Road Trip from Hell and Smart Phones to the Rescue

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Road Trip From Hell - Callista's Ramblings

What did you do for labour day weekend? We went camping.  Sounds fun and relaxing right? It did NOT go as planned.

The Road Trip From Hell

Warning Signs

  • My brother mixed up what date we were going and for a while wasn’t sure if he could go.
  • My dad’s work made a mistake when giving him vacation days and we didn’t know till last minute if we could go Thursday or Friday and you can’t reserve without knowing the days.
  • It was calling for rain all weekend.
  • We had a hard time deciding on which campground to go to because we wanted one that allowed the dog on the beach if possible and we wanted one close to Waterloo, ON. We were hoping for one that allowed alcohol but the ones close by didn’t allow alcohol during Labour Day Weekend.
  • We had a lot of stress trying to figure all this out.

What Went Wrong

  • I woke up the day we left for camp with a migraine.
  • We were shocked to find a bag of wood cost $8! Ice was $2.75
  • The Sobeys in Waterloo, ON we shopped at had higher prices than we are used to here.
  • That bag of wood? Not dry. Wet wood doesn’t burn. We couldn’t cook on the campfire (thank goodness we brought a stove) We also didn’t get to sit by the campfire.
  • Not only did I have a migraine, but my migraines last 2-3 days so I had it Friday and Saturday and Sunday we left camp at 1:30 and we spent the whole time packing so I was pain free only a few hours at camp. Oh and I’m nursing so I couldn’t take anything strong so the pain wouldn’t ease up and it was horrible. I was nauseous and dizzy too. I spent a lot of time laying down or napping.
  • Remember that rain I mentioned? Friday was beautiful but Saturday we had torrential rain for about 20 minutes (instant flooding) and more thunderstorms later in the evening (which were luckily almost nothing, they were predicting severe storms.) We were lucky as St. Jacob’s Market (very close by) was hit by an almost tornado.
  • My husband almost got sprayed by a skunk. He was sitting by campfire when something brushed against his leg. He saw a flash of white and thought the dog had got out of the tent. He quickly realized it was NOT the dog. It lifted it’s tail and my husband hissed at it and it ran away. Whew!
  • We went swimming in their little beach (an area roped off, only chest deep.) Fun right? It was alright till we got out and saw my youngest daughter had leeches on her!

Swimming With Leeches on the Road Trip From Hell - Callista's Ramblings

Time To Go Home – Bad Luck is Over Now Right? WRONG!

  • For those who don’t know, Waterloo is approximately 3.5 hours away from me here in Windsor. I mentioned above we left at 1:30 pm. When did we get home? 9 HOURS LATER! Why did it take 9 hours for a 3 hour drive? Keep reading.
  • 8 People including 2 children and a baby plus the family dog were piled into the minivan for the trip. So we were squished which was bad enough.
  • About 20 minutes after leaving camp, we blew a tire on the trailer. We pulled over to the side of the road.  The guys changed the tire (we had a spare) and we got back on the road. Not even 5 minutes later, the replacement tire blew. We rode the rims to the next exit where we determined the other tire on the trailer wouldn’t last much longer either. Out came the smart phones.
  • We searched for the nearest Canadian Tire stores to find replacement tires. My mother didn’t even have to enter the city we were in. With a touch of a button, it knew where we were with GPS and located the nearest stores. With just one more touch of a button she was able to call the store, without entering the phone number. Unfortunately they weren’t very helpful. We called U-haul to see about renting a trailer but they didn’t have the kind we needed. It took over an hour just to figure out what to do. The guys finally drove back to Waterloo to look around. The rest of us stayed at the restaurant. Luckily the guys had some luck at Princess Auto and found new tires and rims for the trailer and were able to come back and replace both tires. We were off!
  • Between all that and a few pit stops because of the kids, it had been a long evening already. We were just outside Windsor on the 401 when… wait for it… a tire blew on the van!
  • Out the guys got again. It took them over 30 minutes to get the spare tire out of the van as it was stuck. Smart phone to the rescue again. The flashlight app on my husband’s phone came in real handy as it was dark by this time. It provided light for them to change the tire. Another hour had gone by, by the time we got back on the road. Have you kept count? That’s 3 tires in one day!
  • And so 9 hours later, at 10:30 at night, we arrived back home. Thank goodness for smart phones. Now I just need to get one!

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