Vacation Jinxed!

Talk about over planning... All of last week had geeky me making up the perfect itinerary for the labor day weekend.. Actually about 10 days ago I started this madness. M obliged to my silliness claiming he will take a couple days off to oblige so that we can make an extended trip to the area. So we planned a trip that took us to Richmond, VA and onwards to DC, Baltimore and Shenandoah Valley. The trip seemed perfect. The imp was consulted to plan the DC Itinerary and the prospect of National Air and Space Museum, and Natural History museum not to mention the Chinese Panda's at the National Zoo were all part of our tour of DC.

I must digress here to mention that we have taken trips before. Touristy trips cramped into 3 days of long weekend. Trips planned on a whim, decided the day before we left and sometimes hotels booked after we landed at our destination. But since Cheeky's birth, we try to act like responsible parents, planning ahead and keeping things at a leisurely pace. As a result we have not made many long trips before. We stuck to the day trips here and there. So Cheeky and Mom were really excited about this fun event on the horizon.

Maps were consulted, friends were lured in and the plan was finalized. In true geekish fashion thrown into an Excel, tickets booked. We thought of it all except the Weather channel. So the day before the trip when finally the TV was turned on we saw images of Tornado's in the Carolina's, Gustav in the horizon and the effects of Hurricane Faye leaving its stamp on the North West.

This morning I lay in bed at 2:45 AM listening to the thunder rattling my windows and the lightning flooding the room and wondered if it was wise to go on. We had watched the weather channel all day yesterday and seen the predictions of showers in all the places we were visiting. Yet the spirit for adventure burned bright and that cast a foolish AllisRight light over our eyes! So the wee hours of the morning saw us braving the rain to load our car up and hit the roads.
But the saying goes when it rains, it pours and when it pours it batters. A few miles on the highway had us encountering torrential rains, poor visibility and the worst of all battered cars on the roadside. As we sat there struggling to hear each other over the batter of the rain, peering through the window like stiff necked cranes, our eyes wide and popped out to make out the tail lights in the front and still failing to decipher in the haze the flashing hazard lights nonetheless. Only to hear through it all a faint ringing sound much to our bewilderment (have my ears given up on me too?) and see more visions of cop cars, fire trucks and zooming paramedics frantically kicking us out of the lane we were in. While we were thus occupied, sanity finally kicked in.
We yelled at each other over the mayhem "I need to talk to you". We pulled out at an exit to sit parked at a gas station, rivulets of sweat running down our brows, the shortened breath as if we had run for miles. Finally we looked at each other and the absurdity of it all had us laughing at our foolishness, almost but not quite! After all we were stuck in the middle of nowhere in a gas station while the storm raged with thunder and lightning thrown in for good measure.Not to mention the 3 year old at the back all starry eyed and eager to get back on the road! We still had the good measure of sanity left to suppress that laugh and look serious!! We tucked our tails between our legs to apologetically call the hotel and say we are calling it quits. The lady on the other side seemed relieved and promised to refund our money back. The news was gently broken to Cheeky - Washington DC is closed due to rains we said and he of course bought it! I know you would say shame on us for fooling a child. If you are saying that you don't have one of your own.. so hold it till you babysit Cheeky for a couple of days without help! {wink}
We then started over, only headed in the opposite direction and at a snails pace high tailed it back home! A few miles later the rain stopped battering and slowed down to a downpour enough for us to see the looming clouds up ahead and the car with the axle broken next to us. A few more miles down the line, the sun finally peeked to give a watery smile. Back home at last and the sun shone down on us beaming to her hearts content. A conspiracy you think? Well at least this time I made it out the door and 100 miles closer to DC. Next time I will get there!! :)

(Note: At the end of the day, the rains have begun again as I sit here typing this up I am actually glad in a weird sense that it is raining)
Some snapshots from the road as the rain cleared up when my camera would click again!
And still later when the sun made a tentative appearance.. the sight of the evil looking black clouds over the horizon actually looked beautiful to us! Aah I can finally see again I thought!The comedy never ceases in my life does it?