The Memorial Day Weekend Saga

Friday of Memorial Day Weekend

We don’t get to see the kids often, so when they all gather at one time it’s quite an event for us.  There was a steady stream of campers arriving all day.  I wondered if this was what it looked like when the cattle drive came into town.  This filled me with dread.  Due to the rain, 150 campsites were closed; making parking limited and things were going to be crowded and loud.  This is the part if really hate about being in a campground and we’d gladly pay extra to be in an RV park instead…but there are none in this area.

We took advantage of the crowd and I placed a number of things in front of the RV with a “free” sign after cleaning out a couple of storage bays.  When the price is right…things move quickly.  One of the items was a large EZ Twist tent and we overheard the conversation of two young men.  It went like this:

Man #1:  What is it?

Man #2:  I don’t know, but it’s free.

Man #1:  You’re right, let’s just take it and figure it out later.

Friday night Steph, Ted, Emily and Kiersten arrived and after getting their tent set up they came in to check out our remodeling project.  There was a game of cribbage going around the table, something we could never do before, while I made copious amounts of popcorn.  I’ve forgotten how much these growing girls can eat.

As tired as I was it was hard to settle down and get to sleep, which was bad because I knew I’d need all my energy.

Long Live the Queen

Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend

Saturday started way too early and soon it was time to get up and make breakfast and I swear as soon as the last dish was dried and put away it was time to prepare lunch.  Left Brain cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill for lunch and then we settled into a serious game of Phase Ten.  I had put the pork loin in the crock pot on a table outside the RV that morning to cook all day.  The scalloped corn dish was prepared in the fridge, ready to cook.  All I had to do was make the mashed potatoes.  I can survive this day!

My son, Joe, joined us for supper and afterwards we had a game of six handed cribbage.  After the card game we had some pistachio frozen bars and spent a little time around the campfire.   It was late, but I just wanted to sit quietly and read until I went to bed….hopefully to sleep.

Perhaps the appearance of our neighbors to the north should have been a foreshadowing of things to come.

Even though I know the noise level is high over this weekend, this was unbearable.  There were hoots and hollers with cars driving up and down the street long after the “quiet hour” of 11:00 pm.   Two campers down was a group showing an outdoor movie on the side of their camper, a fun idea, but not at 1:30 in the morning.

Yes, the county police patrol on a regular basis, but they don’t seem to be stopping to say anything.  Maybe the windows were up and they couldn't hear the racket.

Needless to say it was a long, tiring day with my second night of poor sleep.

I’m starting to hope for a thunderstorm soon!

Long Live the Sleepy Queen

Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend

Sunday morning we had the breakfast soufflé I prepared the day before, along with some banana bread I’d baked and we planned our day.  At 9:00am I got a call from the office stating I owed them more money.  What?

Their records showed we had a tent on our site and needed to pay an additional $55.  I explained that when I arranged for the kids to put their tent on our site and found out how much it would cost, and the fact the site next door to us was vacant, that we rented that spot for their tent instead.  It created a little more breathing room and a place to park the car.  She kept contending that we had two tents set up and I insisted that we had only one tent and with QUIET campers.  I then launched into questioning her as to why the quiet hours after 11:00 did not seem to be enforced.

After getting that straightened out we went about our day with some photo shoots around the park with the girls.  Emily dropped her sunglasses and when she bent down to retrieve them she screamed and leaped into the air.

I then explained that I had no more food to offer anyone and we’d be eating out for lunch.  Since we are tourists in our own home town now, we took the grand kids to some of our favorite places.

The first stop was to Rudy’s Drive-In, where the girls roller-skate out to take your order, wearing poodle skirts in a Fifties theme.  Steph was excited to share this special spot with her daughters as it had many memories for her.  She was so excited she stuck an onion ring in her nose...we don't know why.  Emily taught me that if you take a photo through the root beer mug it makes a funny caricature of the subject.  You can learn so much from these young people.

Our next stop was at the Pump House Regional Art Center.  I wanted to show Steph how much this has changed since her last visit and to show her The Compassion Project that has been hung there.  Over 6,000 6” squares were painted and decorated by students in the local school district showing each person’s interpretation of what compassion meant to them.

On the side of the building work is being done by JohnPugh   creating a trompe l’oeil mural.  The unveiling will be during Artspire weekend, June 13 and 14^th.

The back of the Pump House used to be a somewhat disgusting little parking lot, and this has now been transformed into a courtyard with art work from the Heron Project that was held earlier.

The newest addition to the front gardens is the free lending library, so I took the books I had in the car and placed them inside.

When I (hopefully) get permission by Geocaching.com, I will be placing a geocache here.

As you can see below, the bike holders have been 

"yarn bombed" by local knitters. 

We left the Pump House to walk downtown to The Pearl, an old time soda fountain that was started about 1990.  

Since this was when Steph had left for college, she’d never been here.  This family loves their ice cream.

Finally we returned home and were ready to enjoy some quiet down time.  But, this is now 4:30 and things were starting to crank up again for the evening crowd.  I was just putting things into the RV when Left Brain yelled at me to come and help him.  Help him?

It seems an oriole had gotten into the cat tent while we were gone and Gracie was very interested in this new toy.  Since I needed to act fast to save the bird from the cat, I disconnected the tunnel and squeezed my ample body into the tent until I could reach the bird.  I carefully grasped it and unhooked its feet from the mesh and set it free outside.  What is with these birds lately?  I guess we need to zip the cat city shut when we’re gone as well as when the cats are inside.

Later that afternoon, when I was calmer, I walked down to the office to ask about the lack of quiet hour’s enforcement and after receiving her explanation and sensing their own frustration,  realized things would never be changed.  It’s a shame, because we really do love this park, but our memories of Whispering Pines where they are privately owned and WILL evict those not obeying the rules have convinced us that this is our last year at this park.

Hopefully this night will be quieter since the partiers should be tired, but then again, they probably slept all day.  Bring on the rain!

Long Live the Queen of Exhaustion