This morning, right before we left, we discovered our bathroom flooding. We cleaned up as quickly as we could, left the dog sitter a text and were on our way to the Badlands.
We've been to the Badlands several times so the drive was nothing new. Actually it felt longer than normal. That's right it was longer, because our top speed now is 55. Sixty if we're lucky. Cars were passing is like we were standing still. And the trailer-she was swaying. Not only from the passing cars but also from the moderate winds. At one point Jason said, "I think I'm getting car sick. And I'm driving." I agreed.
Meanwhile, the boys played and got their toys taken away and ate a quart of orange melon. And we all had ring pops. I gave them all a sheet of aluminum foil to play with. I have no clue where I got this idea.
As we ventured further west river. The rain came. The sky's turned dark gray and ominous blue. We drove in and out of rain as we waited for the Badlands.
About an hour out Marcus asked a simple question, "what number is our spot?". I looked. It was spot 22. Then I noticed it was spot 22 for the 29th. Today is the 28th. Craptastic. I called the hotline, got transferred, and explained the situation. They couldn't book anything for tonight so we'd have to chance it with first come first serve. Now to get the charge from the 29th refunded (we would have to pay for tonight's stay in the morning). We hung up. She called back. There seemed to be a problem getting the charge back on the card. Ohh. Yeah. That's because that card was comprised last week and we had to get new ones. Well she did not know how to handle this one. Not something you have to do everyday. We'd have to stop at the lodge and get this squared away. The gray clouds were now a special shade of angry. And I was beginning to get hangry (only I didn't know because that's how the hanger gets you).
At the lodge I suggested maybe we just slide the charge for tomorrow to today and call it good. She cheerfully agreed. We just needed to go find a spot and let her know the number so she could put it on the invoice. Okee-dokee.
Round the loop we drove. I was worried we wouldn't find a spot so we grabbed the first one available. It was a side pull off type of deal. We scribbled our name on an old grocery list and hung it on the clip. Back to the lodge, camper in tow. This is when the deluge began.
I told the nice young lady at the lodge that we had picked number 17. "Oh I'm sorry but that's a tent only site." I told her we fit just fine, but she could not would not with a fox. Back to the loop. It was raining so hard we could barely make out the badlands right in front of our faces.
Ah-ha. There's a site! Get out the notebook paper and let's visit Jody at the lodge again.
This time we had stuck gold. The site was paid for. Now we just. Had to go setup in the pouring rain.
Even though it was a side pull in thingy, I still had to get out and help back. My hanger had now reached a fever-pitch as I stood in the rain.
We were parked. I got the inside set up while Jason worked outside. I ate some cookies. Right after I poured a jar of sauce in a pot, Jason declared that we were too far away from the water and would have to put everything back to pull forward 15 feet, then back up 15 feet and reset everything. I blew a gasket (my cookies had not yet entered my bloodstream). I slammed everything back into place and told the kids to hang on. We got the water, backed up (again) and set everything up (again).
My cookies had finally reached my brain and I was behaving better. That's when Jason swung open the door and demanded a picture. He was soaked from head to toe.
I also lit a post it note on fire while I was cooking. So there's day one.
Jealous. Totally jealous.
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