For as long as I can remember my Grandparents have had a place that we fondly refer to as "the Lake." Now, that may conjure up images of luxury, but let me beat those thoughts down by assuring you that "the Lake" is a mobile home in Bodfish that has been rapidly deteriorating for the past few years. It has a view of Lake Isabella from one window, and a view of a bunch of trailers from the other. Bodfish may not be an ideal vacation destination, but for us it has been a place of retreat, relaxation, and family time.
A few years back my grandparents decided to sell their place. At that time we took our "last trip" and stopped using it as a family. Given the down real estate market and my grandpa's belief that his mobile is worth at least twice as much as its actual value it has not sold, so I asked if we could take a trip up so that Tommy could experience the Lake.
We had a great weekend, but there were a few hiccups along the way.
On Thursday we got together as a family to eat Mexican food and remember Ally Dewart, because that is what we do on January 7th. We intended to leave right after dinner, as soon as my brother Kevin got home from school. His class ended at 7:50, so we figured we could be on the road at 8:30, since he was coming straight home. Or so we thought. When 8:30 rolled around with still no sign of Kev, we called and found out that we had different definitions of "straight home." He meant straight home by way of his apartment where he had to pack all of his stuff. So we didn't get the drive started until 9:30, add the fog, and we didn't pull into the driveway until well after midnight.
Grandpa, Jeff, and Kev went in to turn on the heater. Apparently the pilot blew out, and in the process of relighting Grandpa came this close to lighting himself on fire before figuring out that his methods were not working. Kev and Jeff read the manual and figured it out. They also had to turn on the electricity, because Kevin thoughtfully decided to turn off all the circuit breakers when he was up there wit his friends in November. Easiest way to avoid an electric bill. Meanwhile, the rest of us slept in the car, where we had at least the residual heat from our ride up.
Finally the mobile warmed up and we all unloaded ourselves and our stuff. I immediately unpacked Tommy's cooler of special food (for his crazy dietary needs) and went to put some of it in the freezer. When I opened the door I noticed an odd smell. The food looked curiously defrosted. Streaks of oozes dripped from the shelves. Great green and black fuzzy circles dotted the freezer bottom. Hmmmm. Power outage? No. It turns out that when you shut off all the circuit breakers, that includes power to the fridge. So at about 1:30 we realized we needed to clean up a bunch of food that had been rotting away since mid-November. Grandpa is a bit of a hoarder, so he actually has two fridges for one tiny mobile. Two fridges filled with rotting food that needed to be tossed out pronto. On the bright side, we were able to get rid of a bunch of three year old junk, which we would have had to do anyway, and Grandpa couldn't complain about it too much.
At last, bed time rolled around. We go to our respective rooms and find...no sheets on the beds. Apparently when a bunch of college-aged guys hang out they don't really check for things like that. Better still, we couldn't find enough sheets period. And the lake has maybe two sleeping bags. Thankfully, a little digging produced just enough sheets and almost enough towels for all of us.
So, I go to our room, the yellow room. This is a considerable upgrade from the couch bed- thanks Tommy! I dig through our clothes and pull out pajamas, and in the process I unloaded my clothes into the dresser. Pajamas, check. Sweatshirts, check. Pants, check. Shirts, check. Shoes, check. Underwear? Not so much.
Stuck in Bodfish with no clean underwear. Not ideal. Now, you may ask, "why wouldn't you head to the nearest Target and pick some up?" Well, there isn't a Target in Bodfish. Or a Wal-Mart, or any kind of mall, or normal clothing store. The worst part of me not having any underwear, is that I vividly remembered picking some out and placing it with the clothes I was going to pack. It just didn't make the jump into my suitcase.
You might be wondering if Tommy had all of his clothes. Of course he did. He had everything he needed and then some.
There have been a number of shocks to my system since starting this whole mom thing. One of them is the excessive amount of work it takes to cope with two schedules, and to keep track of two lives. Before Tommy I barely needed to look at my calendar because I could keep track of my schedule quite easily without it. Now, when I don't check it, I find myself missing his doctor's appointments (admittedly he had quite a few for a while there). And apparently, I can't even remember my own underwear!
On Friday I managed to make it to "Home Goods," which holds the only clothing options available within an hour's drive. I got to sort between thongs covered in footballs with the slogan "hands off" and ones covered with billiard balls labeled "kiss" (um, ewwww and what on earth is the connection there?). I decided to look for something a bit different, and ended up with a kid's pack for only $3.99. Thank goodness I'm small, or I would have been in trouble.
Saturday we had a blast going into Kernville to show Tommy and Colleen around. We cruised through the museum and the many "antique" shops. Colleen found a great deal on a beer can wind-chime, which pretty much made her trip. Then Jeff and I had the chance to stop by and see his Uncle and Aunt and introduce them to Tommy.
If only Sunday could have been so uneventful. We hoped to get out early. I questioned whether that would happen, but still, I hoped. We organized, we cleaned, we packed the car, we cleaned some more. Apparently certain college-aged males who have been using the cabin in the recent past don't know how to vacuum (yeah brother, I'm calling you out :-) ). Finally at 2:30 we loaded into the car. And sat, and sat. Jeff came to tell me that the toilet was clogged. The joys of septic tanks. Apparently mom and dad were plunging, and getting bucket of water to force flush, and plunging some more. Eventually they cleared it up, and did the septic tank treatment. Finally we got on the road. No fog this time, barely any traffic, and about 30 minutes from home I heard some strange grunts from the back seat. I look back and see Tommy squirming and kicking his legs, first one then the other. It was impressively gymnastic.
I ended up having to clean his sneakers.
But let me assure you, the poop, the mold, the cleaning, having to wear kid's underwear, all of it was entirely worth it. Tommy got to go to the Lake.
