Don't the experts tell you that when you're totally frustrated and at your wits end, to think of a happy place? Well, both Tanya & I needed a happy place on Friday evening. We had planned a camping trip with the Craig's a few months ago up in Steamboat Springs. It's about a 3.5 hour drive from the Denver area. Let's just say it was not a fun drive. Megan hadn't taken a nap and Zoe had been running a fever for a few days prior.
The Craig's had the day off and smartly drove up there earlier in the day. Us? We left at 4:45pm, just in time to enter the jammed traffic on the highway. After sitting in that for 30 minutes, things picked up. Shortly thereafter, Megan started asking if we were there yet...not good when you have 2.5 more hours of driving. That concerned us even more since she had already finished watching a movie and was bored with our one saving grace, the DVD player.
At the half way point, Megan started telling us she didn't feel good. Apparently, her tummy hurt. Thinking she needed to go potty, we pulled over and let her do a #1 on the side of the road next to a river. Little did we know, but we stopped right in the middle of the mosquito capitol of Colorado. The three of us got swarmed and attacked. If that wasn't bad enough, about 20-30 of those blood-suckers made it into our car. One of them perched on our dashboard right in front of me...taunting me. The sun hit it at just the right angle to reveal a huge belly full of blood. Great, who wanted to smack him now? For the remaining 1.5 hours we chased him and all his friends with a tissue...as to not get a handful of blood. The damage on me? Fortunately I had jeans on and only came away with seven welt-producing bites on my arms, hands & neck that itched like the dickens. Tanya & the girls faired much better.
With 30 minutes to go, the frequency of Megan telling us she didn't feel good picked up. It didn't help that the road we were on was nothing but curves. This time Megan's pale white face brought some credibility to her claim. We kept telling her we were almost there. As we pulled into the campground and were about 100 yards from our campsite, Tanya thrusted a plastic bag into Megan's lap just in time to catch the deluge of you know what.
That's it. As I've been typing, I've felt my blood pressure rise thinking about these events and the constant whining that accompanied them. Off to my happy place running through the flowers.
The rest of the weekend was awesome, so more about it tomorrow.
Holy Moly! After reading that, I am grateful that our 17.5 hours of chaos with Aubrey went as well as they did last week.
ReplyDeleteGood catch Tanya! We had a similar experience with Aubrey last August when we went to Jerry and Donna's. Unfortunately, Aubrey was too young to tell us what was wrong and managed to soak everyhting in her path and screamed the rest of the way to their house! Fortuantely we were within 15 minutes.
Wow, at first I was kinda feeling bummed that we have yet to go camping with you guys, but after reading this...well, you get the idea. :)
ReplyDeletewow. that's pretty yucky. I especially like the description of the bulging mosquito. I got sympathy itches while reading it. :)
ReplyDeleteBeing raised in Wisconsin, and the mosquito being the state bird - I hate those critters. I sent along mosquito bracelets that Auntie Jen was to pass along, did they help? And if so, I will get one for you Woody.
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