Our trip

We went on vacation, recently, to Myrtle Beach. I was looking forward to the trip, once it was all finalized, because we had enjoyed such a fine time there last year. Sam deployed to Louisiana a little more than a week before we were to leave and it was up to me to pack us up for the trip and pack the whole kitchen away so the landlords could complete a renovation they've been planning for months while we were all away.

With lots of planning and by actually following the plans, I was all set to go, packed and ready, by early afternoon the day before we were scheduled to leave. Considering my usual way of dealing with trips (packing up right before leaving and starting the trip already exhausted!) I was very ahead of the game.

I woke the children up early the next day (Friday) and we were on the road by 6:00 in the morning. Our first destination was a park in Delaware where we could have breakfast and the kids could spend some time playing on the playground there. It took me a little bit of time to find it, because my directions weren't exactly right, so we arrived there about 45 minutes later than I thought. The park was lovely, except for a bee problem which prevented us from having a sit-down breakfast. We spent about an hour playing and then we hit the road again.

The next scheduled stop was a park in Maryland which had a recycled tire playground. It was lots of fun there until some middle school students showed up to take over all of the equipment. But we got a good half hour of getting the wiggles out and we were able to have a nice lunch before I felt the need to get my sweet children back on the road again.

After Maryland, there were no scheduled stops until our hotel in North Carolina. Most of our trip was on route 301 (in hindsight, not a great plan. Instead of doing 65 mph most of the way, we were doing 45 mph if we were lucky enough to not be behind a truck.) After a little more travel on 301, we got on 95 and drove until we were hungry for dinner. Normally, this would have been a difficult part of the journey, with no real destination to look forward to. I thought ahead, though. For several weeks before our trip, I collected little things to use as surprises for the children along the way. I packed a little present in a white paper bag for each child. I made sure I had eight different things, to last us the whole trip down and back again. Whenever they got a little antsy, I would set the kitchen timer I brought along for just this very purpose and tell the children that when it rang, I would find the next rest stop for a break and they would each get a special present.

I used this plan between the Delaware park and the Maryland park and I used it again before dinner. They were all able to see the timer and, between exclaiming over the views out their windows, they kept an eye on the timer, their excitement building as it came closer and closer to ringing. They all squeeled with delight when it finally rang and, as promised, I pulled off just a few miles down the road for a break.

We stopped for dinner around 6:30, with a couple hours left of travel before we reached our hotel. We took our time at dinner and reached the hotel at about 9:30. The children all slept together in one bed quite successfully. The twins didn't even wake up when Sarah climbed over them to find me!

The next day we enjoyed the meager offerings of the hotels free breakfast. Josie discovered a love of lemon poppy seed muffins while Katie and Sarah enjoyed blueberry muffins and a buttered bagel (which didn't really seem like a bagel to me . . . )

We hit the road by 10:30 in the morning, delayed slightly by the appearance of a baby bird just outside our hotel door when we returned from breakfast to re-load the car.

We spent about an hour on the road when I realized I needed to stop for gas. The kids love the stores at many of the stations, so after filling up we spent a few moments exploring inside. Back on the road again, around noon, I got us back up to speed on I-95 and got the kids into some music to help pass the miles that lay before us.

Suddenly, I felt like the car wasn't responding right. Music off, I tested the gas pedal. There was certainly something wrong. I had just passed an ideal exit for finding a service station and the problem was serious enough that I had to get off the highway as fast as possible. I took the very next exit without really seeing what exit it was or even if there was a station there. I made a left off the exit because there was no real indication of where a station might be and my transmission was just barely allowing the van to pull along and the car wasn't stearing correctly, slipping a little and pulling dreadfully when I braked. My heart sank as I looked down the road to see nothing but fields before me, behind me, and in every other direction. We were done. There was no way the van could go any further.

I pulled off the road, whatever road it was, onto the grassy shoulder next to a big field of beans and looked around the car. My shoulders slumped as I saw a thick pink fluid coating the the front passenger side wheel. It had, in fact, coated that entire side of the van and was pooling in the running board. A look back down the road showed a trail of fluid all the way from I-95. This was certainly beyond my ability to handle.

I got the kids out of the car and we walked back up to the exit to see what the name of the road was that we were on. A kind lady, the only person we had seen since stopping, stopped to tell us where we were. We called AAA, which I had signed up for earlier in the month, knowing I'd be taking this long trip on my own, and they sent out a tow truck. They also told me that the truck wouldn't be able to hold us all and we'd have to call a taxi.

So I called the three companies AAA found for me. The three closest companies to my location. None of them would come. Finally I bargained with the last guy, agreeing to pay for a longer trip than the 4 miles it would take to get from my location to a shop in Dunn. $100 he wanted. Ugh. Moments after making this deal, the tow truck showed up and it had a big back seat . . . perfect for three little children!

(The whole time I was on the phone, going back and forth with AAA, the taxi companies and concerned family, including my in-laws who were just three hours north of me at the time, the kids were loose in the car. Katie, big girl that she is, found everyone's juice cups for them, took little bags of gold fish I had prepared before leaving and handed them out, opening on for Sarah and overseeing Josie's progress, and made sure everyone had a coloring book and some crayons. All this without a word from me! Katie and Sarah also learned how to pee in the grass . . .)

Things were looking up until my driver informed me that all of the shops in the area close at 1:00 in the afternoon on Saturdays. I'd have to hole up in Dunn until Monday.

At my urging, he took us around Dunn to see if anyone was open still. I expressed concern over the problem and he agreed to go to the next large town to see if anyone was open there. All this time I was going back and forth with my dear Daddy and my husband to keep them updated and to try to determine what the problem was. A broken hose, was the consensus. Surely we could find someone in the state of North Carolina to change a broken hose on a Saturday afternoon.

After exhausting these possibilities, Sam informed me that he was no longer in Louisianna or Texas. He was, in fact, at the vacation house waiting to surprise us when we arrived! A new plan was immediately formed. We would exhaust the full limit of AAA miles I had left with our dear, sweet driver, Dave and Sam would drive up with Uncle Bob and meet us in the town of Tabor City. There, Sam would be able to fix the van and get us back on the road.

Conveniently, Tabor City was just about 30 minutes away from Myrtle Beach and we arrived only about 20 minutes before Sam and Uncle Bob. We awaited rescue at a little diner just down the street from where the car was left (a little corner garage where the owner "Smoke" informed me, through my driver, that it would be $70 per day storage if Sam couldn't fix it. He was completely unwilling to offer any additional assistance.) Our tow truck driver, Dave, did not leave us until he was sure we were left in good hands and that help would be arriving soon. If you ever get stuck near Dunn, he's the guy you want helping you out!

Sam and Uncle Bob showed up and after a few moments of hugging (we hadn't seen Sam in 11 days and we hadn't seen Uncle Bob in a year) they went back over to the van to fix it. In less than half an hour they were done and we were on the road to what I expected to be a lovely and exciting week spent at Myrtle Beach.