Your Turn
So, with this being Victoria Day weekend in Canada, and next weekend Memorial Day here in the US, it got me to thinking about vacations with the family, and vacations I have taken on my own. I have had some truly awful vacations sitting in the back of the car watching my parents chain smoke their way across the US while I silently begged for a little fresh air. Then when we got home there were the thousands upon thousands of slides and home movies to watch night after night as my parents revisited their glorious two weeks without work. You know how with a digital camera you can take ten pictures of the same subject because you can just delete all of the ones which suck? Well, my parents also would take 10 pictures of the same subject, get the film developed into slides, display them on our living room wall, and then have discussions for hours about which one was best while I begged for the sweet release of death. There were good times too. I'm sure there were. What I want from you today is your most memorable vacation story. It can be with family or friends. It can be good or bad. Just some vacations or trips that really stick out in your mind.
My BFF and I backpacked through Europe for a month, albeit glamourously of course. All the while getting into some very naughty and crazy situations, it was the best vacation ever!
ReplyDelete"...while I begged for the sweet release of death."
ReplyDeleteTEEHEEE!!! that line just made my day.
Alright, you got me on this one too.
ReplyDeleteMy best memories were the roadtrips we took, usually cross country, either south to Florida or west to California. Once from CA to FL. On that trip, our car broke down in the desert and we were saved by a trucker who pulled over and called for help. And probably prevented my father from getting his head blown off. I remember the hot sand slipping through my sandals as I screamed at my dad to get away from the smoking car. He opened the hood just as the trucker pulled up.
We were stranded for a few days in the middle of nowhere in a desert hotel. Straight out of Quentin Tarantino movie, funky old place. We quickly discovered that the vending machine was broken and that if you simply wacked it good, a couple of candy bars spilled out. I loved 5th Avenues, and I must have eaten at least 100 of them that week.
The hotel had a pool. We would go swimming at night and I will never forget looking up at the millions of stars as I floated on my back.
One night, these HUGE bugs got into the pool. Never found out what they were. One got in my hair. My brother laughed hilariously as I struggled to get it out, screaming at the top of my lungs.
After about a week, our car was returned from the repair shop and we were on our way again.
I thought the oil drills in Texas looked like giant bird dinosaurs. And they stunk to high heaven. So hot in that damn station wagon to boot.
Good times.
I'm with you Pookie!
ReplyDelete2 years ago, I won an all expense Disney Trip to Orlando from our country radio station. We took the kids out of school and went down. At the airport, we were surprised by a red carpet to a waiting limo-sent to us by Mickey Mouse. The weather, the meet and greet with the country singer, everything-PERFECTION!!! We all bought the ears and wore them proudly!
ReplyDeleteIn 1988 my college roommate and I talked our parents into sending us to Europe for a month as a graduation present. BEST TIME EVER!!!!! We had a eurorail pass and just went from country to country. If we were having fun we stayed. If not, we got back on the train. We ate chocolate and bread everywhere and roomed with a cute naked Australian guy at a youth hostel in London. She is still my best friend and we try to have adventures when we can.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to say my most treasured vacation is the one I took most recently. For my oldest daughter's 16th birthday we took a weekend trip to San Antonio. We get such precious little time to spend together one on one and this was 3 days of togetherness and we had the most fun!
ReplyDeleteI was living in Bulgaria and took a trip to Budapest to see a Pearl Jam concert. It was a blast!!!
ReplyDeleteI loved being back in "western" europe and eating "real" food. The concert was amazing, the city beautiful, etc.
The most memorable part, though? Going through Serbia. Milosevic was still in power and IFOR forces were everywhere. They made us all get off the bus and run our hands through some weird solution while guys in HAZMAT suits sprayed down our bus. I thought they were trying to ethnic cleanse us!
I was going to reminisce from my childhood but the best one was while I was in the Air Force.
ReplyDeleteI was returning from England and took 30 days leave (plus probably 5 days free travel time).
