Pretrip
Cast of Characters:
Me: 33, a school SLP who is still trying to recover from this spring’s remote learning, a Disney nerd, and typically the resident trip planner
Nick: also 33, my husband, a seller of cars, typically not the family trip planner
Kim: 61, a retired paraprofessional, super into National Parks and lighthouses, my amazing MIL
John: also 61, I think, an engineer who deals with camera systems for Navy ships, my FIL
You all are no stranger to the fact that we have traveled with my in-laws. So, it should come as no surprise that we were supposed to cruise with them this spring. COVID-19 canceled that. By some miracle, Nick’s dealership remained open through the stay at home order in our state, AND despite putting their sales crew on rotating teams to minimize exposure risks, Nick’s company allowed him to not use the vacation time that he had put in for before we had heard of COVID-19.
Last summer was Nick’s first working for this dealership, after an unexpected career change last winter. Based on last summer, our immediate reaction to canceling April vacation was that we had lost our vacation together for the year. But, in the end, he decided to combine his days off with a couple of vacation days and string together a long weekend, about the same time that Maine announced that NH’s virus load was low enough to allow us in without massive restrictions (states outside of New England have to show a negative COVID test). And when he mentioned to his parents that we were talking about a long weekend in Maine, they decided that sounded like a good idea. They have more timeshare points than I thought was humanly possible, so, in the blink of an eye, we were told that we were booked from July 10-14 in Edgecomb, Maine.
Yes, my first reaction was also “Where’s Edgecomb?”. Turns out it is near Boothbay, Maine, in the midcoast region. Great area! When Nick and I heard that, we both immediately announced that we all had to go to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. His mom is super into flowers. Nick and I had gone there 5 years ago to see their Christmas light display, and although we weren’t there during the daylight OR during flower season, we were impressed enough with the place that we had been saying we needed to return during other seasons ever since. So, we were excited.
As the (short) countdown got shorter, I did just enough research to suspect this resort would not be a typical timeshare, and to suspect that we might end up in closer quarters than anyone suspected when we heard “timeshare”. But, we are getting away!!!!!! Also, all of my fun themed masks started arriving from Etsy. If we have to wear them, I might as well have fun with them, right?
The real fun, though, in the weeks leading up to our trip, were the beginning of remote learning, summer edition (yes, I’m a glutton for punishment), and a little water issue. On June 29, we had a thunderstorm cell explode and stall over us for multiple hours. We got about 3” of rain. We also woke up the next morning to minimal water pressure. We are in a neighborhood that utilizes a single well system for all 36 homes in the neighborhood. The lightning melted some critical unit on the well system. To make a long story short, we had minimal water pressure for 9 days, until the part finally arrived to fix the well. Then it was a mad rush from Tuesday-Thursday to get all the needed laundry done, including all of those cloth face masks, while also doing a trip north to celebrate my grandmother’s 96th birthday, a trip that lasted just 15 hours, thanks to remote learning.
Needless to say, I was ready for vacation when Friday July 10th rolled around!
Nick’s parents were definitely driving to Maine on July 10. We initially considered waiting until Saturday morning to drive up, but then we learned about Tropical Storm Fay. Because only in 2020 would a tropical storm hit New England in July. With this knowledge, we became determined to get on the road on Friday the 10th, no matter how late Nick finished work. Thursday I made a quick trip down to my in-laws hand over the cleaning product goldmine I had acquired at Target a couple days earlier, since they would get to Maine before we did, and Kim wanted to disinfect the unit further, and then I went home to pack. Nick got home from work at 8 that night, but he managed to pack pretty completely as well. We were SO ready!!
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