The Chol Hamoed Trip From Hell

Mrs.K

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 12:30 pm

Yesterday I did NOT find these events that amusing, however today, I think it is absolutely hysterical that so much can go so wrong so fast. I figured I'd share if I could give someone else a laugh.

Yesterday we took a trip to a park about an hour away. It was a one of those pre-arranged things, you buy as many tickets as you need and meet on street corner X at the designated time. It really wasn't my type of thing but my brother was bringing his family and I thought it would be nice for the cousins to hang out together.

For starters, there was a woman on the bus who decided to pay for 10, but squeeze on with 19 including laps and 3-per-seats, etc. The people arranging the trip tried to get her to understand that this was not allowed while the bus driver ranted and raved that it's illegal to drive that way. This woman wasn't budging, and expletives were exchanged. 40 minutes later, several people on the bus started yelling at the woman that she was stealing time from all of us and after much back and forth, she sent several of her children back home. We were finally on our way. (Throughout the ordeal, my late pregnancy morning sickness was acting up, not being helped by the kids kvething, "When are we gonna beeee there alreeeeady?!!!)

20 minutes into the trip, the aforementioned woman gets up to bring one of her kids a drink or something, the driver slams on the break and the woman goes flying down the aisle on her stomach all the way to the front of the bus and down the steps, head first. We pull over, hatzalah comes after a while (they had to get through the highway traffic), there's a big to-do (which fascinated the kids more then the any other part of the trip) and once again, half an hour later, we were back on our way.

We get to the park and my 4 year old son and 6 year old daughter need the bathroom. My husband is off yammering to a friend he met so I tell DS to go himself to the mens, and I go into the womens with DD. (I tried getting him to come with me but he insisted he's a boy and wants to go in the boys bathroom.) He then proceeds to lock himself in the bathroom, so after waiting on the long women's line with my daughter crying that she has to go NOW, when it's finally my turn, I hear screams coming from the mens. I run out with DD, go looking for hub, 3 men are trying to talk DS out of there, DD is crying that she still has to go, DS is screaming, blah blah blah, a young boy finally climbs over the door to rescue him. We all breathe a sigh of relief until we realize that during the hullaballoo, my 2 year old climbed out of his stroller and wandered off. We run around for several minutes (well hub ran, I sort of waddled around with my big stomach) until we find him watching the ducks. Whew.

The kids then insist they want to go peddleboating. We wait on line and in a mere 2 hours it's our turn. We get in but since DH is the only one who's feet reached the peddles, he only went in circles while I tried to make sure all the kids stayed in the boat. After 10 minutes of this we decided to get out. We got the kids on the dock, and then DH and I try to climb out and we fell in!!!! Honestly, I was too busy laughing at that point to care about being seen by the hundreds and hundreds of people who were waiting their turn. DH was miserable the rest of the trip because he soaked his wallet and fried his cell phone with all his pictures and numbers, etc. We both pretty much couldn't get ourselves out of the water. DH's feet were still up in the boat, and my stomach wasn't letting me do much of anything. The kids were terrified. We were both soaked and muddy from head to socks for the rest of the day.

The rest of the time was pretty routine, though we made sure not to go on anything crazy with our obvious track record. When we returned to the bus exactly at the time we were told, the driver said, "Didn't you hear they moved the time from 4:45 until 5:30?!" We got on the bus anyway, figuring who knows what else will go wrong if we go back?

So that was that. It just wasn't our day. Confused

zigi

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 12:46 pm

omg! what a trip!

greenfire

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 12:52 pm

I'm really sorry ... truly I am ... but I cannot help the laughter imagining in full color all of that terrible horrible no good very bad day ... not to mention the - I hope it at least was a cleansing of sorts - mud bath ... Nervous

hope today goes shall we say uneventful Wink

Inspired

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 12:56 pm

OMG. I'm sorry.
But what a story that will be for doros- every pesach!

eta: the horror stories are the best to retell our favorite was a total comedy of errors early morning bris trip (we traveled 4 hours) the highlight was the kid who managed to get the throw up in the bag but then brilliant mommy in the front seat chucked the bag out the window- where it exploded against the side of the car, raining in the back window and sprinkling the bachur riding in the back with the child. And then the next kid andked all over his clothes when we arrived all he had that was clean were his underpants. Fun times! LOL

ChossidMom

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 1:35 pm

I can't believe you fell in !!! That's hysterical. I mean - that's terrible. Oh dear. I better shut up. I'm sure you'll laugh about this someday.... Maybe you've learned your lesson, though. Trips on Chol Hamoed are not a great idea. Better to take the little ones to a local "luna park" with "mitnapchim" and a little water.

freidasima

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 1:37 pm

Take it as a kappro for something, just don't ask me for what!

hadasa

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 2:22 pm

Oy, what a story! BTW, all may not be lost with the cell phone. Take the battery out and let it dry. Maybe just the battery's ruined, and maybe not even that. It may come back to life...BTDT