I reported to the Orderly Room, turned in my travel package and waited for instruction.
The admin guy comes back and tells me my training class didn't start until 35 days later. He said since I wasn't allowed to work until I passed the qualification training (3 month school) that I should just go home until then.
I told him that didn't sound quite right and could I get it in writing and he complied.
I hadn't yet provided an address or phone number (although if someone really wanted to talk to me they just had to spend 30 minutes asking around to get the number).
35 days later I return and he tells me, uh, I gave you some bad info there but we aren't going to charge you for the 35 days...
I only had 6 months on my contract left at the time.
My four year old daughter was remarkably unimpressed with Disney and made no bones about it. We paid a gazillion dollars, so that she could eat with Cinderella and cheer the eff up. Their conversation went like this. "Cindy... can I call ya Cindy? Here's the thing... I've been here for three days and haven't been on TV once. No one's even asked me to be in the parade. Sure, the rides are fun, but I'm not gonna get famous on them." More of a monologue than a conversation.
ReplyDeleteCinderella suggest that the mini diva join in the afternoon parade when she and Prince Charming walked past. The girl was thrilled out of her mouse ears, and did just that. She jumped up, joined in the parade and sang her way down Main Street.
That's easy! We used to go on long (like, 4-week) vacations in the station wagon. I grew up in California and we drove through most of the west and southwest.
ReplyDeleteOne time we went to Vegas and our car broke down and my father gambled away all our money when he was drunk. Now, he was a big-shot criminal defense lawyer and we were pretty affluent, but that was before things like ATMs, etc. So we were stuck in Vegas until it was Monday and someone from the office could wire him money or until he could win back enough $$ to get the car fixed.
This was WAY before Vegas was family friendly and there was NOTHING for kids to do. We went to the same movie 3 times and also hung out in the casino just outside the boundary line while my dad gambled. (He generally didn't have a gambling problem--he was an alcoholic for sure but not a compulsive gambler. And he played well but not while drunk.)
I remember my dad taught us how dealers cheat at cards and my sister caught a dealer dealing seconds and reported her.
Well, we got out of there eventually, but I can tell you...As adults, not a one of us has ever gone back to Vegas.
So many vacation memories - it's hard to narrow it down! I guess one that stands out was a trip to California in 2001. My husband and I both got laid off about two weeks after booking our trip on Priceline, but since everything was non-refundable, we went anyway and tried to keep costs down. At the time (pre-9/11), the LA Film Commission website posted a list of what movies and tv shows were filming throughout the city, so we decided the use that list and see what we could see. One night we went to downtown LA and saw George Clooney and Don Cheadle shooting a scene from Ocean's 11. We also took a Warner Bros. studio tour and saw Martin Sheen, George Stephanopoulos, Goran Visnic (from ER), Gunther from Friends, and Lauren Graham (I'd taken the tour a couple of times before and not seen anyone, so I was shocked to see famous people there). Then we went to the premiere of The Mexican and saw a lot more celebrities.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, we didn't do much besides stargaze, and we didn't have enough money for a single nice meal, but we had fun driving around LA and lots of "I've seen her in real life" stories to tell when we got home.
In the summer of 1971, my grandmother, sister and cousin went via train to Washington DC and New York. Amtrak was new then, but trains still had the dining cars, viewing platforms, etc. On the way back, my cousin and I decided to spend a little time exploring the train and were hanging out in the bar (I was 12, he was 13 or 14). After a while, we decided to walk back to our seats, but we couldn't find them anywhere. We went from one end of the train to the other a few times, but there was no trace of our car or fellow travelers.
ReplyDeleteSeems that during one of the stops outside of New York, our car - the one we were supposed to be on - had been switched to a different engine. While our seats were headed to St. Louis, we were on a train headed for Chicago then turning North. The only point at which both trains would pass again (we were in the lead) was at Altoona, PA, sometime around 10:30 that night.
