The Wingmen got us all checked in to the hotel when we arrived in Indiana. We gracefully moved the kids into the hotel room, doing our best to carry them while they slept. My secret is to put the big kids on my back, like a piggy back. I remember when I was young and would fall asleep in the car; I wanted so bad to be carried into the house when I was so tired, but always had to walk.
I could not believe how delicious it was to lay in a bed! It seemed like a dream that would never actually happen. It was so squishy, soft and snuggly! Soon, we were out cold. Tommy Rivers Puzey, did you sleep on the floor in that hotel? I think the Wingmen crashed in the RV until it was ready to be dropped off in the morning.
In the morning, we all woke up at our leisure. I am sure there was a continental breakfast, then the kids got into their swimsuits as soon as they could! We went down to the pool, knowing we would only have a couple of hours until we had to check-out. I called a friend back home and visited, since I only got to touch base with friends every 2 weeks or so. It didn’t matter that it was a crappy, hotel pool, the kids had a blast!
Soon it was time to check-out. We had so many blankets and pillows to get out of the hotel room! Brytin was there and she parked right outside of our ground-floor hotel room. It only took one trip for us to realize that we could pass stuff out of the window. We soon had a great system, like ants working together, passing the stuff out the window, then the next worker ant took it to the car, and the next ant worker loaded into the car. In case you are wondering how big this car is, it was a compact car. We smooshed all of our stuff into the car, then 7 of us into the 5 seater. But let’s be honest, we are pros; smooshing is our specialty!
We knew that the RV wouldn’t be ready until around 2:30 in the afternoon, so we had some time to kill. There was nothing fun to do in this area, so we started googling stores. No dollar store, no Target, so our next google was a Walmart (It’s like a shopping mall, you can spend a long time in there, when you need to kill time.). Walmart wasn’t very far away, so we happily made our way over, joking about the clown car. We went in to Walmart and spent as much time as we needed, roaming around, looking at anything and everything. It was too bad this town didn’t have a Chuck E. Cheese’s or a movie theater.
As 2:30 approached, we crammed into the car, and put in the address to our GPS for the RV shop. We soon arrived at a huge lot, full of RVs. These were not RVs for sale, there were just a million (practically) RVs. Some even had people sitting outside of them. I thought it was so weird that these people were ‘camping’ out in a big RV lot. Everyone stared as we climbed out of the car and unlocked the door to the RV.
As soon as I got in the RV, I realized that it had not been touched. It had not been taken back to the bay, and it had not been fixed! It was now late afternoon, and they had never even bothered touching it. Now I get that everyone is not at our beckon call, but give me a break! I started the RV to get the dash AC going for the kids. I also had them turn a movie on the laptop, so that they would be distracted from my internal RAGE that our RV hadn’t been repaired. They knew were were going through Indiana, we had made the detour, and they knew that we were coming. I had the kids settled for a bit, so it was time to figured out some solutions.
I needed to get this trailer hooked back up, so we could get on our way. Brytin and I worked together, trying to get the trailer re-attached. There was gravel, and the wheels were caught on the mound of gravel, like a tire track. I am pretty strong chick, and I could not get this thing up and over. I finally told her to push, and I would pull. This worked, we lined the ball up, but we couldn’t get it to drop down and lock.
When I realized that I couldn’t get this rusty thing hooked up, I asked the people sitting outside their RV. There were 3 men and 2 women. “Can you guys please come help up?” Blank stares, finally two guys looked at each other, turned back to me and nodded no. I said out loud, “Are you SERIOUS?!?!” It wasn’t heavy or hard, I just couldn’t get it hooked. I about when BALLISTIC on these jerks! We are two chicks! Brytin is a YOUNG GIRL, and they totally said no!!!
