Camping Trip from Hell? pt43

Once we got inside the we were seated rather quickly due to there not being a lot of people around. I guess they had something better to do on the 4th like BBQ or something..lol. Anyway Red was not liking it one bit. First she tossed the little puzzle game to the floor and nearly broke it and then she decided to color. At first I thought this would be fine until I realized that she was coloring her teeth and coloring them blue. On impluse I snatched the crayon away from her and found out rather quickly that I should've left well enough alone. She started to do a wailing cry that she like when she is mad. Then it moved on to pushing away from the table and nearly knocking herself over. While this is going on I'm getting ready to take her back to the RV and just have the wife bring me something when they get done.

My wife must've seen the look in my eye because she put her hand on mine to get my attention. Once she had it she asked me if I wouldn't just let her color her teeth so we could all eat together. I had to double clutch my brain at that suggestion but then figured what the heck it's not like she'd get poisoned or something. I gave the crayon back but told the wife that if she started eating it out I'd take her. While she might get away with having blue teeth she wasn't about to be allowed to choke if I had anything to do with it.

After Red got the crayon back she started calming back down. After a minute or two she was just sitting there calmly coloring her teeth like nothing had happened and that she colors her teeth all the time. I just snorted and turned to the older two telling them not to get any funny ideas. They were too old for teeth coloring. They just nodded and went back to asking my wife a question every couple of seconds. They use to ask me questions all the time like they were doing to the wife but they quickly found out that dad has a sense of humor and wasn't above telling them something wrong to get a laugh. Nothing dangerous or too embarrassing mostly just silly stuff like the sky is blue because it's sad. Another one was about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I told them that it really does exist and if you get to the end and see it you have to fight off a zombie leprechan to get to the gold.

Now since it was the 4th and all my thoughts turned towards the founding of the country and eventually to the British. I have some Irish in me and my wife has stronger Irish blood than I do but as a general rule we don't bad mouth the British. We do however try and explain to the kids about why the 4th is so important and why we shoot off fireworks and such. As far as the British go I figure as long as they don't call me Yankee or make me choke down kidney pie with a side of kippers I won't talk about the Queen, it works out rather well I think.

About the time my wife was losing what little patience she did have with the kids the food arrived and gave her a much needed distraction. Soon the kids were happily munching away and giving us a little peace. One thing I learned though is that it won't last and before long food is on the floor or in my drink glass and I'm carrying someone out to the car to have a seat. Knowing this I tend to eat fast and was finished well before anyone else. This gives me time to make a break for the potty and pay the bill just in case I have to haul a kid outside. As I'm paying the bill the girl behind the counter asked me if we were playing the game. I thought she had just gone bonkers and I guess it showed on my face because she quickly pointed to a poster that was hanging on the wall behind her that told all about a contest that Cracker Barrel was having. First prize was a RV. The contest had something to do with "The Great American Road Trip". I couldn't help but laugh after reading it and I told her that no we hadn't been playing it we were living it. At her confused expression I told her in very broad terms about our trip from Alaska to here and how our trip wouldn't be over for a while yet.

She asked a few questions and I answered as best I could before heading off again to our table. When I got back I saw that Red and the boy were done eating and had started the playing portion of the meal. I glanced over at my wife and told her I'd take them on to the RV so they could finish up. She was relieved that she didn't have to play goalie any longer and just waved to us as I walked them out to the RV. After getting them into the camper I grabbed my book and settled in to try and read a bit while they were running around burning off some energy. I'd gotten really into the book about the time the wife knocked on the door with the other kids in tow.

It took a few minutes to get everyone settled in again but eventually it was time to hit the road once more. Before pulling out my wife asked me where I wanted to stay for the night since it was getting late. I told her to just find a place she thought was best and that's where we'll go. She grabbed the book and I pulled out and got back on the interstate. As I was getting up to speed I started seeing flashes of light off in the distance. At first I was confused but once I saw a green starburst it dawned on me that it was time for fireworks. They were firing them off somewhere ahead of us in the city so we had a pretty good view. The kids were just awe struck, even the little ones were watching and being quiet for the most part.

We watched the show while I headed through town and out the other side. Once the show was over the older two were all excited and started asking all kinds of questions. My wife answered them as best she cold all the while trying to find a place for us to stay. She finally did find a place not far from Dollywood that she thought she'd like. I told her it's fine by me and off we went. After pulling off the interstate I quickly found that we'd have to still drive a bit into the country to find the place. I wasn't worried about getting lost thanks to the GPS but I was worried about getting stuck in a place where I couldn't turn around. As we're driving down a 2 lane country road I was starting to get worried. We drove a ways down the road and I wasn't liking it in the least, about the time I was giving up finding the place and had started looking for somewhere I could make a U-turn at my wife spotted the sign for the campground.

As I turned into the place I noticed right off that it's an open field and as it turns out it was a horse pasture. To me this didn't bode well but I pushed on to the camping sites and found one off to it's self. By then the little ones were already asleep and the older ones had calmed down enough that they'd go out rather quickly. After parking I went out to hook up and the wife got the kids in bed. When I came back inside everyone was already laying down so I headed to the back to catch some sleep for myself. Just as I was falling off I heard a sprinkling of rain on the roof and couldn't help but wonder if we were going to get stuck in this field by morning.

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Flying Lesson

frostyone

Thu Nov 19

36