Well, we had nothing else to do so we headed back to the bar, where a table of three - an old cattleman in a cowboy hat from Chicago, a hipper high school teacher from West Virginia, and a straight-looking but quiet man who was so wasted that every time someone asked him his name it came out differently - decide to be good neightbors and invited us to their table. The cattleman evidently felt that he had been put on earth to buy drinks for everyone he met, and proceeded to do so ..despite the fact that my cousin and I were obviously underage.
I had a single screwdriver. But by the time we hit Altoona my cousin was so drunk he could barely stand up. We got off the train and waited by some empty railroad tracks - no station in sight. My cousin kept saying "I've got to sit down" and plopping himself right in the middle of the tracks. Eventually an old railway worker in a nearby shed saw up and brought him some coffee, but it was still a struggle keeping him upright as we waited for about a half hour.
Finally the train we were supposed to be on showed up and we got on board, noisily walking in through the car of mostly sleeping passengers. My grandmother and sister had no idea where we had been and made no comment, despite the fact that we smelled like a distillery. I slumped into my seat and went straight to sleep, but my cousin was up all night in the restroom throwing up...
case sensitive I see
ReplyDeleteMy dad's from Alabama. One trip down to see the grandparents, my mom stayed behind, and my brother and I drove down in my dad's '60s VW bus. Halfway through the 2-day trip, the van started having mechanical problems and stalled. To get it going again, my brother and I had to push the van to get it rolling fast enough that my dad could pop the clutch. I was 8 and my brother was 5. We had to do this a few times, and I can't believe no one pulled over to help. I was dumb enough to go see Little Miss Sunshine a few days after my dad died. Way to stir up memories and emotions!
ReplyDeleteSame trip, my dad took us to see Poltergeist, because "we wouldn't stop begging him." You know the point in the middle of the movie when things calm down for a bit before the really bad stuff starts? We begged him to let us leave then. His excuse: "By that time I was into the movie and wanted to see how it ended." That was the last trip we took without my mom.
My mother SCREAMING at my father - in the middle of a restaurant - that we were driving home that night and that when we got home she was going to leave him.
ReplyDeleteShe'd calmed down by the time we got home, 24+ hours later, and did not leave him.
I witnessed the screaming part, but I was in the restroom when he did whatever set her off. I still have no idea what happened, and my family does. not. discuss. this. stuff.
I've got one of each.
ReplyDeleteWorst trip ever was a caribbean cruise followed by a week in Peurto Rico. The airline lost my luggage en route to Peurto Rico where the cruise departed. The airline promised they'd get the luggage to the ship before it departed. It was January and I live in Canada so I was wearing pants and a sweater when I boarded the ship confident I'd soon get my luggage. I spent hours on the phone with the airline every day of the cruise. I finally got my luggage a few weeks after I returned home and I spent a fortune on new clothes after spending several days in the caribbean in jeans and a sweater.
Best trip ever was three weeks in Australia. It's just beautiful there, and there is so much to see and do in that country. Definitely memorable in terms of wildlife, scenic views and extracurricular activities.
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ReplyDeleteOne really bad one was me and a schoolfriend went to Greece when we were 16 - it was disastrous! We were staying with some friends of my family on one of the Islands. On the second day into our stay, the grandmother who had been staying with them as well keeled over and died. Right in front of us. At the dinner table. Anyway as you can imagine mass hysteria broke out, we were packed off to bed pronto but we obviusly didn't get much sleep with all the crying and screaming going on outside our bedroom door. The next morning I get up and go into the livving room - the family is sitting in the armchairs having their morning coffee, the dead grandmother is laid out on the couch - completely uncovered- and they're all acting like it's the most natural thing in the friggin world. I start crying my eyes out and they comfort me and say "oh, this must be your first dead body! You poor thing, no wonder you're crying!" I did ask why the body was still there and apparently they were waiting for it to be taken away and the funeral would be within the next day or two... Well, my friend and i hightailed it out of there, and island hopped for the rest of the 2 weeks we were there. It was extremely traumatic but hysterically funny too. Both my friend and i still tell this tale today and it always produces laughs which isn't normally my intention as it's told in a 'oh my god what a traumatic holiday' way.
