Road Trip!

Visiting the dead while playing with the living

I’m writing this from Hubby’s family’s lake house. Now, when you imagine that, you are going to imagine a LAKE HOUSE. This is more like a 1970’s fishing retreat with the same carpet and beds that were placed here when it was built. I am more grateful for this little retreat now than I ever have been. (Remember, Hubby and I have been together since I was 13! I’ve been visiting this lake house for a long time.) Hubby has to work, but our teens wanted to come. So, I got in the car with them today and we drove the four hours to the lake house.

It was the best day I’ve had with my kids in a long time. I didn’t imagine that Kid #1 would want to come. Kid #2 is the one who really wanted to come swim in the lake. But, I guess Kid #1 didn’t have any better offers, so the two of them and one of their friends loaded up and we had a ROAD TRIP.

There really aren’t any details that are very interesting about the day. For me there was riding with white knuckles while Kid #1 drove through a thunder storm. It was clear he wanted to be in charge. He always wants to be in charge. That causes problems sometimes because I also want to be in charge. But, today even when we got tense with each other, we would end up laughing about it.

When I mentioned that I needed to think of something to write, Kid #2 wanted me to tell how he saved the day by jumping in the lake. I didn’t think I would because I can’t imagine I can make it very interesting yet, but it is a pretty good story.

There is a very small pontoon boat here. Written on the side of it is PONDTOON. Get it? Because it is just a small flat-bottomed metal boat made for fishing in a small lake it is called a PONDTOON. Come on. That is funny.

The trolling motor on the boat is broken. Hubby’s dad will come tomorrow with the replacement part to fix it. Kid #1 was certain that this would not stop us from a sunset cruise around the small private lake. Without questioning his abilities — oh wait, that isn’t true. I DID question him. I questioned him about three times.

“Are you sure you don’t need that part to take the boat out?”

Kid #1, with the confidence of a deep-sea fishing vessel captain that has been heading out into the seas for years, yelled,

“Yes! I know what I’m doing.”

So, all four of us climbed onto the little boat and watched as Kid #1 pushed off from the dock. When he attempted to start the motor, it quickly became apparent that there was no gas in it. And, we had not thought to bring paddles onto the boat with us. So, there we were drifting off farther and farther away from the shore.

That is when Kid #2 became the hero of the day. (Hey, Kid #2!)And, like any hero their age, before they jumped into the lake (after borrowing my sandals) they said,

“Be sure to get a picture of this! I want proof that I did this for y’all.”

Kid #2 used the tie line to pull us to the shore so that we could jump off the PONDTOON, then the two kids worked together to get the boat back into the boat house (which is just a covered dock).

When we laughed about it and said it would be a good story to tell. Kid #1 said,

“Yeah, it is the same story of all of my life. First, I was stupid. Then, I was smart.”

He was referring to the ways he had taken charge and got the boat back to the boat house where it belonged even though he was the one who got us stranded out there in the first place. Isn’t that true for all of us? First, we were stupid. Then, we were smart. That sounds like grace to me.

Kid #2 is always one who will leap in. They seem to think of themselves as timid and anxious, but since that child was three years old they have been willing to go anywhere to take care of anything. I would ask Kid #1 to go ask for some ketchup at the counter and he would act like I’d asked him to take a space flight that would last for years with no clear mission. Kid #2 would pipe up, “I’ll go!” And, what I should have said was, “Great. Go get ‘em!” Instead, I usually discouraged them because they were younger. Even so, Kid #2 was willing to jump in a lake so that the rest of us didn’t have to.

The night ended with Unstable Unicorns and Exploding Kittens. Those are card games that are the perfect amount of silly for our family.

The frogs are serenading us now as we settle into our rooms. I’m in the room that was always for Hubby’s parents, two twin beds and a nightstand. Kid #2 and friend are in the room that was for “the kids.” That would have been Hubby and his three siblings. There are two sets of bunk beds in there. Kid #1 is in Hubby’s uncle’s room. He died a few years back. There are still model cars that he put together with his own hands on the nightstand next to the two twin beds in there. No one is sleeping in Hubby’s grandparents’ room — also two twin beds and a nightstand. They have always been people satisfied with the simplest things. I don’t always appreciate that about them. In Year 49 it is becoming more and more clear why this is a virtue.

Hubby’s grandparents have been dead for years. His grandfather is the first person that I really KNEW who died. I think I was around 15 when that happened. He had lung cancer and had been in the hospital. Hubby called me. I stood in the kitchen holding the handset of the phone attached to the side of the kitchen cabinet in the doorway between the den and the kitchen. We had one of the longest cords you’ve ever seen on that phone so that you could stretch it a long way and still talk on the phone. This was before there were cordless phones.

Hubby told me that his grandfather had died. I was just a silly teenager. No one I loved had ever died before. I have no idea what I said. Probably something stupid. The conversation was not long. Hubby did not want to chat. When I hung up the phone, I sunk down to the floor. My mother asked me what had happened. I told her and she came and held me while I cried.

The grandparents’ room looks almost exactly like it would have looked the last time Hubby’s grandfather was here for his weekly fishing on the lake. That is what he did on his day off. Sometimes one of his grandkids would come with him. Sometimes he would bring a friend. I imagine the frogs sound very much like they did then.

First, we were stupid.
Then, we were smart.

They serenade us to sleep.