Brytin then goes into the facility, asking the woman if someone can come help us (after NOT helping us by fixing or RV). “We don’t do that.” Brytin came out and reports. I said, “We don’t do what?!?! HELP HUMAN BEINGS!!!! That woman is SO FREAKING LUCKY I DIDN’T GO IN THERE!!!!” So we are stranded! We cannot leave without the trailer, we can’t get the trailer hooked up…we still needed to find a bank to deposit shirt money, and we were going to be late for the 5k, preventing Lucy from being able to do it. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!!!!!
I went into the RV, sat in front of the air conditioner, and said a prayer. “Heavenly Father, we are in big trouble. If we don’t get this figured out, we are screwed.” I go back out, and decide to reassess the trailer. We tried again, nothing. I soon saw this HUGE guy standing in the bay, facing away from us. He is probably 6’6” and 300 pounds. I yelled to him, “Hey! Will you PLEASE come help us?!” He turned away trying to ignore me (he was an employee at the RV place). “Seriously, you aren’t going to help me?!?!” He finally slowly walks over, lifts the trailer, drops it and it clicked. THAT WAS IT?!?! IT TOOK HIM 2 SECONDS!!!!!!! I WAS SO PISSED!!!!!!! “Thank you so much, you have no idea how much I appreciate it.” He made it very clear how annoyed he was that he had to help me, but I was SO GRATEFUL! I immediately said a prayer, “THANK YOU FOR THE MIRACLE!!!!!”
We got in that RV, I yelled something to the jerks that wouldn’t help me, probably something like, “KARMA WILL GET YOU!” And we were on the road. During some of the fiasco, I had Brytin run to the bank. Now we just needed gas, and we were on our way.
I WAS ENRAGED, even though I was grateful it had been handled, well aside from the fact that nothing had been fixed on the RV, all of this for nothing! We got on the road, racing time to get to our group before the 5k started!!!!
When we arrived, the transition spot was at an amazing pool. My heart sunk, we could have been there all day. I hear from the back, “What?!?! WHY WEREN’T WE HERE ALL DAY?!?!” I fought tears, every emotion surfaced and I had to hide it from my sweet ducklings behind me. “At least we got a cozy bed, and we got to swim right?!” “Oh yeah, good point Mom!” That response held, and I continued to shove my emotions down.
I was happy to see James, and with him was our friend Joe Morton visiting from Utah. He was there supporting James for the day, and it was nice to see a friendly face. The kids got to swim for 1 hour before the pool closed; unfortunately, some of that was a 10 min break that the pool requires everyone to get out of the pool for a bit. I was grateful that they at least got a few minutes to swim at this great pool.
Dinner arrived, spaghetti and salad (which I love!)! We chowed down and the 5k was starting. The Zyto girls had the shirt booth up and the kids jumped right in. When the runners were off, the kids zipped off to the double-decker playground that was right behind us. They would spend the rest of the night on that playground, loving every second.
The night was soon ending, the day was over. I was thinking that it was time to head into the RV to prep, but I was stopped by some people from that day. It was nice to visit for a bit, since I hadn’t been able to see any of the event in Indiana. I soon went into the RV, rummaged around, frustrated and disappointed. It was pitch black outside, so I called the kids in. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear them. “Coming mom!” There was no AC, there was no pop-out, the electric stairs had been broken and bungeed up the whole trip, we never had a fridge… This day had challenged my ability to keep it together, and I was exhausted.
Soon enough the kids came in, giggling, laughing, exchanging stories, explaining the games they had created, and everything challenging from the day soon left my mind. In that moment, I had 5 little blondes in the RV with me, sharing their love and light, and excited for this adventure they had enjoyed.
Tomorrow was another day, in fact it was Wisconsin. I had been receiving messages from the people in Wisconsin for weeks. These guys were organized, and they wanted to make sure that we had the best possible experience in Wisconsin!
PS. I don’t have very many pictures from Indiana, for obvious reasons. I should have taken a picture of the people who didn’t help me at the RV place…just for fun. If only I had thought of that in the moment…ha ha ha!