ReplyDeleteI have seen the family since and they're lovely people, but i still can't sit on their couch...
When my kids were young, about 9 and 7, we took a cross-country trip from Houston to visit some relatives in Wyoming. Along the way, we visited a bunch of great sites, like Carlsbad Caverns, Mt. Rushmore, Devil's Tower, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, we went up Pikes Peak. You can take a tram up and down the mountain, takes about 90 minutes each way with a half hour on top.
When we got to the top we had a quick bathroom break. I thought my little one was with my husband, he thought he was with me. He had disappeared, and he was never one to wander off at all. I notified the staff, who acted like they could care less. One said, "No one could take him, where would they go?" but I was scared shitless that maybe he'd fallen 14,000 feet down the mountain!
To make things worse, it's so hard to breathe in that atmosphere, my heart and head were pounding.
To make a long story short, hubby finally found him on the outside of the walls of the observation deck! He had decided to go exploring with the $5 we had given him to spend in the gift shop. The little guy had no idea of the panic to find him. I didn't know whether to strangle or hug him to death.
That would be the cruise to Mexico back in 1988. I was about 9 and my parents hadn’t had my 2 sisters yet. I was seasick for a lot of the cruise, but since we were on international waters, I could gamble and was at the slot machines a large portion of the time with my mom. Also, I had as many virgin pina coladas as my heart desired. Good times.
ReplyDeleteI just remember feeling sad about our time in Mexico … so much poverty in the areas we visited.
That would be the cruise to Mexico back in 1988. I was about 9 and my parents hadn’t had my 2 sisters yet. I was seasick for a lot of the cruise, but since we were on international waters, I could gamble and was at the slot machines a large portion of the time with my mom. Also, I had as many virgin pina coladas as my heart desired. Good times.
ReplyDeleteI just remember feeling sad about our time in Mexico … so much poverty in the areas we visited.
I have been very lucky to get to go on many nice vacations with my parents. All nice, but one of the best was skiing in Val Di Fassa, Italy, one year. It ended up being the last skiing vacation I went on with my dad before he passed away, and we didn't know yet that he was ill. It was a perfect week. It had been snowing like crazy for several weeks but we had sunshine all week when we were there, but with tons of snow. If there is one thing that makes me truly happy, like, in my BONES, it's skiing in the sunshine. We took a day trip up to the Marmolada glacier...so high up you get a bit lightheaded because the air is so thin, and the gondola that takes you up is really old and kind of rickety and they CRAM people in like sardines. Cool! It was just good times with the fam...great skiing, great hotel, amazing weather and on top of that, the Italian food!!! Yum!
ReplyDeleteIn general, I have to say I really enjoy travelling with my parents/ sister.
@Momster
ReplyDeleteI spent a decade in CSprings, the only time I bothered to drive all the way up the mountain the clouds boiled up right when we arrived and visibility was zero. Ruined my brakes for nothing so I never tried again.
I studied abroad in Germany during the World Cup. It was CRAZY! There were so many people from all over the world. I loved Germany. They get such bad press. I really found them to be cool. It was so cheap to fly to different countries. My friends & I flew to Prague, Denmark, and Italy. Prague & Amsterdam are my two favorite places in the world. Beautiful country & people. I'm not sure if its because the people in Amsterdam are "stoned," but the people are so friendly. LOL.
ReplyDeleteI would NEVER go back to Denmark. RACIST country. I was really sad that I encountered so many "racist incidents" when I was there for a short period of time. I'm not one to judge an entire country as Racists, but it really left a bad taste in my mouth.
