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It's over and and I survived!!!
Oh and so did the kiddos- curses my Hansel and Gretel maneuvers foiled again.
Oops.
No pics I can post online yet cuz my laptop AND a cellphone fried themselves with in a week or so of the trip's beginning and I still haven't figured out all the new new to me Windows 10 protocol yet. Sigh.
Anywho we started with the normal car rental BS. Reserved car 8 months back and it was pulled from service 3 days before we were scheduled to take possession. So now instead of packing the car the night before and then sticking it back in the car company's garage around the corner we have to take a car .25 miles away and worry about alternate side of the street parking. Logistics, Lord, do I love em- GRRRRRR.
If that wasn't enough the building decided to replace the front entrance starting on the day we were to leave. Andddddddd because we are in the habit of using the back elevator to enter and exit the apt we never saw the notices explaining this in the front elevator. Realising this doesn't make a lot of sense I'm including a pic of my side of the building's apt layout fer clarification:
So now we can only use the service elevator to get to the basement anddddd we have to use the side street exit to load the car. Which includes a sharp inclined ramp. And no doorman to help load up the car. And is surrounded by dumpsters to accommodate all the debris from the front door upgrade AND construction debris for 2 apts that are being redone on both sides of the building. Normally we tip the doorman extra to help us with the car loading. Yeah it's his job anyway but I think our camping gear deserves more than his regular paycheck. I tipped him 2 weeks in advance and am now not using his services. He's a good guy so graciously offered his tip back to us but I told him to count it as an early Christmas bonus 'specially since I hope not to be here then anyway. Nobody else to give the tip (or do the loading job) since the other on duty staff are busy directing residents and construction workers traffic and maintaining bldg security.
Ohhhhhhh happy day......I'm getting too old fer this stuff and the man is DEFINITELY not happy either. Which means I'm listening to a lot of "I HATE CAMPING" whilst fielding desperate telephone calls from LilSis about how to get to my house w/ the NC kiddos. Huh?! Oh you you you- dinna yer arse live in NYC for the first 20 plus years of yer life? How the heckenspeck can you get disoriented directionwise in the park?!? Oh well. Frequently happy I listened to our parents (mostly) back in the day on that level
.
OK OK youse are getting as bored with this minutiae as I was doing it.
Long story short? Told Lil Sis to get her where am I act? together and be back tomorrow morning. It took 6 hours to pack the car half full and given we pay for the car by the day decided to take what we had to the campsite in CT, did some set up, leave and drive back to NYC for the rest of the stuff. Fortunately we dinna have to take DGD back to the city with us as she stayed with camping buddies there. Also to our advantage we drove over the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in the dark and saw that it's lit with blue lights; really cool.:
Next morning the exhausted ol peeps bring the remainder of our stuff downstairs and get some help from a staff member who took pity on us before the various contractors are on site. So by 8:00 AM the car is packed w/ the rest of the gear and all we have to do is wait for LilSis to make an appearance w/ the other kids. She shows up at 11:45 AM and at the height of rush hour we are off. Normally, we stop to eat on the road but I packed eatables in the house and told the kiddos we'd only have a bathroom stop if needed. Arrived at the campsite around 4:00 PM (yeah traffic sucked; normally this is a 2 hour trip), grabbed the Princess (AKA DGD), finished set up w/ other camping buddies help (thank you to the nth!) and sent the man out for several New Haven style pizzas (and ice cold beers) for everyone who helped.That night the campground was showing a children's movie so adults were able to chit chat together while the PJ clad kids took their own pizza, ice tea, and popcorn to watch some P-G cinema. Oh goody-we're camping!:he:
Gonna continue after dinner so stay tuned.
Oh and so did the kiddos- curses my Hansel and Gretel maneuvers foiled again.
Oops.
No pics I can post online yet cuz my laptop AND a cellphone fried themselves with in a week or so of the trip's beginning and I still haven't figured out all the new new to me Windows 10 protocol yet. Sigh.
Anywho we started with the normal car rental BS. Reserved car 8 months back and it was pulled from service 3 days before we were scheduled to take possession. So now instead of packing the car the night before and then sticking it back in the car company's garage around the corner we have to take a car .25 miles away and worry about alternate side of the street parking. Logistics, Lord, do I love em- GRRRRRR.
If that wasn't enough the building decided to replace the front entrance starting on the day we were to leave. Andddddddd because we are in the habit of using the back elevator to enter and exit the apt we never saw the notices explaining this in the front elevator. Realising this doesn't make a lot of sense I'm including a pic of my side of the building's apt layout fer clarification:
So now we can only use the service elevator to get to the basement anddddd we have to use the side street exit to load the car. Which includes a sharp inclined ramp. And no doorman to help load up the car. And is surrounded by dumpsters to accommodate all the debris from the front door upgrade AND construction debris for 2 apts that are being redone on both sides of the building. Normally we tip the doorman extra to help us with the car loading. Yeah it's his job anyway but I think our camping gear deserves more than his regular paycheck. I tipped him 2 weeks in advance and am now not using his services. He's a good guy so graciously offered his tip back to us but I told him to count it as an early Christmas bonus 'specially since I hope not to be here then anyway. Nobody else to give the tip (or do the loading job) since the other on duty staff are busy directing residents and construction workers traffic and maintaining bldg security.
Ohhhhhhh happy day......I'm getting too old fer this stuff and the man is DEFINITELY not happy either. Which means I'm listening to a lot of "I HATE CAMPING" whilst fielding desperate telephone calls from LilSis about how to get to my house w/ the NC kiddos. Huh?! Oh you you you- dinna yer arse live in NYC for the first 20 plus years of yer life? How the heckenspeck can you get disoriented directionwise in the park?!? Oh well. Frequently happy I listened to our parents (mostly) back in the day on that level
. OK OK youse are getting as bored with this minutiae as I was doing it.
Long story short? Told Lil Sis to get her where am I act? together and be back tomorrow morning. It took 6 hours to pack the car half full and given we pay for the car by the day decided to take what we had to the campsite in CT, did some set up, leave and drive back to NYC for the rest of the stuff. Fortunately we dinna have to take DGD back to the city with us as she stayed with camping buddies there. Also to our advantage we drove over the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in the dark and saw that it's lit with blue lights; really cool.:
Next morning the exhausted ol peeps bring the remainder of our stuff downstairs and get some help from a staff member who took pity on us before the various contractors are on site. So by 8:00 AM the car is packed w/ the rest of the gear and all we have to do is wait for LilSis to make an appearance w/ the other kids. She shows up at 11:45 AM and at the height of rush hour we are off. Normally, we stop to eat on the road but I packed eatables in the house and told the kiddos we'd only have a bathroom stop if needed. Arrived at the campsite around 4:00 PM (yeah traffic sucked; normally this is a 2 hour trip), grabbed the Princess (AKA DGD), finished set up w/ other camping buddies help (thank you to the nth!) and sent the man out for several New Haven style pizzas (and ice cold beers) for everyone who helped.That night the campground was showing a children's movie so adults were able to chit chat together while the PJ clad kids took their own pizza, ice tea, and popcorn to watch some P-G cinema. Oh goody-we're camping!:he:
Gonna continue after dinner so stay tuned.
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