The Karavan (The Boat Story, Part II)

Ah, yes, the familial odyssey that began with a seemingly innocent trip up north has now ended with the purchase of a trailer. (FYI, you can find the original post at this link: http://mimorena.blogspot.com/2005/04/my-weekend-or-fifth-vacation-movie.html ).

If you don't want to read it, although I don't know why you wouldn't- I worked hard on it and it's quite amusing and all completely true, but whatever, I'll just give you a little backstory to get you up to speed. I was dragged out of bed at some ungodly hour of the morning on a Saturday to drive four hours to get spider eggs in my hair trying to put a boat that had been moved last a full ten years before President Reagan had urged Mr. Gorbachev to tear down that wall (in fact, he wasn't even President Reagan yet- he was just normal Reagan, that B-list actor who somehow is running California) on top of my car. Yeah, not fun. Did I mention it was pouring???

Anyhoodles, we actually accomplished this little task, and got the thing home where its been languishing in the backyard (looking oh so lovely...) for the past three months. Well, that's not entirely true. First of all, it has been moved. I demanded that for my Confirmation. And secondly my father and brother have been working quite hard on getting it ready for the past month. I don't actually know what they were doing, as I try to stay inside at all times and definately avoid doing anything that looks like work with a saw and/or other sharp instruments. Although I don't really think the twelve-year-old should be doing that either, but nobody asked me. But apparently they've cleaned it up and put in new seats (probably good, because I think the old ones dissolved several years before I was born) among other things, I'm sure, because they've been out there every nice night for a month and that doesn't seem like a lot to accomplish.

Anyway, while they were out there sawing away, my mom and sister and I would sit inside and laugh during commercial breaks about how they were doing all this work for that damn boat and they apparently hadn't realized yet that they had NO WAY to get it anywhere where it could conceivably float (I use that term loosely).

Well, last weekend, I guess they figured it out. Because on Saturday my dad comes in (from doing, what else, stuff with the boat) and says that he's going to go buy a trailer. Well, actually, he said "Go look for a trailer", which led me to believe that I wouldn't actually have to deal with this for a while. Because seriously, when somebody in my family starts to do something, it'll be another ten years before anything is actually accomplished. Certian members have been saying "When things settle down" since I was three. I'm not sure what's so worked up that fifteen years can't calm down.

(Of course, then there are the other members who when you offhandedly say "I'd like to got to DisneyWorld sometime" will hang up immediately and call back in half an hour with the news that you're booked at the Contemporary for the second week in December, with reservations at Victoria and Alberts for that Wednesday, hope you can get out of school!!! ;))

To my relief, I had to go to a wedding that afternoon, and could not accomany the family on this particular outing. Although Daddy did offer to drop me off...with the condition that there may be a trailer attached to the back of the car. Uh-huh. I put the kibash on that baby quickly enough. Like I don't have few enough friends already.

So I left, assuming that this would be an exploratory trip, much like those ones to the RV show that never actually resulted in coming home with a double wide. Not so. I get home, and innocently pull in the driveway, and what is greeting me than a grinning little brother standing proudly next to a rather obnoxiously-colored trailer sitting on my back lawn aptly called "The Karavan". Now, I know it's a brand name, but who the hell decided it was a good idea? Couldn't it be like "Smith Trailers" or something that isn't so cute it makes one want to throw up???

And it's all set up. So the "boat" can be fully operational as soon as they get it over to the little river. In an effort to keep my sister from having to drop out of school in shame, they agreed to use a smaller one in the woods as opposed to the river right next to the high school. I think it was quite nice of them. :p

Of course, this thing still looks like it would sink in a bathtub. And there's no motor, so they'll be paddling wherever they want to go (I think the decision to change rivers was more due to the fact that there's a waterfall in the bigger one than my sister's social situation...), which would almost be worth going along to see. :) Almost.

So I'm sure there will be a part three to this fun story, when they discover that this stinkin little boat has a hole that they missed or something and that the actual floating boat that we have sitting right in the friggin' driveway is way better, but I digress. You know it's going to be interesting!!!