I have friends in NY from Denmark, and I really wanted to see their country. I was really surprised by the reactions over there. Too many to discuss. Seriously...it was BAD. I did meet lovely people & its still a pretty country. Would I go back? Ummmmm...don't know.
I'm dying to go to Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, and Africa.
Went on spring break with 5 friends to Padre in college. The plan was to fly from Chicago to Houston, where we would be hooking up with one of my friends' cousin who had a condo in South Padre and we would all drive down there together for the week. Well, long story short, we got stranded in Houston b/c our connection got stranded in NY due to blizzards. So we had to hotel hop and this was back in the day where checks didn't go through immediately, so we took turns writing hot checks for hotels and when our food and beer money ran out, started writing hot checks for that, too. Had to keep on the run to not get caught...still got kicked out of one hotel and almost arrested at an Olive Garden...I'm pretty sure there's still warrants for us in the Lone Star State....had to bribe our last hotel to help us get a ride to the airport. We were staying at a dump with no shuttle service and they had their custodian load us up in the manager's van and take us to the airport...I think they just wanted to get rid of us.....lol
ReplyDeleteI haven't had many vacations. My first best vacation was driving with my husband for our one-year anniversary on a belated honeymoon from Illinois to Arizona following the old Route 66 route. We veered off and stayed in Sedona, AZ one night, headed to the glorious Grand Canyon and the drove to Vegas. It was so much fun!
ReplyDeleteMy next best vacation was last year driving with my husband and 5-year-old son to Pensacola, Florida from Wisconsin. We stayed for free at a friend's resort condo (nice friend!) and it was wonderful. We had a lovely view of the ocean and could listen to it as we drifted off to sleep.
I hope we can afford another vacation again!
Ugh- I will come up with an awesome 'good' trip, but a bad one (from my childhood) that sticks in my mind...
ReplyDeleteGoing to my hideously alcoholic Grandma and Grandpa's house with my mother and my father (who HATED them)...
Our car broke down BOTH ways
When we got there we had to rake leaves- the property was nearly 3 acres of oak trees. We raked every time we went, but on this occasion I was about 6 and my mom was pregnant.
As usual, we left in the middle of the night- my hideous drunken grandmother had said something hurtful to my mother and surprise surprise we were woken up (sleeping four to a bed as in 2 kids 2 adults) and packed half asleep. The drive home was my pregnant mother hysterical about her crazy drunk family, my Dad pissed off that we went to their house to begin with. Don't forget our car broke down on the way back.
Sweet sweet adulthood and self determination (and cutting off insane family members) for teh uber win.
Like I said I will come up with a fun one too.
Oh, shit, actually there was a better trip to Grandma's a few years later. My parents had split up by then. The car was still breaking down.
ReplyDeleteWe went to the local mall (after raking the leaves in the morning) and came back to my Grandmother's house early (because my Grandmother had surprise of all surprises said something horrible to my mother) only to find my alcoholic bullimic uncle and my disabled and alocoholic other uncle in a physical fight with my alcoholic grandfather. All were armed with guns...
Can you say awkward?
I think I was about 10 by then.
I haven't thought about these times in years.
Honestly, I will come up with something fun. :D
D.C. to Miami road trip with two car fulls of friends. Had just been dumped by my boyfriend and had a makeout contest with my friend the whole week. I won. We were underage at the time, but managed to get into a few bars and were thrilled about it. Stayed in a friend's apartment the whole time, so no hotel costs. Just food and booze. It was awesome.
ReplyDeleteDianne- I totally thought you were going to rehash the entire plot of National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation after reading the first few lines of your post...That's awful/hilarious
ReplyDeleteThanks Enty for always including Canada without any snide comments towards Canucks.