Here are a few highlights:
A few years back my grandparents decided to sell their place. At that time we took our "last trip" and stopped using it as a family. Given the down real estate market and my grandpa's belief that his mobile is worth at least twice as much as its actual value it has not sold, so I asked if we could take a trip up so that Tommy could experience the Lake.
We had a great weekend, but there were a few hiccups along the way.
On Thursday we got together as a family to eat Mexican food and remember Ally Dewart, because that is what we do on January 7th. We intended to leave right after dinner, as soon as my brother Kevin got home from school. His class ended at 7:50, so we figured we could be on the road at 8:30, since he was coming straight home. Or so we thought. When 8:30 rolled around with still no sign of Kev, we called and found out that we had different definitions of "straight home." He meant straight home by way of his apartment where he had to pack all of his stuff. So we didn't get the drive started until 9:30, add the fog, and we didn't pull into the driveway until well after midnight.
Grandpa, Jeff, and Kev went in to turn on the heater. Apparently the pilot blew out, and in the process of relighting Grandpa came this close to lighting himself on fire before figuring out that his methods were not working. Kev and Jeff read the manual and figured it out. They also had to turn on the electricity, because Kevin thoughtfully decided to turn off all the circuit breakers when he was up there wit his friends in November. Easiest way to avoid an electric bill. Meanwhile, the rest of us slept in the car, where we had at least the residual heat from our ride up.
Finally the mobile warmed up and we all unloaded ourselves and our stuff. I immediately unpacked Tommy's cooler of special food (for his crazy dietary needs) and went to put some of it in the freezer. When I opened the door I noticed an odd smell. The food looked curiously defrosted. Streaks of oozes dripped from the shelves. Great green and black fuzzy circles dotted the freezer bottom. Hmmmm. Power outage? No. It turns out that when you shut off all the circuit breakers, that includes power to the fridge. So at about 1:30 we realized we needed to clean up a bunch of food that had been rotting away since mid-November. Grandpa is a bit of a hoarder, so he actually has two fridges for one tiny mobile. Two fridges filled with rotting food that needed to be tossed out pronto. On the bright side, we were able to get rid of a bunch of three year old junk, which we would have had to do anyway, and Grandpa couldn't complain about it too much.
At last, bed time rolled around. We go to our respective rooms and find...no sheets on the beds. Apparently when a bunch of college-aged guys hang out they don't really check for things like that. Better still, we couldn't find enough sheets period. And the lake has maybe two sleeping bags. Thankfully, a little digging produced just enough sheets and almost enough towels for all of us.
So, I go to our room, the yellow room. This is a considerable upgrade from the couch bed- thanks Tommy! I dig through our clothes and pull out pajamas, and in the process I unloaded my clothes into the dresser. Pajamas, check. Sweatshirts, check. Pants, check. Shirts, check. Shoes, check. Underwear? Not so much.
Stuck in Bodfish with no clean underwear. Not ideal. Now, you may ask, "why wouldn't you head to the nearest Target and pick some up?" Well, there isn't a Target in Bodfish. Or a Wal-Mart, or any kind of mall, or normal clothing store. The worst part of me not having any underwear, is that I vividly remembered picking some out and placing it with the clothes I was going to pack. It just didn't make the jump into my suitcase.
You might be wondering if Tommy had all of his clothes. Of course he did. He had everything he needed and then some.
There have been a number of shocks to my system since starting this whole mom thing. One of them is the excessive amount of work it takes to cope with two schedules, and to keep track of two lives. Before Tommy I barely needed to look at my calendar because I could keep track of my schedule quite easily without it. Now, when I don't check it, I find myself missing his doctor's appointments (admittedly he had quite a few for a while there). And apparently, I can't even remember my own underwear!
On Friday I managed to make it to "Home Goods," which holds the only clothing options available within an hour's drive. I got to sort between thongs covered in footballs with the slogan "hands off" and ones covered with billiard balls labeled "kiss" (um, ewwww and what on earth is the connection there?). I decided to look for something a bit different, and ended up with a kid's pack for only $3.99. Thank goodness I'm small, or I would have been in trouble.
Saturday we had a blast going into Kernville to show Tommy and Colleen around. We cruised through the museum and the many "antique" shops. Colleen found a great deal on a beer can wind-chime, which pretty much made her trip. Then Jeff and I had the chance to stop by and see his Uncle and Aunt and introduce them to Tommy.
If only Sunday could have been so uneventful. We hoped to get out early. I questioned whether that would happen, but still, I hoped. We organized, we cleaned, we packed the car, we cleaned some more. Apparently certain college-aged males who have been using the cabin in the recent past don't know how to vacuum (yeah brother, I'm calling you out :-) ). Finally at 2:30 we loaded into the car. And sat, and sat. Jeff came to tell me that the toilet was clogged. The joys of septic tanks. Apparently mom and dad were plunging, and getting bucket of water to force flush, and plunging some more. Eventually they cleared it up, and did the septic tank treatment. Finally we got on the road. No fog this time, barely any traffic, and about 30 minutes from home I heard some strange grunts from the back seat. I look back and see Tommy squirming and kicking his legs, first one then the other. It was impressively gymnastic.
I ended up having to clean his sneakers.
But let me assure you, the poop, the mold, the cleaning, having to wear kid's underwear, all of it was entirely worth it. Tommy got to go to the Lake.
Here are a few highlights:
Reading Milton with Mum
Jeff does a puzzle
Bummin' around
Grandpa making his signature apple pancakes
A trip to the Kernville museum is a hair-raising experience
Tommy, meet science
Giddy up
Family portrait
Dancing at dinner on the way home
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1 comment:
It sounds like an exciting trip despite or maybe because of, the obstacles. =0) Love the dancing video too. That boy's got some moves!
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