Chapter 11; Part 4 - Trips

Mom and Dad don’t always go on the trips sponsored by some of the clubs. With Mom not able to easily get out of the house before 10:00 in the morning, she says the trips are often a little too hectic for her. Last year there was a day trip to Pelican Lake State Park, which is three hours away from Harbor View. The bus was leaving the Harbor View clubhouse at 7:30 in the morning (much too early for Mom) and not returning until 10:00 at night. It should have been an overnight trip, rather than a day trip, but Dad says the club didn’t think they would get enough people to spend the extra money to overnight there.

Anyway, despite the early departure, the club still managed to fill one and one-half busloads with people, including Mom’s friends’ Flo and Irv. The next day Mom called Flo to find out how the trip was.

“Ugh, it was a disaster,” Flo said. “About two hours into the bus ride to the park, the engine on the second bus started smoking. We pulled over to the side of the road, while the drivers checked out the problem. They determined that they needed some part, so all of the people on the broken bus came over onto our bus.” Flo explained.

“You’re kidding! How did you all fit?” Mom asked.

“Well, it was very crowded, and some people had to stand. Then everyone started arguing whether we should continue on to the park or just turn around and go home.”

“What’d you do?” Mom asked in anticipation.

“We continued on. In the end, most of the people agreed, and I mean most; that difficult woman, Lila in Building 17 didn’t agree. Anyway, most of the people agreed that since we had already paid for the trip, we might as well go. We didn’t know if we’d be able to get a refund.”

“So how was the park once you got there?”

“Well, I don’t think it was worth the three-hour ride. There were palm trees, a lake, and some birds, which were pretty enough, but frankly, I can see all of the things outside my bedroom window at Harbor View – for free. Besides, there were so many mosquitoes around that I got bites all over my body. And the sun was very strong by the time we got there midday that a lot of people got sunburned, including Irv.”

“Oh, that’s too bad. Did you at least make it home okay?”

“Yeah, they sent a second bus down.”

“Oy, I’m glad I didn’t go,” Mom said. “But, at least you’ll have something to talk about at the pool this afternoon,” Mom said.

And according to Mom, talk about it, they did. She told me that the bus ride fiasco to Pelican Lake State Park actually warranted conversations around the pool for nearly two weeks – a Harbor View record. “Old people love to complain,” Mom informed me. “I believe they actually enjoy incidents like this or else, besides food, what else would they have to talk about?”