ReplyDeleteI have repressed most of my childhood vacations. No joke 6 people packed into an ugly green Plymouth. Memories gone. I can vaguely remember being threatened with being put in the trunk for asking when we'd get there. I remember being OK with that because there was more room in the trunk. :)
ReplyDeleteIn 2000, my husband and I were in Big Bend National Park in the remotest part of west Texas. It's the least-visited national park in the U.S. and lots of places are more than 100 miles from a gas station, restaurant, etc. We were sitting outside our motel room in Terlingua, TX, in this very rugged desert and spent the evening drinking whiskey with census takers. They told us the wildest stories of people in this remote area who lived in old school buses, were in the witness protection program, running from the law, and evading taxes. There are quite a few characters in this area.
ReplyDeleteOther story is being in South Africa during apartheid and witnessing real segregation first-hand -- separate bathrooms, trains, beaches. Went on a boat trip along Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned and felt a real chill up my spine. Very spiritual experience.
I have had some fantastic vacations with my family in Florida. I love my kids and they were fun to be around. But as my now 18 year old son is presently on his senior trip to DisneyWorld, it reminded me of my own senior trip. Ready? We were to go to the White House. On a school bus. Except that the organizers didn't buy tickets to the White House. We drove around DC for a half hour and then we were let out in a park. A FREAKIN' PARK! Well, the geraniums were nice.
ReplyDeleteThen we drove to the Congressional building where we spent an hour sitting on the steps talking to the window washers. We have some lovely photos of them.
We ended up at the Smithsonian. We could actually get in, but by that time most of the girls were disgusted and found a bar.
Jealous??
Oh, and personally the times I went to LA were the most fun for me, as it had been a dream of mine for a loong time to go to the land of the stars. I got to see a lot of celebrities, went on a tour of Warner Brothers, (illegally touched George CLooney's suit for Ocean's 11 in the museum...) went to Sky Bar and outdrank everyone (heh). Oh, and at my ex-cousin's wedding (fiasco) she got married at Cypress Cove in Malibu, one of the most beautiful sights I have EVER seen.
ReplyDeleteAs Redneck as this sounds my best holiday ever was to Indianapolis for the Brickyard Race 7 years ago. I really am not fond of crowds but honestly I never felt scared and everybody was as nice as could be. We met some great people and, as we did the whole camping out thing, partied with everyone. It is a constant roving party night after night. I was worried that the race would be a little boring as I wouldn't be able to get up and eat or go to the bathroom as I can at home. However the race went by incredibly fast and, even through there were more than 200,000 people they are so great at controlling crowds that within an hour the roads were clear. I am a little scared to go to another race as my expectations would be so high.
ReplyDeleteThe 2 motorcycle trips my husband and I have taken have started out bad but came out good. Our first trip was to Sturgis (to get married) via Iowa (he has cousins there). Iowa looks a lot like the area just southeast of where we live. We didn't feel like we were on vacation at all. His cousin (who was our best man) was crazy - we didn't find out until it was too late. Once we got married (best man kept looking at his watch), we parted ways with the cousin and my Dad and his wife (who had driven up from their anniversary trip to Vegas to be with us) took us to dinner. Had a fun trip on the way back.
ReplyDeleteOur 2nd trip was to the Maritimes, and husband's childhood friend invited himself along. The guy drives like a maniac, even took his speedometer off. Almost rammed into us a couple of times. The day of my birthday he got us lost and we wound up - at night - at some rinky dink campsite he had previously picked out for us (bonus was I got a nice shot of the sunrise next morning). Apparently he had an agenda. The agenda was to find beaches so he could play Saving Private Ryan and collect sand. And also get me to take pictures of his bike in front of everything. When we got to Cabot Trail, he expected us to ride it in about 2 hours. We stopped at every other scenic spot, took our time. Met him at a restaurant - he was PISSED. I paid for a hotel room in Baddeck, he proceeded to ogle any underage girls walking by. Husband was embarrassed. I was disgusted. Next day we went to PEI and that night, he camped out by himself while we rented a cabin, sat by a fire, and LAUGHED our asses off! I told him next morning to do what he needed to do, see ya. I was labelled a bitch to all their friends for fucking with his agenda. (It's a vacation. Fuck agendas.) We had so much fun on the way back. My husband finally got to put his feet in the Atlantic Ocean while we were in New Brunswick. He got to put his feet in both oceans, so he was happy. It's all he wanted out of the trip.
