"Winter" (chuckle-snort!), Part deux

I guess I should be counting in Hawaiian....but I don't know how.

So, let's move to this past Christmas visit to the mainland, and further evidence that Don and I are the modern day Laurel and Hardy of the travel set.

After last Christmas' lengthy fiasco (with lots of fun and blessings throughout), we made some different choices. Last spring, we moved our motorhome down from Portland to a storage area near Kyle and Kristin's place in Temecula. Pechanga (site of the oh-so-traditional Family Christmas dinner last Christmas) has a beautiful RV park, so that would be our home base. The other thing we opted to do was scoot over there earlier and not stay as long. Well...it was only about five days shorter, but, whatever.

We didn't take the red-eye, but we still arrived pretty late in the evening. Do not ask me what I was thinking when we left warm, lovely Maui, but I was wearing slippers (flipflops) and crop pants. I think I had a sweatshirt or light jacket or something, but it was, to say the least, insufficient. It was about 9:30 by the time we were getting our rental car, but the office was warm and comfy. Unfortunately, there is no valet at car rentals, so we were just told the number of the stall where our car was. We got to our cars designated space, and found there was nothing there but...space. My teeth are chattering by then, and the office building is closed, but Don found someone to go get our car - all the while I stood there guarding our bags, teeth chattering, knees knocking, toes frozen - until our car finally arrived.

The drive from the LAX area to Temecula is more or less a 90-minute drive. Our tummies were still on Maui time, and that fruit and cheese tray on the airplane was a distant memory, so food was very much on our mind. I won't bore you with the gory details, but we were making time on freeways and my husband thought that a Denny's would simply announce itself a mile or so before the appropriate exit. I, however, thought we should, perhaps, look at surface streets, maybe, where there are RESTAURANTS!!! Sooooo....maybe I was just a little hungry and tired and cold and cranky - but that doesn't mean I wasn't right. We arrived in Temecula, still starving, and Don took an exit that had a Jack-in-the-Box. I was desperate at this point, so I was begging him to turn around and go back to Jack. He finally agreed to do a u-turn at the next intersection - which was just across the freeway from our hotel. And thar she blew!! Denny's. By that time, it was about in the low forties, high thirties and the rattling of teeth sounded like castanets played by a flamenco dancer jacked up on half-a-dozen triple espressos as we walked to the front door - but we had warm food and then a warm bed in a warm hotel.

The next day we began our vacation in earnest - seeing grandbabies (and their parents), picked out a Christmas tree, decorating said tree, and just general hanging around. We also picked up the motorhome from storage, but since it was getting a new HD antenna the next day, Don just parked it out front of the hotel. I was still doing a little Christmas shopping, so he decided to relax and have some yummy popcorn. Unfortunately, Don failed to notice that the bag was a mini bag and he set the time for the regular sized bag. By the time I got there, he was opening up all windows in the RV. He pointed to a still smoldering, charred, mini-sized bag of what used to be popcorn resting in the shrubs. I would venture to say that he was making the same panicked sounds he had made almost one year before. And I just cracked up...again. In a bit of a deja vu moment, we had a stench to clear and a blackened microwave to clean. We opened up windows, sprayed febreze, washed out the microwave, and left for the kids' house - Don still muttering, me still laughing...quitely.

The next few days were pretty much bliss. We have now become THOSE people - the grandparenty-types who swoop in and do everything fun! Amber spent the night in the RV with Grammy and Grampy on the eve of our first big adventure: Sea World and ...THE DENTIST!!! Wooo-hoo!! Do we know how to spoil our grandchildren, or what?!!? This first time having a little slumber party with our granddaughter was something we'd been looking forward to since....ummmm...forever. Her mom assured me that Amber loved showers, so I got it nice and warmed up, then plopped my little nakey grandbaby in. Have you seen Jurassic park?? You know the velociraptors that have that ear-piecing shriek as they hunt!?!? Well, that is approximately the sound that emanated from my sweet granddaughter's mouth as the shower streams hit her. After fearing for a moment that I had done something horrible cruel to this child, I realized that she probably liked the handheld shower. Handed her the shower. Crisis ended. We got our girl snuggled in her jammies, read a couple stories, and had to tell her to put her head on the pillow only 2,619 times. In other words, the evening was perfect.