Raisin

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 2:25 pm

you make our trip today sound like a ball of fun! we decided to go to a beach where there is a beautiful clifftop walk with stunning views. the weather was looking grey but we decided to go anyway. we couldn't all fit in the car so some went on the bus, which comes once on hour. they missed one bus buy 5 minutes so we waited an hour and then we set off. when we got there finally and met up with the bus travellers, it was pelting rain really really hard and painfully. my brother declared he wanted to walk anyway, but after about 5 minutes all were in agreement that we should go inside. finally we found an arcade place where we spent lots of money on rides and those machines with hook hands.

then after about 2 hours when I was getting a headache we set off to find our car. my brother and ds are still on their way home. we got home sopping wet and cold.

but at least our cellphones are intact. shock

frumluv

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 2:29 pm

Oh no, what a trip Mrs. K!!

btMOMtoFFBs

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 2:43 pm

what a story to tell Mrs. K. I was just thinking about the man who got stuck with his kids and nieces and nephews on the cable car in NYC last year... or was that 2 years ago? (and they could only be saved once YT started). Your story is not as awful as that, B"H.

dilego

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 2:46 pm

wow what a day. I hope today was better.my hubby hates trips on chol hamoed.he has a point.my kids had fun like yours cm.

ChossidMom

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 3:38 pm

dilego wrote:

wow what a day. I hope today was better.my hubby hates trips on chol hamoed.he has a point.my kids had fun like yours cm.

I didn't say my kids went to the luna park. Nuh uh. Yesterday we went to visit my parents and dh's sister is Yerushalayim. Today the kids were home and then they went to the chazanus concert in the afternoon. My nephew's choir (Shira Chadasha) sang there and my kids said it was great. My 11 year old dd went to a "movie" at 5:00 pm and had a blast. My 3 year old is on "vacation" at his cousins in Yerushalayim and my poor 5 year old was alone and just hanging out today.

avigayil

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 8:06 pm

I absolutely started laughing. I have had such trips. They are funny in hindsight, but at the time really annoying. I have 1 friend who took her kids to an enormous playground once. Her 2 year year old climbed to the top of a slide, threw off her diaper from there to the ground, and said, "Look Ima!"
Her mother was mortified. All of her other children were older and it was a big mess, in many ways :-)

Oh well. Have a gut yontif all!

Mama Bear

Mon, Apr 13 2009, 8:58 pm

btMOM, that was my former boss (I had quit my job just a month before that happened), it was a horrifying story... little kids stranded on a cable car into yomtov.... this story at least is funny.

sarahla

Mon, Apr 20 2009, 4:52 pm

This sounds horrible im really sorry it happened but im happy you shared with us because it gave me a good laugh (which was well needed embarrassed

) im here in the airport since 11:30 because I thought I had a 1:30 flight but ended up being 5:45 :/ im traveling with a bb so going back home was not an option if we were to come back 3 hrs later...so now our plane is delayed and I have a very crancky bb that cant sit in stoler anymore.... so thank you for showing me that things could be A LOT WORCE!!!!!
I hope that next Chol Hamoed trip will be smooth from now on Smile

TzenaRena

Mon, Apr 20 2009, 6:53 pm

I read this now the second time; the first time I just felt sorry for you, Mrs. K, but now I couldn't stop laughing. We had a very tame Chol haMoed, went on no trips whatsoever. We went to my parents for a visit and a supper, and everyone was happy! I got to stand over the stove and cook, and prepare for the second days without the Erev YomTov pressure. The boys learned a little, squeezed a zillion oranges, and my dd stayed home and helped too. How boring and peaceful!

Mimisinger

Mon, Apr 20 2009, 7:18 pm

I'm sorry that's horrible!

RE the cellphone - my mil put fil's cellphone in the laundry by accident. It was washed and dried in the machines.

What did he do? You take your phone and put it in a bowl of rice for a couple of days and it dries it out. He learned it from an article in the NY times. Good luck

bubby

Mon, Apr 20 2009, 7:27 pm

Mrs. K, if ever someone needed to go shooting, it was you! Next time, come with me & shoot @ targets & pretend it's the mud, the woman with the thousands of kids, & anyone/anything else that ruins your day. Great stress reliever! Yes

My sympathies. Banging head

ra_mom

Mon, Apr 20 2009, 7:41 pm

Wow Mrs. K, what a trip!!
I feel terrible for what you went through. I don't know why I am laughing about the falling into the water part... I'm glad that at least after the fact you were able to laugh as well.
May it be a Kaparah! I always say, Baruch Hashem for the small things! (Even though, the small things never feel so small when you are experiencing them!)

Mrs.K

Wed, Apr 22 2009, 5:17 am

Regarding his phone, we tried everything. We blow dried it when we got home, we tried the rice idea, nothing helped. We bought it to the service center and they too were unable to revive it. All his phone numbers were saved to his phone, so those were salvaged, but all his pictures (he had some pictures of Rabbaim on there that he was very proud of) were saved to his SIM card, so they're gone. :-( Poor guy. He bought a new phone yesterday.

Anyway, glad I could make everyone smile :-), that was my goal. As I wrote, even though I was certainly not smiling that day, looking back it really makes me laugh at the pure irony of it all. As I told DH, something to tell the grandkids.