh it against waking my family

11:30 annoying laughter follows multiple crude jokes from next door

12:00 John Denver (from next door) decides to serenade the entire campground

12:30 party decides to go on a hike really? do you ring-n-run too?

1:00 I drift off to sleep

1:15 party returns from hike

1:30 we've gone from crude jokes to smashing cans on the forehead no, please, allow me

1:45 swear words that I didn't even know try to pass my lips

2:00 headline: "sleep deprived mother of 3 goes on campground rampage" skips through my head

2:20 another [obviously] annoyed camper yells people are try-ing to sleep!!! I want to give a little whoot-whoot, but decide not to wake my little campers

2:30 party comes to an end and teenage boys go to sleep

2:31 caffeine from the 3lbs of chocolate that I consumed decides to kick in

We were up with the sun the next morning and I may or may not have been a little loud and chipper as I announced to the boys next door to my family that it was time to rise and SHINE!!!

After a day like that, I knew that our vacation could only get better ... and it did.

But that's for another day ;)