Since it was time for a dental check-up for Don and me, we fit that in on our way to Sea World. This is the same dentist we have had since before Amber's daddy was born, so the dentist and his were really tickled to meet Kyle's progeny. Of course, that meant that Amber needed careful watching while one or the other of us was in the big chair. Grampy went first, so Amber and I sat quietly and read in the waiting room, going in a couple of times to see how Grampy was doing in the big chair (Grampy was verrrry brave!) Then came Grammy's turn for her check-up. As I'm all laid out with the dentist and/or his assistant spelunking in my mouth, I hear our little granddaughter racing up and down the hallways, peering in at me once in a while. AH, well.

Sea World with Amber was a blast! Since it was before the schools were out on break, we pretty much had the run of the place. Amber could go on rides pretty much at will, and as many times in a row as she pleased. This did not work out so well a few weeks later when returned, along with half of San Diego as well as both teams - with their families, boosters and marching bands - that were playing at the Holiday Bowl. But I'm getting ahead of myself. When we left Sea World that afternoon, we had a tired little girl who proclaimed that her favorite thing was the rollercoaster. Of course, she hadn't actually gone on said rollercoaster, but I guess that wasn't an issue since I hadn't been specific enough in my query. A couple of days after that, we did the whole Disneyland trip, with Uncle John coming along. Grampy Don, ever the trouper, drove the motorhome so the gang was all together. Amber finally did get to go on a rollercoaster, but it was just the one in Toon Town. This child is fearless - but not soundless. Grampy, Uncle John, little Josh, and I were hanging out a good couple hundred feet away. Remember that raptor screech I described two paragraphs above?!!? Yeeeeah....that screech. We could hear that over all the crowds and music and rides - but this was a screech and squeal and scream of absolute excitement. Although, I'm not sure that the people on the ride whose ear drums were bleeding appreciated the difference...

A couple of days after Dizzyland, Don and I flew over to Phoenix to take care of some business for his clients/friends, as well as see his family. Somewhere between the Happiest Place on Earth and our first night in our friends' guest bedroom, a bug found its way to Don's head. It found mine the next night. Are you kidding!?!? By the time we got back to Temecula, we were both moderately miserable - but not enough to get in our way of a good time.

While we were gone, the first of what would turn into several days of rain hit, and the Monday after we got back, it was still miserable and mushy. We were going bowling with the K-Dalts, and when we left the motorhome the rain was no more than an annoying drizzle with nary a breath of wind. That changed. We knew that when Don got a call as we were changing into our regular shoes (sadly returning the high-stylin' bowling shoes). The manager of the RV park calling him to say that our awning was now ON TOP of the motorhome! Now, many of you may be unfamiliar with awnings for RV's, but let me assure you - on top of the roof is decidedly not where they belong. The route from bowling to RV Park was not only rainy and blowy, but full of Christmas shoppers trying to get everything done on their lunch hour. Fortunately, I was the one behind the wheel because Don was too busy laying a litter of kitties in the passenger seat. Can't say as I blame him.

As we pulled up to our spot, we could see that the manager did not exaggerate. There it was, plastered on the roof top - and covering the brand new HD antenna. My husband scrambled up the ladder onto the roof, through the rain and the wind and my admonitions to be careful. Threaten a man's electronics, and he is a most valiant and brave knight. Once he got up there, he lifted this extremely heavy swath of wet vinyl and tossed it to the side - much in the same way a petite mother of two can flip over an SUV to save her children. And Don saved the antenna. So this wet, half-ton piece of striped vinyl came over the side, carrying with it - no, not my husband - but the remains of what used to be the frame for the awning. It slapped onto the side of the RV...right over the door. hmmmm... This was a problem. There is a driver's side door, but it Don deemed it too high up for me to get in without risking several broken bones. He climbed up and in, unlocked the door from the inside, then climbed back dow, came over to the awning that was glued to the side of the coach, and pulled it out as far as he could so I could open the door as far as possible. That was about 10-12 inches. My next move was to squeeze in all of me through this opening. Please, as you imagine this....be kind. SO, I was in. Eventually. Keep in mind all of this was happening in a storm where the rain was essentially coming sideways.

After getting wet clothes off and dry clothes on, Don began the process of trying to find someone to repair the awning for less than three body parts and six internal organs. It also occurred to us that we had laundry over at Kyle and Kristin's, which meant that I had to get back out. Out climbed my hubby, and out squoze me as he held out the wet awning in the still pouring rain. A couple hours later, I returned with the laundry - but the rain had not let up one bit, so the clean clothes were essentially going to be held hostage in the trunk of the car until it let up. Too bad we didn't know that it would be three more days until that happened...

This blog is already too long and there is a beach lounge with my name on it. oh, I'm sorry...did I say that - write that, out loud...?!?! Now....I wonder if I have enough sunscreen....??