Monday: Whacking at rocks with hammers in the rain to try to discover Herkimer Diamonds. Kind of fun in a muddy, physical, futile sort of way. You have to be in a certain mood to spend a lot of time hitting rocks in a search for tiny clear crystals.
I left my driver's license there, though, by mistake taking along three hammers. Didn't realize it until that night when I was camping, two hours away. I called them Tuesday and got my driver's license number just in case I was stopped by a cop. The significance (and prescience) of this move will be clear below.
Monday night to Wednesday morning: Imagine the three of us in a in a leaky tent meant for two people at 41 degrees in the rainy, rainy Adirondack Mountains. The nights were kind of hellish.
It was a tiny pup tent; Madison bagged the idea of sleeping in her own tent, which was the orange one, so we crowded into the green tent together for security and warmth. The girls bore up well. I had a hard time sleeping, what with simultaneous claustrophobia (not really able to turn over for fear of bumping into wet tent or sleeping child) and agoraphobia...just me and the girls out in a tent in the middle of nowhere, where there might be bears. I didn't tell them about the bears, then or ever.
The first night it rained so hard I put them in the car for a while and turned on the DVD player, for a Night at the Movies with David Attenborough's Life in the Freezer. It seemed that cold.
The days were fun, with friends...we went canoeing during a sunny intermission on Tuesday, which was great.
Consensus is: More camping? Sure! As long as there is a nice dry cabin somewhere with indoor plumbing, they're all for it. Especially if we're with Max and Henry again. And, preferably, Daddy. Mommy prefers to have Daddy along, too. Daddy would have come in handy. Though not in that tent.
Wednesday afternoon: On the way down the NYS Thruway to visit my friend Anne, the car engine died, violently. No accident or anything, but a sudden giving way with loud noises when I was traveling 65 mph. Got over to the side, girls safe, got car towed. Engine deader than vaudeville. I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture of the car, because I was too busy charming the rental car people to take my BJ's photo card and the driver's license number I'd scrawled on a piece of paper the day before, in lieu of an actual driver's license. It WORKED. I think it was because I was a cheerful confident lady far from home with two little kids and a dead car and it was a young, not-yet-cynical guy. I smiled and smiled at him.
Wednesday and Thursday, some relatively blissful camping out in the living room of my friend Anne's house, seeing her wonderful kids and generally getting absorbed into her busy, happy family. They're always so welcoming. Most of this time was spent on the phone with AAA, various car towing agencies, mechanics, etc. trying to find out what was up with my car, two hours north. Thursday, they found a used engine that would work with my Subaru Outback. Good thing, because I love that car and I would vastly prefer not to have to get a new one right now. Even with the 132,000 miles. The idea of never getting in that car again sent Madison on the edge of hysterics, she hates getting rid of anything. It looks like the car will be saved. But not until NEXT WEDNESDAY.
So I've been cooling my heels at various friends'. Tomorrow is my cousin's beach house for (I hope) a couple of days. Maybe some actually good photos where I'm actually relaxed. Then back up north. Fingers crossed that the car is actually ready on Wednesday, but of course who knows. Meantime, work will be piling up.
And, I miss David.
I wrote this in my weekly email out to the KidsOutAndAbout.com list:
Have you ever noticed that sometimes, it's all in how you tell the story, both to your kids and to yourself?
Approaching a stream of bad luck as an adventure, a challenge that you can cheerfully work through together and talk about later really beats letting your kids see you frustrated or dejected. Like, yesterday...
I realized what a difference it makes to a situation to focus on the positive, especially while we were waiting on the side of the Thruway (BEHIND the car on the other side of the guard rail, not in front of it...really important tip, in case someone hits you). We were LUCKY, I told the girls. It was a beautiful sunny day in August rather than a snowy midnight in February, we had just come back into cell phone range, and the Thruway Authority came within half an hour. We read Calvin & Hobbes on the side of the road. I was able to rent a Kia nearby and load in our camping stuff. An adventure, truly. If I can find a replacement motor, so they say, they can fix it...next Wednesday. We shall see. In the meantime, we are getting by on sheer cheerfulness fumes, and the generous hospitality of an old friend--seven hours away from Rochester--and the fact that no one is sick or hurt, so nothing can be that bad.
I'm not sure when I'll have internet access again until Thursday. I will probably post an update...after I sleep, sometime near the end of the week.
1 comment:
Oh, gosh. I'm glad you guys are keeping cheerful in spite of the surprises, and also that you didn't have to face any bears.
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