Have you ever had one of those experiences where you doubt anyone else would believe your story? Recently I had one of those experiences... and it really seemed to be the stuff that could have been in some really bad non-fiction novel.
We were departing from the cottage up north. We had been there all week. The day had been raining on and off, pretty much the entire day. It was about 8pm (the kiddos bedtime) when we were all loaded up in the family mini-van. We began our journey home and began listening to another Junie B. Jones story on CD. Not even 15 minutes later, we made our first pit stop. We had to throw away some garage so it would stink up the mini-van. Then about another 10 minutes later, we stopped again. This time it was to put air in the tires. While we were stopped, the puppy (well, I refer to my 12 year old lab still as a puppy) decided she needed to go out one last time.
As we loaded back in, I thought to myself, "Good, now were are really ready to head home". Yeah, nope... it wasn't that simple. Somewhere into the next hour of our journey, my puppy was panting. Something was really wrong. Then I felt the driver's seat. IT WAS BURNING UP! I had no clue how it could be that hot! The a/c was on after all! So my hubby pulled the car over into an empty Medical Clinic's parking lot. As he was pulling in, the oil light went on. Of course! We couldn't figure out what was going on. Also, the hood of my car didn't want to open, so my wonderful husband couldn't check the oil. Back in the car we got. We went searching for a gas station. We had no idea where we were going, but when we saw a sign that we were headed in the opposite direction from home & the cottage, it was a problem. Did I also mention the next exit was 8 miles away?
We found the exit and continued our search of a gas station. We found a gas station in the middle of no where. Yes, if GPS cannot find me, I call that the middle of NO WHERE. When we stopped, someone noticed that there was a temperature dial in the back. The children had put it on full heat at one point. Turns out that once we turned it to cool, everything was ok. (Don't you wish all car problems were that simple?) Since we were stopped, it required another bathroom break... yes, the puppy too. Then we loaded back into the family mini-van.
When we finally managed to find ourselves on the right road, the children begin revolting. There was quite an upraising of hunger. So I said we could stop at McDonald's for a quick hamburger and cheeseburger. When that decision was made, we just passed the exit with a McDonald's. How did I know it would take another 30 minutes to actually located another McDonald's? We ended up driving through the entire city (a larger up north city) and passed two Hardee's, two family videos, and a bunch of other stuff... but NO McDonald's. We ended up in the next town over before we actually were able to tame the crowd.
So now that everyone has been feed, we again head up to the freeway to head home. Not even 20 minutes later we all heard a big "THUNK!". Yep, our family mini-van just rolled over some big raccoon. I'm sure he was lovely, but I can't imagine that he made it.
Feeling like I've had enough drama for the evening, I very much decided to close my eyes and sleep. I really was hoping I could sleep until we got home. However, I woke up. Not just woke up, but WOKE up. When my eyes opened, there was a deer approximately 20 feet from us and my husband was getting the mini-van into the other lane to avoid hitting it. I know he had everything under control, but being in the passenger side and having just woken up... it was a little frightening!
I was just about to give and and throw in the towel. But then my husband informed me that the farmers had their machinery out in the fields and our family mini-van was getting fertilizer all over it. I couldn't help but ask, "Does that mean we just been poohed on?".
Some trips are unforgettable. For me, this one will go down in the record books.
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