Lessons Learned

I love to get away for a long weekend when the kids are off. Things I don't love about getting away for a long weekend is the long road trip with the kids in the car, packing, packing things you have to pack to stay in a house v.s a hotel, the dreded unpacking when you get there, and then starting the routine all over again a few days later when you have to go home. I have argued this point with my husband over and over again. He finally agrees with me. No more house rental! Give me a hotel where someone brings me dinner, makes my bed, cleans my room, cleans my dishes, brings me nice fresh towels, cleans the refridge out(I barely do this at home), and empties my garbage. This may sound like I am high maintenence to you, but to me it sounds like a vacation. Isn't that what I am suppose to be on? You may want to be a slave when you get away, but I sure don't. Why go away and spend money to do that when I can stay home and do all that crap for free.
Well, here I am doing it again, renting a house with some friends in Deep Creek Lake. I learned a lot of lessons when we did this over Thanksgiving with Pat's family. Don't pack sheets for the kids. Make them sleep in there sleeping bags on the bed. Each family member pick a night to do dinner. Makes it easier to shop. Don't over do it on the groceries! Packing that stuff up at the end of the week sucks!
Only a couple of lessons stuck obviously because at the end of the trip we were cleaning the fridge out. A lesson I learned on this trip was know the type of road your house is located on. We were in the boondocks on ice and snow covered roads. The ski resort was aproximately 16 miles from our cabin but it took about 40 minutes to get there because the road to our house was worse than trecherous! Another lesson I learned was demand better service from the real estate company you are renting through. We drove 4 hours to get to Deep Creek Lake. When we show up at the Real Estate Co. to get the key, I asked a few questions and flood gates opened up. The agent says, matter-of-factly, that the directions have changed on the sheet(well I'm glad we asked tootsie). Also, when you ask someone how far and they say just down the road, I take it to mean less than a mile. In Deep Creek it means about 15-20 miles. We finally get to our cabin and the driveway is barely cleared off. It wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't on a hill. Shannon slid right passed the driveway. Now it finally hit me why the complimentary gravel the real estated agent mentioned back at the agency was probably going to be important. We have to spread it for traction in case we get stuck. WAIT A MINUTE. WE HAVE TO SPREAD IT? We finally get in the driveway and walk to the front door to get in and there is a lock box holding the key. If you have ever worked with a lock box, you know its a fairly simple thing. Well, not here because you could barely get the screen door open to access the box. The real estate Co. cleared a little tiny path on the porch so we could walk foot in front of foot to get to the door and then cleared out an area in front of the door so the screen door could open about 12 inches. When you quit smoking you eat in place of smoking. Luckily I had only quit for 3 days before the trip, otherwise my ass may have been to big to get through that door. Our bags barely fit through the door unless you shoved them through. All this while you are trying to keep from falling. I would have just shoveled more out if it wasn't 6 inch thick ice in front of the door. Oh, thats why the agent said there was Ice Melt in a bag by the door. How nice of her. We wouldn't want her to break a nail calling the person to clear an area for the paying renters! I NEED A SMOKE!! Lucky for me, I was stranded in the middle of nowhere with a girlfriend who didn't smoke. These were lessons learned that won't be forgotten.
Once we were all settled into the cabin, it was great! We had a good time. That is until it was time to go to sleep. The first night was fine because the boys weren't there yet. They stayed back for a wrestling tournament. The problem was going to be that Pat and I would have to share a full size bed. Pat and I aren't very good about sharing anything. Well Pat sort of is but me, not so much. What's his is mine and what's mine is mine. You know how it goes. When I got in bed it was like laying on a bunch of springs that didn't have much spring to them. Oh God is Shannon's bed like this too? I was thinking that it wouldn't suck so bad if all the beds were like this, but if I got the only shity bed, that would suck! In the morning I found out hers sucked too. Yay!!! I know that sounds bad, but this means I don't have a black cloud over my head.
Saturday we took Regan to the Ski Resort for some snowboarding lessons. She wanted to snowboard with the boys when they got to the cabin. Shannon and her daughter Mia came too. Well she had to because she drove us up to Deep Creek. Pat and her husband Lenny and the boys were coming up later that night and Pat was driving our car. So Shannon and Mia were stuck with me while Regan took her lesson for 4 hours. Mia was fine for a while and then you could tell she was getting bored. She started to throw ice balls at me. I gave her a few face plants in the snow to show her whose boss but that didn't work. She wanted more. Time for Hot Chocolate. Mia was all about that. I think Shannon was too. Regan's lesson was finally over and we headed back to the Cabin. We get to our community and pull in. I know I took a deep breath when Shannon pushed in the four wheel drive button. Up and down the mountain we went for quite a while. Our Cabin was 2 miles into the boondocks. Two miles takes about twenty minutes when you have to drive on ice and snow up and down a mountain. I really would have loved to been smoking at this point. Shannon kept me strong. We came to a point in the road where you go down a pretty steep part and have to cross a bridge of rushing water that comes from a waterfall not to far away. As we aproach the bridge, I notice that my feet are pressed against the floor so hard that they are about to go through the floor board. Before I can even think it out load, Shannon says OH MY GOD!! WE ARE SLIDING! Of course we would be sliding into the rushing river on my side of the car. Regan starting getting louder. I was still pressing hard on the floor getting ready to brace for impact and the rush of freezing cold water, with my finger on the electric window to roll down to get out, when the car griped something on the road at the last possible second and turned away from going off the bridge. I'm thinking give me a smoke right now. Oh wait, we are in the middle of nowhere! We finally made it home.
The boys finally showed up to the cabin. When Pat walked in, he asked where our room was. I showed him and he gave me a look. He said,"You and I have to share this?" We both just sort of laughed. Everyone was settled in. We ate and drank and watched T.V. in front of the fireplace. It was suppose to rain that evening creating more ice on the roads. That won't be good. We are suppose to leave in the morning to go skiing all day. TO BE CONTINUED......