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Quote of the Day

Peanut, "Wow, mom, now we can say we've been to all 50 states! What are we gonna do next?"

20 May 2009

Rain and Disappointment


It's raining BUCKETS again and we've just had a terrible disappointment. In fact, it's the unrivaled error of the entire trip, and utterly upsetting to me.

Following the signs to Cumberland Island National Seashore and the little town of St. Mary's to catch our ferry, everything seemed eerily quiet. I finally slopped through a parking lot to ask some fisherman where the ferry dock was. As it turns out, to travel to Cumberland Island, you have to take the Fernandina ferry, which just happens to be in ANOTHER STATE... 45 minutes away in FLORIDA!!

Tomcat did his best to get us back on the highway, but traffic was horrendous due to the rain. There were spin-outs e v e r y w h e r e. Trying to remain calm, my eyes welled up because I knew we'd never make it to the ferry in time -- and to think we'd just crossed the border an hour before only to U-turn back into Georgia! Arrrrgh.

Just to paint a clear picture of how much tension there was in the car, Grandma puked in the middle of this. Not that she was so terribly upset about missing Cumberland, but rather her allergies got the best of her -- this dry cough has been her constant companion since arriving in Mississippi; the Southeast is experiencing one of its worst allergy seasons in years. We rolled down the windows, handed her a trash bag and wondered what had suddenly gone awry with this trip?

Grandma pulled it together. I pulled it together. Tomcat shook his head and made the call to the Greyfield Inn for me. We decided to forfeit our exorbitant deposit and move on to Plan B. Trying to tell the kids, I was too choked up. Tomcat took over and explained that in this storm we'd miss seeing the wildlife anyway -- yes, even the wild ponies as they'd almost certainly be taking shelter inside the forests. And we wouldn't be able to run in the grass or ride bikes either.

I was simply aching inside and questioning how I could have possibly missed the fact that this island was in Florida, not Georgia. (We'd spoken about coming here to many people along the way, and the mixed up location never once came up!)

Well, I was a wreck and Peanut showed a wee bit of disappointment, but Little Man simply wanted to know when and where we were going to have dinner now that the plans had changed. Typical, huh? And Doodle said it was good it was raining so the flowers could bloom.

Doing our best to be optimistic, I said, "Well, instead of thinking of all the money we wasted, look at how much money I saved us by not having to pay the other half of the bill! Hell, let's get to Florida and go shopping!"

1 comment:

  1. I'm really sorry for your disappointment but I am glad that Tomcat was there to support you when it happened.

    Looking forward to seeing you guys soon!
    -M

    ReplyDelete