What a day!
Whatever inflection or meaning you choose to draw from those three words, you're probably right - we've had it ALL today.
Got up at 5:30 - should have gotten up at 5:00. Should mention that Steph was up packing till 2am. Anyway. Got stuff crammed into every available inch of space in the Suburban and rolled out of the place only about 10 minutes late.
Turned on the camcorder to do some 'the journey begins' filming only to find that the camcorder video screen is on the fritz. Everything looks fine, the whole display just slowly creeps down and then cycles back to the top. It's like the 'vertical hold' on an old TV is JUST off.
Now, anyone who knows me knows that the video camera is just about the most important thing in my world. When it's not working, I'm not working. So it started me off with a rotten feeling. Steph tinkered with it and then found that when you push the button for 'easy mode' it clicks into place. Sigh of relief. Couple of jokes about how the "Easy Button" actually had worked like the commercials.
Had to stop to get milk at UDF on the way out. Gave Faith and Mari some new plastic juice box type drink containers and Mari immediately said she couldn't get hers to work. So, before we even got on the highway, had to pull over across from Coney Island to fix her cup...which she just hadn't opened enough.
Soon after, Steph told me that now pushing the easy button didn't work either. Return of sick feeling in my gut.
Understand - I think it's still on the coverage plan at Best Buy - but taking it there would mean not getting it back before the start of the big trip. Would also mean that we wouldn't have one right now. And I tend to think that it's working fine, but just the display is messed up...which would mean we could learn how to somehow shoot it and get OKAY video (keep in mind the hard drive cameras don't have an eyepiece for some reason), or maybe it's all messed up and the video we get will float down the screen too. Won't know until we save it to the computer and view it.
Point is, I'm a mess about it - my mind is racing. Go to Chattanooga Best Buy, buy a new one, that is compatible with my old battery, since the batteries they give you always need to charge for a few hours.
Meanwhile, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Now, you realize you've been reading all this and we still are only 10 mintues out of Cincinnati yet.
Anyway, by accident I discover that we can get it to lock into place just by jiggling the screen a little bit. So it works. Sort of. We hope.
Now, Faith starts saying that she thinks she's going to throw up. Which she pretty much never says unless she's really sick. So after the requisite speech about telling the truth, we pull over, get all the stuff out of the car that needs to get out for Faith to get out (including Mari) and of course she is fine. Here's the funny part - she was just hungry. That kid has such food issues she doesn't even recognize the sensation of hunger. Probably never been actually hungry before. Just bored.
Get back in, and finally things start to smooth out. Made it all the way to Tennessee with no stops. Only scare was us thinking that Robby's Lovey had fallen out when we stopped, but we finally found it. Serious clockwork from the twins (for those not in the know, clockwork refers to their uncanny ability to take turns being sad).
After that stop, straight through Tennessee to Lake Winnie. No problems. Feeling good. Minimal travel cliches - couple of "are we there"s but not too many. Lots of dropped toys and books. Oh well. Didn't have to bust out the DVDs at all - and they only asked 2 or 3 times. Even got Faith to like a new "mommy and daddy song" - she now likes "Stand" by R.E.M. -- Good girl.
As for Lake Winnie, thrilled to say we pulled the surprise off. Faith saw one billboard on the way, but didn't ask if we were going. When we pulled into the parking lot, Faith was looking down and didn't see the huge sign. But then she looked around and started getting suspicious because it really didn't look like a hotel. She figured it out and got excited.
Then something weird happened with Mari - apparently we hadn't heard and she had just said something to Faithy about not going to the hotel...or something. We don't know exactly. But she got really upset and started saying "No, daddy, I was just teasing" and started to cry. And then I think she didn't believe us. But eventually she got excited too. Honestly, I think it was just too much for her. She can barely understand simple concepts like "if the babies are sleeping, no you can't go say hi to them" so to completely throw off her fragile understanding of what was already a weird day must have really rocked her world.
It was hot, but honestly, we didn't really start to bake until 5 or so - when the breeze was blowing it was not bad at all. Had a great day. Faith and Mari were great. Robby was pretty good, and even clapped his hands in excitement on the carousel and train. Hannah...well, she was hot and sad most of the time. Screamed her face off on the train ride and wasn't too happy about the carousel. But we weathered it.
I cannot say enough good things about Lake Winnepesaukah. I'm a HUGE fan of the 'family' or 'old-time' amusement parks and this has got to be one of the best. Perfect size, good value, good variety, reasonably priced food, great layout, well-maintained...for you Cincinnati folks, it's everything Coney Island should be. We love Coney but it falls short in a lot of ways. Won't go into that here, but if you're interested, ask me next time you see me. Ought to post a rant sometime about how much I love this kind of place - Wonderland in Amarillo, Centreville in Toronto, Coney Island back in Cincinnati, even with its flaws. I mean, King's Island is great and all but...enough is enough, right? There is something to be said for moderation (said the guy with the ridiculously long blog post).
Sitting in the dark in the Super 8 Fort Oglethorpe. It's...well, it's a hotel. Mari is I'm sure still awake thinking of excuses to stay up. That kid has sleep deprivation. Guess she'll succeed at college pretty well.
Anyway, that's all for now - except for some pics. Enjoy!
Matt