Thursday, February 25, 2010

Family Vacations

You have to Love Family vacations and we have had several that we will remember from now on, several years back when all the kids were still living at home we left New Mexico way too early in the morning because I just knew I could drive all the way to Jackson, Tennessee the first day, well needless to say by the time we got to Brinkley, Arkansas Cindy and the Kids had tolerated just about enough of riding, not that Far from the Tennessee border I was going to at least make it there since it was still daylight, the kids spotted a carnival set up just down the road and Cindy spotted a motel that had a pool so I was out voted and we stopped.

We got checked into a room that had three beds which worked out well for us, the boys Randy and Tim got one, Melissa got one and there was one for us without having to get a roll away for anyone like we had in the past, Melissa was in the bathroom changing into her bathing suit soon after I got the door opened, Tim went next and then it was Randy’s turn, Cindy is getting the kids lined out and I am still unloading the station wagon, just as I reach the door with the last suitcase I hear “Seriously Mom there is a snake” I was nearly trampled with everyone running out of the room, I gather my family back up to get all the facts together, seems there is a snake in the bathroom Randy saw it while he was changing clothes Cindy tells me, OK I know Randy is a prankster (not sure where he got that from) so I have to go see if it is so and sure enough coiled up under the sink is a small snake just giving me the eye, I tell Cindy to call the desk and I’m going to keep an eye on the snake so we don’t lose him. Cindy is not happy when she gets off the phone, she tells me the answer she got when she told them about the snake was “at least you wont have mosquitoes in your room” Lucky for him the manager comes to the door about that time and she didn’t have to go after him.

I was still keeping an eye on the snake and here comes this man with a golf club and a small trash can, I can see this is going to work so I grab the camcorder to document what is going to be good, he goes into the bathroom and I hear clunking sounds followed by a scream, out comes the manager followed by the snake who makes a turn and disappears behind the dresser, Cindy is now carrying our suitcases out the door, the dresser was removed drawers pulled out and the snake was never found, we gladly moved to a room with the risk of mosquitoes and finally got to take the kids for a swim.

The carnival was set up down the road and we thought after all the excitement of the snake and the long ride we would take the kids to have some fun, can’t be that far so we decided to walk since we had been in the car all day. Carnivals are not near as close as they look when you are walking down the road from the motel, we finally got there and the kids were ready for some fun, Randy wanted to play games, Melissa and Timmy wanted to ride the rides, Cindy and I were trying to keep up with them, we get Tim and Melissa in line for the Zipper and walk Randy through the games, after a while we go to check on them and they are finally next to get on, the ride stops everyone unloads and Melissa steps forward to get on, instead she got a hand in her face from the Carney halting her to allow a group of people cut in front of her, this group fills the ride and our kids are told they needed to find something else to do because he was taking a break after this, we found out later this group was supposedly a local gang.

Miss Cindy says Oh Hell No and proceeds to inform the Carney that our kids would be riding, he says nope he was shutting it down for a break after this ride. Cindy is now looking for a manager, I ask How are you going to find a manager of a Carnival in a town we don’t even know, she turn and points and says “There he is” needless to say she is right, she walks up to him and sticks out her hand asking if he was the manager, he shakes her hand and confirms he is the manager, Cindy begins with introducing herself by Full Name, Where We Live, the full story of what had happened, and what she expected he would be doing about it and ending with “We don’t act like this where I come from”, he offered to give our money back and give the kids a free ride, Cindy says I don’t want your money and he wont be giving my kids a ride but he will apologize to them, Melissa is tugging on Cindy’s shirt whispering “it’s OK Mom” Cindy says It’s not OK you will get an apology, here we are about halfway into a trip a days drive from our home and more than that from our destination in a town we don’t know and my wife is making the manager of a carnival force one of his carnies to apologize to our kids for allowing the local gang members cut in front of them, The Carney was not too happy but did apologize and apologized again when Cindy pointed out that he did not sound sincere, I was happy to see him attempt to sound like he meant it because my wife loves her kids and you know how a Momma Hen is when it comes to her chicks, I could see this man was about to be flogged.

