charlottezweb

So my weekend was cold. and wet. and cold. and windy.

Work closed a bit early Friday so I drove home to finish packing and we got in the car about 4 for the drive to Columbia. Everything on the to do list was checked off; we were uber-prepared. Until the outskirts of Cola when I realized we'd forgotten the Cup tickets. F*ck. We performed some quick calculations involving the price of new tickets versus the gas to drive home to pick ours up and then drive back and possibly losing our campsite reservation and decided to make camp and get new tickets on Sat. The campsite was not exactly what I'd expected. While the state park had once been in rural Cola, it was now in the midst of the suburbs, next to a giant strip mall with a Walmart. This would be handy Sat. There were also many, many RVs (in fact, our bedroom at home is darker than the tent was next to the RV), and our tent site was not a nice sandy square as advertised. Also, the bathrooms on our loop were out of order.

The new tent was pretty easy to pitch but I'll be glad when we have sleep mats and real sleeping bags.

We left the windows open in the tent for ventilation and woke up in the night freezing. Putting my pants and socks back on and closing the windows helped a bit but I was glad when the sun came up Sat morning.

I walked up to the bathrooms on the other loop to take a nice refreshing shower--xtra refreshing since the hot water had gone out and it was ice cold. But I managed to wash my hair and even blow it out since we had a nice fancy day ahead of us.

The baby and A looked adorable in their madras pants (such a nice cool material--perfect for summer) and I was comfy in my plaid sun dress so we cleared out the car and took off for the racetrack which was straight down the road from the campgrounds. Well, it would've been straight down the road if we hadn't turned the wrong way. Instead, we went about an hour out of our way which meant we got in the line for the gates an hour too late--it took two hours to drive the 15 miles into the racetrack. Two hours with a baby who had not had breakfast.

Also, I realized that the thump we'd heard on the way out of the state park was my cell phone falling off the roof into the road. Oops. Luckily Virgin Mobile has a very sensible replacement program so that's easy to fix.

The Cup itself was fine. Cold and windy at first and then cold and rainy later. Something happens every year so the rain and wind was just another story to tell--and much better than the year of the almost divorce, the year we can't remember, or the year of the car wreck. At this rate, I'm figuring all that's left is fire and a rain of toads.

The food was tasty--chickpea salad and homemade pimento cheese sandwiches, yummy baked with spices oyster crackers and a really tasty olive and feta dip, among other things. The baby was crazy for the oyster crackers--kept asking for the "baby cookies."

We saw some old friends and met some new ones, walked around a bit before it started raining, saw the v. exciting finish of the 4th race. Critiqued a number of outfits and felt bad for the freezing, wet women who hadn't brought more clothes with them--lots of tiny sun dresses, many of them strapless and v. short. In particular, loved the pants with the embroidered SC state flag on them, I's madras Kangol hat, and the plaid shorts suit. Really liked the white strappy espadrilles that the shorter of the um, women, L brought to our space was wearing. (Those women are fated to be another part of this year's Cup story.)

After the baby was shivering and even the bubble wand his godmother brought for him wouldn't cheer him up, we knew it was time to go, even if we'd have to truck to our car in the rain. When we made it to our car, it stopped raining. Still we had to decide whether to stay over and camp another night or break camp and drive home. Since suffering builds character, we decided to stick it out, but made a trip to the Walmart for a warmer jacket and shirt for A, as he was a tad underdressed, and dragged the horse blanket out of the trunk.

Dinner from Rushes, a local Cola hamburger chain, warmed us up a bit, but that night was still cold. COLD! Brrrrrrrr. Even R was chilly sleeping between us. I'm not sure what the temp was that night, but when we drove by a bank in the morning, the sign read 30 F.

We met H and J and K and P for brunch which was decent and then drove a few blocks to the Children's Museum. It was our first time to the one there in Cola, but I think not our last. (Oh, Pig! remind me to send you your membership card!) Many of the exhibits were just a bit too old for him, but most of them he enjoyed anyway, and the 3 and under area was a big hit. As were the fire truck, the car area, the music room and the West Africa exhibit.

When R was clearly tired and cranky, we loaded him back in the car seat where he promptly fell asleep and we made it home in just over an hour. A and I each took v. long hot showers and after a quick dinner of hot dogs and scalloped potatoes, we all went to bed. A nice warm soft dry bed. Ahhhhhhhh....