Terrible End to Our Trip — Shades of National Lampoon’s Vacation

Note: This “lost” Haw Creek Out ‘n About post was recovered from the Internet Archive WayBack Machine and re-posted on Exit78

Right now it’s not funny, but maybe someday it will be.

Our last night of camping was at a  KOA west of Oklahoma City.  We didn’t use the air conditioning in the camper, though night-time temperatures were going to be a little higher than what we had been seein..  I got a little chilled during the night but thought it was because we had left some of the windows open.

After I had been up for a while, I realized that I wasn’t feeling very well.  We thought about staying another night, but I figured we just should go ahead and head on home – even after spending time in the bathroom being sick.  So I just machoed my way through getting ready to go – well, I was actually kind of wimpy about it, but we did manage to hit the road a little after 10 A.M.

I was driving.  Karen doesn’t drive the truck when we’re pulling the camper.

I figured whatever was wrong with me was just something I ate.

The Oklahoma rock-and-roll, bumpity-bump interstate highways didn’t help with how I was feeling. I’ve never had motion sickness before, but I think it kind of aggravated whatever was wrong with me.

The first rest area was on the other side of Oklahoma City just past Shawnee.  I went into the rest room and was sick again.  When I came out,  I laid down on the seat of one of the picnic tables for a while.

The next rest area was just before the Arkansas state line.  I was sick again.  I laid down on our bed in the camper and got about 15 minutes of sleep.

Our next stop was home.  We knew we had a problem with the water line to the refrigerator because our daughter and her boyfriend had found the leak right after it started several weeks ago.  They had managed to stop it, so we weren’t too worried about and my brother-in-law had stopped by to check on it.

Unfortunately, somehow, the refrigerator got unplugged — and we had stuff in the refrigerator and the freezer.  Even after Karen tossed all of it out, the refigerator and freezer still stinks.  This is going to take a while to fix.

After we got home, I spent some time in the bathroom again, being sick.

Karen had turned on the hot water heater at the breaker panel right after we got home.  Some time later, she hollers at me that there is water spraying out of the hot water heater.  It was actually the thermal relief valve opening which would indicate one of two problems, a bad thermal relief valve or failure of one of the two heater controllers.

I forgot that I had installed isolation valves at the hot water heater, so I opened valves in the bathroom and then headed under the house to isolate the main water line.  When I got under there, I heard water splashing.  When I investigated it turned out that all of the water going into the bathroom drains was spilling out onto the ground in a break in the drain line.  I’m not sure, but some of the toilet water may have spilled out as well…. we’re buying some kitty liter as part of the damage control for this problem.  We may use it for the refrigerator odor problem, too.

Because of the complication with the sewer, we are going to be sleeping in the camper — just in case we need to use the facilities in the middle of the night — and using the restroom in the camper.

I’m still not feeling well.  I have a slight fever and a bad headache.  My breakfast this morning was 2 peanut butter cracker sandwiches.  I had 5 more just a little while ago.  I had several glasses of water.

So where’s Chevy Chase when you need him?

4 Responses to “Terrible End to Our Trip — Shades of National Lampoon’s Vacation”

1. 1. # Exit 78 | We’re home — not fun. Remember the National Lampoon Vacation movies?on 28 Sep 2007 at 8:45 pm

      […] out the final day of our trip at Terrible End to Our Trip — Shades of National Lampoon’s Vacation © 2007 Mike Goad, https://exit78.com/weblog – All Rights […]

   2. # teeni on 28 Sep 2007 at 9:37 pm

      This stinks. I hope you are feeling better. It always seems to come in waves. Hopefully the worst is over now. Post again as soon as you can to let us know!

   3. # Rose DesRochers on 01 Oct 2007 at 11:53 pm

      Geez sorry to hear the end to your trip did not go well. I hope you’re feeling better.

   4. # Mike Goad on 02 Oct 2007 at 12:48 am

      teeni and Rose,

      Thanks.

      I’m feeling much better now, though don’t seem to be completely over it.