Day 5: SIT DOWN and BUCKLE UP!
My mom used to sing this dumb public service jingle that only contained four words. It went, “Buckle up for safety.” I now find myself singing that song whenever I’m buckling up my own wee ones.
Mason is potty trained now but he doesn’t yet have his sea legs. If he needs to potty while we’re cruising down the highway, one of us has to take him by both hands and lead him along in front of us so he doesn’t fall and get hurt if we hit a bump. He thinks this is great fun and he says, “Whoa! WHOA!!” the whole time (expect when he’s sitting on the potty – no, he doesn’t yet go standing up).
We’ve had to start reprimanding Max. Now that he’s a “big boy”, he can get up and go to the bathroom all by himself. Problem is, this is such a novelty for him that he’s been getting up to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes or so. I’ve had to reprimand him more than once today. When the old “if we get into an accident, you’re going to DIE!” threat didn’t work, I had to resort to firmly telling him to “SIT DOWN and BUCKLE UP!”
Last night, Richard took the boys to the playground while I was working. I get a bit depressed when I have to work when everybody else is having fun so I turned off my computer, locked the RV, and walked over there, too.
Richard didn’t look like he was having much fun after all. Mason had crawled up on the playground contraption and Richard was standing halfway up the ladder, trying to catch him, or at least stop him from falling onto the slide. There were about a gazillion kids there and it was very noisy. A few feet away, a live band (only 2 people) was playing music. A few parents were sitting in lawn chairs. The later it got, the more rowdy and noisy the kids became.
One little girl came up to talk to me, and then another child did, and then another. You really can tell some children don’t get enough attention at home. You give them a bit of attention and they attach themselves to your hip and never stop talking. (Our children are so wary of strangers that they would never initiate a conversation with someone they don’t know.) I expressed interest in a tunnel one child was digging in the dirt and then the other children started digging tunnels, too. One man walked up and said, “Are they all yours?”
I replied, “None of them are.”
There was a two-year-old there and he and Mason were running around and around and around. It was hard to keep up with him and Richard got quite a workout. The lightning bugs came out, much to the delight of all the children.
It was getting dark and we told Max and Mason it was time to go in. Mason had missed his nap and, when he heard we had to leave all those other kids, he threw a FIT. Whoo-wee, it was NOT pretty. Downright embarrassing! I explained to the other parents that he’d missed his nap and they all shook their heads and smiled, probably silently thinking, “Yeah right, Lady!”
Mason got calmed down after I washed his face and got his jammies on. He settled down to watch a DVD with Max and then said he was hungry again. I gave him a snack and he didn’t fall asleep for another two hours! He slept in pretty late this morning so it’ll probably be another nap-less day today.
We’re still in Pennsylvania but we should be at our next campground, somewhere in Maryland, in about half an hour.
There were a few clouds this morning but it’s downright overcast and hazy now. I can smell rain in the air. That’s not so bad because the generator has stopped working, meaning no air conditioning in the back of the RV when we’re on the road. Uh oh. The rain just started…and the windshield wipers just broke AGAIN!
UPDATE: 4:30 p.m. – Well, we’re here. This place is pretty dumpy. Maybe it’s not the place. Maybe it’s just the clientele. The guy in front of us just squirted a ton of lighter fluid on a roaring fire with his young child less than a foot away from him. What a moron.
This place is packed. We didn’t get a water-side spot so we’re sandwiched in here between everybody else, in the middle aisle, meaning RVs, cars, bikes, and people are passing in front of and behind us. We don’t have a sewer hook-up so we’ll have to take lightning fast showers. We’d planned to stay here two days but we’re going to leave tomorrow and head for the next campground.
6:00 p.m. – Lighter Fluid Larry just walked up to the window to tell me our windshield wiper is broken. It’s literally hanging off the side of the RV. Uh, duh…
UPDATE: Next morning – We were right about this place being dumpy. A neighbor just told Richard that some kids were spray-painting cars here last night. We’ve never heard of that happening at a campground before. That means the campground has little to no security, and that there are parents here letting their kids run wild after dark. We’re outta here.