It
took over eleven hours, but we finally made it to the Outer Banks.
Unfortunately, this is how our trip started:
Even
after many years on the rescue squad, and being on countless accident scenes,
seeing this one shook me up. There was literally NOTHING left on the outside of
this car, just a mangled blob of twisted medal. I’m kinda glad everyone else in
my car was asleep, so they don’t have the image permanently imprinted on their
brain.
My
husband and daughters woke up as when we were on the Chesapeake
Bay-Bridge-Tunnel (they slept through two pit-stops and a gas fill-up) and
wanted breakfast, so we stopped at Denny’s. Denny’s is usually known for their
quick service, so I figured we’d be back on the road in half an hour. Almost
two hours later, we get finish breakfast and are able to start heading south
again. I realize things are done at a much more relaxed pace down here, but
come on – two hours for breakfast? Seriously?
As
usual, because we had plenty of time at Denny’s, I chatted with another
customer. I made the comment about how many NJ License plates were in the
parking lot. Not only was the man from New Jersey, he lives less than a mile
from my house. I always said there were zero degrees of separation for our
town!
Whatever,
as long as I can hit that main strip getting onto the Outer Banks before one
(rule of thumb for check in time on the island is 4:00 pm, so the closer you
get to that time the thicker the traffic gets), I figure I will be able to
avoid most of the traffic.
The
first snarl happens fifty-two miles out and my eye starts to twitch. If I had
to sit in fifty-two miles of bumper to bumper traffic, I was going to go
postal. Luckily, it was only about two miles of back-up which I think was
caused by an engineering error. Tons of cars had to get off at one exit, and
the exit ramp was preceded by an equally busy entrance ramp. POOR planning if
you ask me.
Traffic
finally starts moving again and I think I’m in the clear, then boom, twenty
miles out, it is bumper to bumper again. The last time we came to the Outer
Banks, this strip took us over four hours to get through. This time, I managed
in just under two, so I am considering it a bonus, but still at this point I am
DONE and just want to get settled into the house, get some dinner and crash.
We
get the keys, find the house and unload all of our junk. After the food is
unpacked and put away, the next thing on my agenda is to make the beds. I go to
make our bed, and the comforter they have on it is disgusting. I pull it off
the bed and go to throw it in the washing machine, but it doesn’t fit, so I
call the rental office and tell them about it. The girl asks what’s on the
comforter and I tell her “Sorry, I left my CSI kit at home.” (You don’t even
want to know.) They send the cleaning crew back to my house to get the
comforter. As I am waiting for them to show up, I start looking around the
place. The floors are a mess, the tub was not cleaned, the beds are sandy. OK,
I can understand sand on the floors and the rugs. It is almost impossible to
get the sand out when the house is in a beach town, but on the beds? The owner
of the cleaning company shows up – what a sweet guy – I show him everything,
and he immediately gets on the phone and arranges a crew to come over and clean
again.
During
this time we realize the AC is not working and we cannot get on to the
internet. I am back on the phone with the rental agency. They say they will send
over a computer guy and someone to fix the AC. She tells me a storm is rolling
in, so things should cool down quickly and I should open the windows.
While
I’m dealing with all of this, I send my husband and oldest daughter to the
store and I wait for the various crews to show up and fix everything. I go to
open the windows and find, except for two, the screens are either ripped,
missing or filled with spiders so there was no way they were going to be
opened.
The
cleaning crew arrives and offers to clean everything, including the dishes
which I have now discovered are all pretty gross. I told them I would just put
everything through the dishwasher, and they could focus on the house. So the
dishwasher is running, two vacuum cleaners are running, my youngest daughter
has the TV going, and the computer guy and the owner of the cleaning company’s
wife (another sweetie) show up. Now there are four extra people in the bungalow
all working when Mother Nature decides to flex her muscles in the form of
torrential rain, thunder and lightning. Of course the power goes out.
This
is when my husband and daughter come back from the store. Did you know they
only use paper bags in the stores down here? No plastic. Paper bags hold up so
well during a downpour. Yup, you guessed it, groceries all over the driveway.
You would think one of us would have thought to bring an umbrella. At this
point, I don’t even want dinner, I just want to go to bed so I can wake up
Sunday and all this would be over.
Power
comes back on. The internet is now working. The cleaning crew finishes and
promises to come back the next day with a clean comforter and extra dishwasher
soap to replace what I used to clean what should have been cleaned before I got
here. The AC guy shows up. Turns out the drainage lines were clogged, so the
safety was shutting the unit down so the house wouldn’t flood. Easy fix, we are
golden. My husband gets the grill assembled and cooks some burgers for dinner.
After
dinner is cleaned up, I say I’m FINISHED and head for bed, the wonderful bed that
squeaks so wonderfully with any slight movement you make. I try lying perfectly
still so I don’t set off the bed and realize the bungalow has a pretty serious
design flaw. All of the interior doors have louvers and are not solid. Not only
do they not muffle sound within the house, somehow they manage to magnify the
sound. So instead of sleeping, I am listing to the movie my family is watching
in the living room.
Eventually
I do manage to fall asleep, only to wake up at four a.m. (I misread the clock
and thought it was six.) So this morning already I have emptied and reloaded the
dishwasher, gone grocery shopping for items which were not purchased by my
husband and daughter which we need – ie: half and half for the coffee - put
everything away and have written this long-winded blog.
If
find, at the moment, I am too tired and rather uninspired to tackle a writing
challenge, so you have another day’s reprieve. Hopefully my husband has stopped
snoring and I can go back to bed and get a few more hours of sleep. We will
start up the writing challenges again tomorrow.
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