We arrived at the cabin at about 3pm. There was snow. Ryan showed up around 6pm. We, just Fred and I went out to a romantic dinner at Thelma's. The food was not very good. But it's all about atmosphere right? And the company your with. After dinner and Ryan finally making it there we settled in to watch a movie. Castaway with Tom Hanks, a cozy fire and family, what could be nicer? A few minutes before the movie ended Ryan says, "I can't feel my finger tips!" What could that mean? "It means I am getting a migraine, last time I had to go the emergency room and couldn't walk or talk and the pain was sooooo bad." Okay, what do we do here? Fred is half asleep on the chair, kids in bed. "Let's Go!!" I throw him in his car, it has started snowing at this point and it is about 9pm. He has a prescription for migraine medicine at home. I tell him to call mom and get the RX #, no answer there....Call Sam and George, they have a bottle of the medicine at their house too. By this time we find out there is no 24 hr. pharmacy on Big Bear Mountain. Bummer! The lady at Rite Aid said to try to get the ER to fill it for us. No luck there. He has to get checked in. Off we go home with all the over the counter migraine medicine we can purchase. Just before arriving back at the cabin he says, " I feel like I am going to puke" as he is hiding his head from any light. GREAT!!
Meanwhile...back at the cabin Fred discovers that a pipe has burst at the back of the cabin.
We finally arrive back at the cabin. I give him 2 nyquil and 4 advil migraine and put a cool patch on his head. Turn the lights out and put him to bed on the couch. Meanwhile, I wake Fred from his long winters nap by the fire. "It is starting to snow, we have to put the chains on Ryan's car or we will not be able to go anywhere, and if he gets any sicker we might have to take him to the emergency room." Grumbling he says, " huh?"
Next scene, Fred and Charif at 11:30pm in the pitch black, freezing cold, snowing now coming down pretty good night, putting chains on Ryan's car. I will spare the sad details. But it wasn't very pretty. However we managed to get them on.
On to the next problem, getting a hold of the cabin owner at close to midnight with no cell reception and no phone in the cabin. It turns out he doesn't keep his cell phone in the house at night. He leaves it in the car.
Turn the water off to the house we will wait until morning to deal with this problem.
Next morning we wake, It has snowed all night. We are really happy we put chains on Ryan's car, but feeling like maybe we should have put them on our van as well, but oh well it probably won't start anyway!! Ryan is up, feels great, pops 4 more advil migraine (btw the package says 2/24 hr. period) and a Rock Star and hits the slopes for snowboarding in his well chained vehicle.
We spend a majority of the day taking care of both the kids who are sicker than they have been in a long time. Still snowing. At some point we ventured outside to stand in the blizzard like conditions. The kids came out too. Bad idea! The snow was coming down fast and sideways due to the wind. That kind of hurts the eyes. Ryan showed back up at the cabin around lunch time. He didn't bother to go back that afternoon, white out!.Must get a hold of owner, still no water!! Fred takes Ryan's car and uses the payphone at the corner market. Call a plumber or just turn the water on and off as needed. We call the plumber, but he won't be able to make it until tomorrow, maybe...depends on if will ever stop snowing.
Still snowing.
Tuesday, wake up still no water. Text message the plumber, never mind, we will survive 1 more day. Too much snow anyway to get to the broken pipe. Ryan leaves for snow boarding. We hang out again. Snow stops coming down around 3pm. We decide to try to shovel out our car a little that way maybe we can put chains on it and get home. Of course it starts right up. It took a while to dig out the tires, but we finally got it dug out. No we need to put on the chains, in the muddy icy parking spot.
We pulled out the chains that were purchases spur of the moment 3 weeks prior on the way up to Big Bear on the side of the road. As we are laying the out to untangle them (we are pro's now at putting on chains, especially in extreme conditions) we find out that one of the chains is broken. Hmm, I wonder if this will still work? $100 down the drain.
Fred decides to take Ryan's car with chains to find a mechanic to see if they can fix them or if we can buy new ones. We will need them to get home. The very nice mechanic quickly fixes the chain at no charge. Yeah!!
Back to the chains again. This time is seems to be going easier, we know what we are doing this time and we can see. Chains on, car moves out of the snow, we are all happy. Ryan can leave us now and we will be ok.
Ryan leaves. Chains on, it is no longer snowing but the roads are really snowy.
We all had cabin fever by this time. Every one put on your clothes and shoes, the car is running, let's take advantage of it and go into town.
We head to "The Village" for an early dinner and window shopping. We ate dinner at The Teddy Bear Restaurant. Cute. Good enough. We proceed to notice Daniel is still not all well. We ignore it and continue with our plans. 10 minutes after walking around we are freezing and now concerned about poor Daniel. As we are heading back to the cabin, driving down Big Bear Blvd. (the main drag through town) we hear a click, click. It kind of sounds like chains breaking. So I stick my head out the window and say, too late, "yeah the chain is falling off." Too late because as I was saying it we were rolling over it, breaking it. Unable to go any further, due to bad, snowy roads and 1 broken chain. We put on our hazards as we are barely pulled over on the side of a major highway through town. Fred is on the side of the road trying to jimmy-rig the chain with the 2 tools we had in the van. Daniel is complaining in the back about being sick and wants to walk back. I keep worrying we are going to get hit. Finally Fred fixes the chain. We drive on, slowly. Listening for any sound that sounds like chains breaking or coming off. We make it back.
Back home to the cabin. Still no water.
Wednesday, day to to pack up and go home. We started packing and cleaning about 11am. We were planning on leaving about 2:30pm. We really needed to get a hold of the owner of the cabin to see how he wanted us to leave the cabin (water,gas,electricity,etc.) Fred leaves and calls him. He just wants the water heater turned to low. Well that is a problem. The water heater is outside the cabin and the door is blocked by about 4 feet of snow. Fred will have to shovel it,see picture below.
All is packed, everyone has gone potty, water turned on to flush, then off again. Load up....the car won't start!!! Everyone back in the house.
Fred had to walk down the street and find someone to jump the van. Ten minutes later we are loading up again. Don't shut the van off!!!
The road we took up to the mountain is still closed due to the many feet of snow (more snow than Big Bear has seen in 5 years). We had to go back through town to down the back way. It is now 4:30pm and we are just finally starting down the mountain. Holding our breath the entire way, because of the chain. We finally got to a place that we felt like we could take the chains off. YEAH!!! Our butts were going numb from the vibrations.
We finally made it home at 8pm. Too long!! I hate going the back way. Safe and sound. It was all in all a good time and I didn't mind any of the drama, because at least I was with my wonderful hubby and we were doing it together.
3 comments:
The vacation from where???? But how right you are--what mattered most was the time together as a family! Glad you made it!
i had a great time! I'd do it again.
Wow! That is some "holiday". Lots of learning and overcoming challenges. Perhaps you're due for something a bit easier, like lying on a deckchair under a palm tree! Hope all is well with you and the family.
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