Tommy and Sierra Hull: July 2008

What sounded like a wonderful summer vacation, turned into quite the disaster. We have been trying to plan a summer vacation with the in-laws for months. We wanted to go down to Powell but couldn’t quite work around my summer school semester. Instead we decided to go up to bear lake because it was a little closer. Friday morning we headed over to Doug and DeAnn’s, we had to take 3 vehicles up because we needed to pull the boat, the trailer, and because Tommy and I had to leave early (school bright and early Monday morning, Blaaa!) We were late getting going and when we were finally ready, we left in a scurry. As we started driving down the road I realized that Dave (Tommy’s Brother) wasn’t in our car. He had made it apparent that he wanted to ride with us and required a window seat. I asked Thomas and Matt (Tommy’s other brother) about it and they said that Dave was in the excursion with the others. I looked back and saw four heads, in my own head I counted (Ben, Josh, Staci, and Dave) “ok thats right” I thought still a little confused about why he had decided not to ride with us, as we got farther and farther away I started to rethink. We came to a stoplight and again I looked back, the excursion was closer and I saw (Ben, Josh, Staci, and STEPHEN) Hello! Of course Steve was in their car I had completely forgotten. At that instant I was anxious. I took Tommy’s phone and called Dave. When he answered he made it quite clear that we left him. I guess that he went to the bathroom and came out to see us all driving away. To make matters worse he tried to go back into the house and surprise, all the doors were locked. He proceeds to call every one of us and not one person answered their phone. Poor Dave So we took the journey back to pick him up and that was the start of the all the calamity! We had been driving for about and hour and a half, I had fallen asleep and when I woke we were all pulled over on the side of the road. The hood was up on the truck that was pulling the fifth-wheel trailer. I guess something had broken on the truck. Doug worked to fix it but he didn’t think that he should drive it much farther. We decided that we would have to get to the campground and then drive back to Ogden and borrow someone else’s truck to pull the trailer home. We finally get to the campground just to find that it is full! Doug talks to the rangers and they tell him to try other campgrounds on the other side of the lake. After driving what seemed like forever at a speed that was less then thrilling (because of a broken truck) we find a barren campground with a small boat ramp. We set up camp and want to go out on the boat. Doug wanted to drive back to Ogden to get a new truck so he trusted his son Ben with the boat. After a shaky loading we were on the water. It was cold and windy! We were out about 2 hours then we were done. The problem was that because It was so windy it was impossible to get the boat back on the trailer, and in the process of trying the prop hits what sounded like a underwater boulder. Needless to say we busted the propeller, it was bent out of shape and now Doug who just spent over a grand on a new prop, (specially for this trip) has to buy a new one. Well by this time we all are wondering what else can go wrong. We couldn’t necessarily leave because Doug and DeAnn had already paid the nice man quite a bit of money to stay at this deserted campground, and he was long gone. We head in and Tommy and I decide to go set up our tent, there simply wasn’t any room in the trailer for us to sleep. Grown men were sleeping together. We found a good spot and start to put up our new tent that we had just gotten and only used once. Well I bet you can guess what’s coming, our new tent pole had somehow warped and was broken broken broken. This was almost the last straw I was so very frustrated by this point. I really didn’t want to sleep on the floor of the trailer or in the back of the excursion. I was pretty determined to try and somehow get this pole fixed. Well we tried to fix this pole by cutting out a part that was broken. The inside of course was shredded and felt a lot like fiberglass that then proceeded to get all over me and Stephen, Ouch! And also in the process we manage to somehow cut the rope that holds all the poles together. So now we really were in a pickle. We then spend the next ‘forever’ threading this rope through all of the blasted poles, what a pain!!!! We should have just slept in the car. However we did manage to jimmy rig our tent up and had a place to sleep. The next day I believe would be a better day, Me, Steve and Dave took the mile long walk to the closest beach and spent hours in the sun as we waited for Doug and Staci to get back with the new prop. When they got back we headed again on to the lake. Now for any of you that have been to bear lake you might remember that the sun is very deceiving. The water temp and the wind make it seem like its really not that hot and that you might not need that much sunscreen…..Big Big Big Mistake! At the end of the day I was fried! Not like ‘ouch this sucks’ bad, but ‘ ouch you can’t touch me or I’ll cry’ bad. When I woke the next morning by face had literally swelled. But I wasn’t the only one; you better believe Dave was just as bad! It must have been our extra hours on the beach. So basically we are as red as lobsters, burnt, and miserable. However we still had a full day left in the sun, the same sun that had betrayed us. Before we go out Staci tells us that when she has sunburns she would soak in vinegar to take the sting out. Luckily we actually had water-diluted vinegar, unfortunately vinegar water is disgusting! We took our chances and went out back and bathed in this stank mixture. WE STUNK! It was bad. That day boating was really something else. Dave and I both were covered up like Middle Eastern women. The sun was like fire touching our scalded hides. Luckily that night we were going home. I couldn’t take the sun any longer. Needless to say back at home, Thomas and I both looked like we had leprosy, as we peeled off the rough leather that our skin had become. Tommy got blisters all over his back, shoulders and chest. It felt like bubble wrap when I would run my finger across them. So you may be asking yourself, why did I spend the time to read this depressing novel of a blog, well I do have a one Moral, MAN SOMETIMES LIFE JUST SUCKS!!!! :)