When Summer Vacation Plans Go Wrong

When I was nine, all I wanted for summer was a bike.

I found the one I wanted down at Nelson’s Hardware store. It was perfect. I lay awake at night dreaming of it. I thought about it at school, at dinner, and in church.

I did odd jobs, saved birthday money, and was extra sweet to my Grandmother hoping she would add to the kitty. Just before summer vacation started, I had enough.

But my big plans were nixed with a family trip for the weekend to my uncle’s house where there were no kids, no toys, and no bike. I moped for two long days, counting down the minutes before we could return.

To entertain myself I built a simple teeter- totter in my uncle’s back yard with a plank of wood centered on a rock. Not having any other playmates, I had to jump from side to side. It worked pretty well for a while, until one time when I missed the plank and crashed down on the jagged stone.

There went my summer. We came home the next day, my leg in a cast that was hot and itchy. I could only look at my bike for eight long weeks, unable to ride it.

I thought of this story when my neighbor bought a brand new camper a couple of summers ago and lost it when the wind wrenched it off the hitch and blew it into a gully off the highway.

Our friends planned all year for a Caribbeancruise – only to be on the wrong side of a Hurricane stuck in a port they didn’t want to be in.

And another friend bought a four wheeler and clipped a tree on his first weekend of summer.

A man who worked for me saved up thousands of dollars to go on a exotic Alaskan caribou hunt. The plane dropped him and a guide off in the tundra and for five days they walked and walked and never saw a single animal.

We’ve had our own summer vacation plans go awry; Trips to the emergency rooms, flat tires on remote highways, and sleeping in the car because someone forgot to make reservations.

There’s big risk in summer plans. Maybe that’s half the fun, but I’m sticking close to home this year and leaving the adventures to others.