Rain, raccoon, and minivans

How’d your 4th go? Ours, oh, same ole, same ole. We spent the majority of the day packing our children for their respective camps and then doing last minute shopping for their respective camps. Little Man is off to boy scout camp and Lady Jane is at her grandparents’ vacation home at the camp there.

But we’re talking the 4th so let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The weather was fussy all day. It’d start to rain and then the sun would come out. Then torrential downpour and then sunshine. But the weather had calmed down by the time we headed out to the country to Phil’s parents’ vacation home. It was overcast but the rain had stopped. We had a pleasant dinner with Phil’s sister’s family and his parents.

Most everyone headed down to the lake to listen to the music since it was too early for fireworks. Phil, brother in law, 1 yr old nephew and me stayed behind. Before too long, Little Man came back. He was bored.

Then Lady Jane came back. She was done and changed into her pajamas and headed upstairs to the loft for bed. Time for fireworks was drawing near so Little Man and Phil headed down to the lake. About 15 minutes later, the sky opened and the torrential downpour hit.

Five minutes later, soaked people carrying soaked lawnchairs burst into the relative silence of the cabin. The rain didn’t let up immediately. Figuring the fireworks were canceled, we dried off the boy and kissed the girl goodbye and when the rain slowed, we headed to the car to drive the hour back home.

We got about 200 feet before we stopped. Traffic jam in the little community as the enormous amount of people who had come for the fireworks decided whether to stay or not. We continued to creep forward until we came to a dead stop right next to where the family had originally set up for the fireworks.

Still in our car at a standstill, we saw Phil’s parents taking advantage of the break in the rain to grab the left behind tarp and blanket. As they left, fireworks filled the sky.

Everyone threw their cars into park and either got out to watch or watched from the car. They actually put on a really nice display and it was gorgeous and fireworks are great, but I was ready to go home. I had an hour to drive once I got to the gate, if I ever got to the gate.

But instead we sat through the whole thing because everyone ahead of us sat through the whole thing. As soon as we began to move, the people who had stayed on the lawns to wait out the rain got in their cars and tried to join our little procession.

The majority of the cars were trucks and minivans parked on saturated ground. This gave Phil and I something amusing to watch as people pushed and spun in the mud while we waited for the line of cars ahead of us to creep forward another foot.

We made it out and ignored the sign pointing another direction that said “Really, 70 is this way too.” Well, we knew for a fact that 70 was definitely the other way and so as not to get lost, we chose the path we knew. There weren’t a lot of cars going the same direction so we made good time on the country roads.

Now, I suppose I ought to tell you about the front of my Honda Fit. See it’s a lot lower than most cars and part of the undercover in the front had come loose and wasn’t as tight to the body as it should have been. Phil had been on me to fix it and had even said that the weekend before he was going to fix it, but it was too hot.

So I’m driving a low riding little Honda Fit on a dark country road behind this great big SUV. Someone ahead of me had struck and killed a raccoon. A rather large raccoon that now resided in the middle of my lane. Note he wasn’t squished or anything until I came upon him.

Given the amount of time I had to react to the lump in the road and the maneuverability of my car, I straddled the raccoon with the wheels. Normally this wouldn’t have caused to much issue, except as noted above, I had the front bit of my underlayment hanging down a bit.

As I hit the thing, we could hear it roll under the car. And when we left it behind, we could hear the scrapping sound of my underlayment on the pavement below. Fortunately we were right outside the little town that surrounds the interstate. So we stopped at the little five and dime.

Fearing a gruesome scene under the car, Phil tentatively looked under to see what he could do to fix it. Apparently the raccoon did more damage to me than I did to it. Phil went in to the store and got some fishing line and scissors and went to work tying up my underlayment so we wouldn’t drag it on the interstate. The gentleman working the convenience store even turned on his minivan’s headlights to help Phil see what he was doing.

We made it almost home before the string failed and just didn’t care about the dragging piece as we turned into the subdivision. Phil fixed it yesterday and we got Little Man off to boy scout camp. Now is the week that both Phil and I get ready for our joint separate vacation.

While I go to the Romance Writers’ Association National Conference in DC, he’s going backpacking with friends somewhere in a National park nearby. While I’m getting my hair done and buying shoes, he’s making homemade granola and buying rations. While I’m buying a HP Mini 110 Netbook, he’s buying a 4 person backpacking tent. But we will be spending 3 fabulous days in the car together and 1 night at a hotel en route.