National Lampoon's Family Vacation...Beth and Roger Style!!

Well, we got back late late Tuesday night from our mini vacation to beautiful southern Indiana and Holiday World. (Holiday World is a wonderful amusement park in Santa Claus, Indiana.)

We decided to camp so that we could take our new (to us) little camper along with us. We have been assured over and over again that "camping is the most inexpensive way to take a vacation." Hmmm....

We could have flown to Europe.

First, we purchased our camper...
Next, we "fixed up" my old van...a 1997 Ford Econoline Van that hadn't been driven in a year. It wouldn't start and had 4 flat tires.

We had to purchase and have a hitch put on the trailer plus other things that I don't understand how they work exactly. I just know that they were expensive and it took multiple trips to get them done.

Next, we had to license and insure the trailer...and the van since it has been sitting in our driveway for the past year.

We also had to pay sales tax on the trailer. YIKES!!

Then there was all the "incidentals" that you have to purchase when you have a mini home away from home...chemicals for the tanks, special toilet paper, electrical cords, water hoses, etc......

So, our plan was to leave fairly early on Sunday morning. We really hated to miss church and tried to figure a way around that but couldn't come up with a plan. (Saturday was spent by me working 12 hours away from home and Roger trying to get us ready as well as helping his daughter and son in law move...) We intended to leave at 10 a.m. to drive to our camp site. At 12:30, we pulled out with our old van and our camper attached. We got no more than 15 feet when we heard a terrible noise coming from the trailer.

We (and when I say we, I suppose I should say "I"...) forgot to push the steps of the trailer back up under the trailer. The steps caught on the tire of the car in the driveway and ripped the steps halfway off...

Roger wasn't happy.

He was a very good sport, however, and didn't even blame me. I thought all along that it was his fault but then I realized that I was the one who needed back into the trailer just moments before we took off and I asked for him to pull the steps down for me. I didn't remember...or even think to push them back into place!!
He simply took the steps all the way off the trailer and got a little step ladder to use on our trip.

Once again, we were on our way....and by then, it was raining....

We had to stop at Walmart, of course...and then to the trailer supply store to return something and hours after we had planned to leave, we were once again, on our way.

We got to southern Indiana fairly late. By that time, the rain had stopped and we were thinking it would be a nice night after all. We were thinking about hot dogs cooked over the fire and S'mores for desserts! Just as we found the park, it started drizzling. By the time we were backing into our site, it was officially raining,...again.

We microwaved our hot dogs and played boggle and some kind of card game the kids came up with. Keep in mind that our trailer is a very small thing...one double bed and a bench that folds down to make another bed. The kids decided to sleep in the van since the back of it also folds down to make a bed. We made it an early night.

Sometime in the middle of the night, a terrible storm came through. We were quite comfortable in the trailer but we were so worried about our kids in the van. We knew that they were as safe as we were...and that was kind of questionable...but we were worried about them being afraid. As soon as the storm eased up, Roger went out to check on them. Rebecca was sleeping through it and Gideon was doing ok!
Around dawn, another storm went through, this one just as bad if not worse than the first one!
Roger rolled over, laughed a little and said, "Do you want to go to the amusement park today?"

I laughed.
Finally, we were able to get some sleep and around 10 a.m., we woke to fairly sunny skies and we hurried and had pancakes for breakfast and DID actually go to the amusement park.

We had to move our camper first to another campground closer to the park since we couldn't get both nights at the same place...they were booked up due to the holiday weekend. I must say that my dear hubby did an awesome job manuevering our camper in and out of the sites. I am impressed! He has never done that before and I am proud of him!

Finally, we went to the park and I was talked into riding rides. My intention was just to get into an inner tube and float down the "lazy river", which is my kind of excitement! I was talked into going on the Liberty Launch...which is this crazy thing that takes you way up in the air and then drops you down a million miles an hour...or close to it.
I bowed out of the roller coasters and so did Rebecca. We rode the Turkey Whirl (also known by us as the Turky Hurl....yuck!) a few times and the guys did the roller coasters. We had lunch in the "Thanksgiving" area of Holiday World and in the interest of saving money, each had the children's plate! (It was HUGE! We had chicken and dumplings and all the fixings! Roger had turkey, I think....)
Finally, we went to the water part of the amusement park and rode the huge water slides. I was terrified, having ridden them before and hated every minute of it! However, Roger and I were on the tube together and just hearing him yell and shout was worth having to go on the ride. It was hysterical! He ended up having to ride the side backwards like I did the first time and I thoroughly enjoyed teasing him about it afterwards!(I kept telling him he screamed like a girl...which wasn't exactly true...he just screamed like a regular man....!!!!)
We went to the "wave" pool which makes you feel like you are in the surf. It was getting kind of cold and Roger started not feeling very well. We left after the kids spent quite a bit of time in it.
The "Lazy River" was next and we floated down it twice.
Finally, we sat down for a while and the kids went on another ride close by. I got my poor sick hubby a drink and pretty soon, we both got to experience his lunch all over again. This time it wasn't quite as appetizing as it was when he first had it.
I felt so sorry for him but in the same time, it was kind of funny. He was teasing me most of the time about making me ride the scary rides and there he was, sick as a dog!
He soon felt better and we shopped a little bit and got some things for each of our sets of kids to take home to them.
We had a wonderful little cookout back at the campsite and even got to ride our bikes a little bit until Rebecca's bike broke. I gave her mine and walked hers back to the camper.
We sat around and sang songs, talked and Roger told us the story of Esther in the Bible. I gave a kind of devotion about football!! Believe it or not!! Evidently, there is a rule about "not piling on" when someone has been tackled. I used that as an example for the kids. When someone is having a difficult day or is in trouble with a parent, no one else is allowed to "pile on" him or her. I'd been waiting to talk to them about it after hearing it on our Christian radio station.

The next day, we left to go home a little after noon. We went to the boyhood home of Abe Lincoln and saw where his cabin once stood. They built a replica of it nearby and we enjoyed that greatly.
We drove and drove and went to a monastary and to a Christian store.
We ate our food that I had prepared at the picnic table there. It was yummy!
Finally it was time to head the many hours home. Roger decided we needed gas in our big gas guzzler. As we got off the interstate, there was a road that went to the left and to the right. To the right, it had a sign that said gas so we turned that way. Finally, we came upon this little....well....shack of a gas station. Roger manuvered the van and got out to get the gas. The pump wouldn't work! He went to the little store which had a big "OPEN" sign flashing in the window.
He came back...it had closed 30 minutes ago.
Across the street there was an even worse looking gas station. After much work, he was able to angle the van and trailer in front of the first pump. It didn't have a hose...
At the second pump there was a huge barrel with tomatoes growing in them. On the door of the gas station there was a sign that indicated that there was an out house out back...
An old man came over and told Roger that there was another gas station down the road with better prices so, believe it or not, after all that work and manuvering, Roger decided that he would go to the next town! (11 miles away.........)
Well, we DID make it to the next town...up and down all those big hills of Southern Indiana, my poor old van's engine whining and complaining all the way. Sometimes we weren't sure if we were going to make it but we DID!
We actually had a great time. Roger pointed out the factory where White Castles are made and of course, I had to take a picture!
We finally go home late Tuesday night and as we were rearranging the cars (six of them) in our driveway and onto the street to back the camper into the drive, a policeman pulled up! We thought maybe we were making too much noise! However, he was just trying to catch some guy who is known to speed up and down our street at that time of the night! Whew!!

We're planning one or two more camping trips this fall. I am not sure why.....