Monday, March 14, 2011

The De-evolution of a Spring Break Trip

Early February, 2011 - I scheduled Alan's 6 month appointment with the transplant clinic.  Intentionally made it for Greg's spring break.  Thought in the back of my mind we might do something fun.


Late February, Early March - We made up two potential itineraries and weighted the pros, cons, and costs of spending 1 night in a hotel vs 3 nights in our camper.  Decided the camper was the better of the two options and tentatively set our plans.


March 4 - The ten day forecast showed a 60% chance of rain for the Monday of our trip, and a 40% chance for that Tuesday.  Not good for the outdoor activities we had planned.


March 7 - The seven day forecast still had a 40% chance of rain for Monday, along with a cold front coming in that night, so chilly blustery temps were in store for Tuesday.  Still not good for the stuff we wanted to do outside.  We gave up on the idea of an overnight trip.


Late pm, March 10 - The rain for Monday had completely shifted to Sunday, and the temps for Monday & Tuesday were still on the cool side, but a little milder and warmer than originally predicted.  We decided maybe we could proceed with our 3 night outdoor fun in the big city plans.  And then remembered that the camper needed its registration renewed and that office was closed until Monday.  Ne-ver mind on the camping.  For real this time.


Weekend, March 11-13 - Even if the camping was out, there was still the fact that we would be spending the gas money to get to the big city on Monday anyway, and would have an entire afternoon free.  Or we could even go back to the hotel option and have Monday afternoon and Tuesday.  We spent all weekend searching online for fun places to eat, small museums to visit... anything we could do in an afternoon (and inside, since it still looked to cool to be out) and get our money's worth.


Mid-evening Sunday, March13 - We finally decided we were trying too hard to think up some fun.  We know that coming up this summer we have more definite plans for big trips and fun times.  Plus our boys are very easy to please and we'd like to keep it that way.  So we picked out a Burger King with a big indoor playground (germaphobes do not frequent fast food playgrounds, so this would be quite a treat) and a CiCi's pizza that were on our route.  We'd choose one of those at lunchtime and head on home after that.


Bedtime Sunday Night, March 13 - We realized we had spent all of our time and energy trying to schedule fun that we had not prepared for our 5:30am departure in just a few hours.  There were no clothes laid out, no breakfasts lined up, no medicine packed away.  Oops.  We set our alarms for 4:30 (the day after daylight savings time began, thankyouverymuch) and got ready for bed.  It was at that moment Greg pointed out: "Alan and I could just go, and leave the rest of you here.  We've done that before."  Revolutionary!  He was exactly right.


So although I did feel a little guilty sending them off alone, I have to admit I was relieved.  I got up at 4:45, got Alan dressed, and packed a breakfast for the road.  Off they went.  And I went back to bed.


So far, it has been exactly the right decision!

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