ReplyDeleteOur "friend" went to his boss's summer home in PEI, took a picture of it, then emailed it to him. We found out he lost his job a little while after that ...
on our way to mexico to visit my moms family when i was 3 bro 5, went to sea world, south padre and then you know. well on our way back instead of getting a hotel we stayed with my dads mom and my then 19 yr old aunt in their small ass apartment. Something happened, my mom wouldnt hug his mom and she forcibly (spl?) hugged my mom but she also bit her cheek like a fucking psycho, my mom yelled and pushed her off. my aunt freaked, my dad told her to go outside. i spent the next 3 hours outside with my mom and bro listening to my dad fight with his mom, she denied biting her. (this is why i dont consider her my grandma or a relative for that matter.) shes fucking crazy.
ReplyDeleteWe (parents, brother and me) would spend four weeks every summer driving from to one coast or the other. Usually we hated each other at the end of these trips. However, on one particularly memorable vacation, we bonded over unexpected things and it became us against the world.
ReplyDeleteOn a whim we stayed in one north western state (can't remember) for several days to help turtles cross a highway. They were returning to a lake to breed and many were promptly run over and killed. So we camped nearby and spent our days carrying these rather large painted turtles past the danger zone. People we encountered thought we were nuts to spend 14 hour days saving them, but it felt amazing to help these beautiful creatures.
Then we went to another campground and became notorious within a few hours of our arrival and had to leave the next morning. It started with our dog running ahead of us and going off a 20 foot embankment/cliff into a shallow creek/river...with a waterfall 100 feet away. Our dog was furiously trying to make it to shore and couldn't becuase of how that section of the gully was shaped and it was so muddy & slippery. She was getting closer and closer to going over this waterfall. I was freaking and had to be physically held to prevent me from jumping in to save her (I was 10).
My Dad was lowered by a couple of men to a small tree growing out of the cliff and the tree bent into a U shape (and didn't snap!) as my Dad held onto the tip of it as he tried to reach the dog. He managed to hook one finger under Bootsie's collar and flung her back up onto the edge of the cliff. I'm amazed he didn't snap her neck as she was 25 pounds...
Anyway, by that time, the entire campground had gathered to watch the rescue. Bootsie was saved and my Dad was now stranded 3/4 of the way down this concave embankment - hanging onto this poor sapling. Rope was eventually found and my Dad was pulled up. However and he was being hoisted over the edge, his shorts ripped from end to end and revealed his junk to the entire crowd. Did I mention that he'd taken an impromptu dip in his underwear in a nearby river an hour earlier? Yeah... he went into the woods and stripped off his wet underwear and was just wearing shorts.
So inadvertently flashing his junk kind of made everyone really uncomfortable because what kind of man doesn't wear underwear? ;-)
Then my Mom took Bootsie into the camp showers to clean her up (she was a muddy). There wasn't any type of tub or hose around and the shower was the only option. However, Bootsie wouldn't stay in the shower and was freaking out. Well, she'd been kind of freaking out since the rescue. But now she was loudly yelping. So Mom went into the shower fully clothed and held her... Bootsie's yelps turned into full-fledged screams and could be heard by the entire campground. Then she and my soaking wet Mom emerged from the camp bathroom... Between my Dad flashing everyone and my Mom climbing fully clothed into the shower with the dog, we were suddenly outcasts. No one would acknowledge us, let alone talk to us. We left at 6am the next morning.
Weird vacation, but it is one we still talk about.
LOL, Ms., what a great story! Sounds like you have a wonderful family. :)
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