Taking the Boys to Camp

Both of the boys are working at a Boy Scout camp.  From our house, it's a two hour drive up there and then a two hour drive back down.  Since one chooses not to drive, and the other one isn't old enough yet to drive on Boy Scout properties, I get to drive them.  You need to understand, the boys live outdoors in a canvas tent all summer.  They each have a cot, and they are up off of the ground on 4 old wooden pallets.  The flaps are open all summer long, and they each have mosquito netting over their beds, but all matter of creepy crawlies roam through their tents.

Anyway, yesterday I got set to take them back to camp.  We took our daughter off to Girl Scout Day Camp first.  As we pulled out of the parking lot, I had the windows rolled down and I saw something big fly into the back seat of the car.  I almost drove off the road as oldest child - a very calm, unexcitable 20 year old, screamed like a little girl over this big fat beetle, flying around the back of the car.  I pulled over while he tried to flick it out of the back seat, stretched across the car so it wouldn't get him.  Finally, the 17 year old got out of the car, opened the back door, and flicked the beetle out.

I should have taken that as a sign.

We headed up 95, pulled off our exit, and were within 5 miles of camp when the road was closed.  Detour, back down the way we'd come and then up route 1.  It took us 40 minutes to make that detour. 

I got the boys into camp and turned around to head out.

Herd of mini-goats standing in the road, refusing to move.  The owner eventually came out and moved them off the road.

Continue on, make the left turn onto the big road that leads back to highway 1, go 500 yards, and end up behind a line painting truck.  Spent the next 45 minutes behind that truck, traveling the 2 miles down the road to highway 1.

Go down highway 1, work my way over to 95, and traffic comes to a dead standstill.  2 lanes are closed for construction.

I finally made it home many more hours later than I had planned on.  I took an unscheduled detour through a Target because I needed to get out and stretch after sitting still for so long... and I still had an hour to go to get home. 

Argh!

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all!