Cindy was happy for a brief moment, then we turned around to see all eyes were on us, remember those old EF Hutton commercials well here we were and all I could hear were the crickets chirping, we are walking away when Cindy asks me “Oh God What did I just do”, I told her it’s not that you were wrong it’s just that your timing was wrong because we are a mile away from our car walking out of a carnival we are not welcome at anymore. It wasn’t a problem that she made a stand for the kids but how many cars were sporting a Yellow New Mexico license plate in that town? The answer is one and it’s on the white Taurus station wagon with the Jimmy and Cindy tag on front sitting at the motel just up the road, we are now walking back in the dark, next morning we went down to breakfast to see the only other customers at the restaurant was the Manager of the carnival and our favorite Carney, we left Arkansas soon after breakfast and our trip home after going to South Carolina kind of put me in mind of lyrics in Charlie Daniels song Uneasy Rider “I wonder if anybody'd think I'd flipped. If I went to LA via Omaha!” Nothing against you fine folks from Arkansas but we just had to take I-20, which misses Arkansas all together.

13 comments:

  1. That sounds like one crazy trip - just what memories are made of!!!

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  2. Sounds like a typical Jimmy/Cindy vacation, memory filled. I just can't imagine Cindy losing her temper and confronting someone.. can you>>??? ;o)
    Nan

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  3. Yes Suz, And what memories are made when you least expect them, that was a crazy trip I could probably do some continuation posts Ha Ha

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  4. Hey Nan, you are right it does sound like something typical for us Ha Ha, Cindy lose her temper? now what would make you think of something like that lol not like you haven't been around us before.

    Miss ya Nan

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  5. OMG...this is the second post I read today that talked about SNAKES. How funny, it must be a snake day!

    And good for Cindy for speaking up. I would have done the same thing. Way to go, Cindy!

    I loved your reference to the EF Huttton commercials. That was great!

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  6. The stars of your last few posts...rodents and snakes...my "phobic" animal nightmares. I bet your next story will involve spiders...then you will have covered most of my dreaded pests! When we first moved to the San Fernando Valley (when I was little) it as full of this kind of 'wildlife." It was not uncommon to have a rattle snake coiled up on your front doorstep or a tarantula climbing up the back wall. Yikes!

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  7. Hey Ron, Yes Sir I thought the same when I read the other, we must have been on the same wave length Ha Ha,

    Cindy will speak up for what is right I have always loved that about her.

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  8. Hey Susie, I promise the next one will not be about spiders :^)

    When I lived in Texas it was about the way you explained, actually had a tarantula that lived next to my front steps.

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  9. I have a funny tarantula story. When I was very little I was extremely afraid of spiders. In fact, I always made my dad produce the 'expired" evidence of the dead spider after I screamed and cried when I saw one. Well one day we had a barbeque. I was out playing when everyone left and I saw this HUGE spider crawling up the wall. I screamed for my dad to come kill the spider. However he thought I was doing my "boy crying wolf" routine...and kind of ignored me. Later, when he went to clean the yard...he saw an enormous tarantula climbing up the wall. He grabbed the shovel and smashed it dead and threw it in the yard next door. Of course no one lived there yet! He started to have more faith in my version of things after that incident!!!

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  10. The old "Crying Wolf" routine, you are not trying to tell me you were ever guilty of this Ha Ha

    You and your Dad seems to have always been close, and I bet that wasn't the only spider he ever took care of for you

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  11. You are right on all accounts! I believe the spider population suffered at the hands of my dad...my hero who always kept me safe from scary things!

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  12. Just wanted to say....really like template change, Jimmy!

    Awesome header!

    You GO, boy!

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  13. Thank You Sir,

    I tweeked on that one a good bit yesterday, I think I like it much better than the other, The header is a picture I took looking out the backside of our property.

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