Independence Day Vacation

For the past several years for the big July 4thholiday week, my family would all pile in our car and drive 15 hours (with very few stops) down Route 95 to “Grandma’s house” in Florida, to watch fireworks on the beach.  But this year, we stayed put in Virginia, and it had less to do with high gas prices and the fragile economy then us having a stroke of very bad luck on our vacation there last year.

It started out with our air conditioning breaking shortly after we started the drive, and then about 20 minutes from our final destination, our car literally broke down on the side of the highway with a blown transmission. We called my husband’s brother who lives in the area. We discovered our bad luck was transferrable because on his way to rescue us, he got pulled over by the police for an outdated registration and got a ticket. 

We then took our car to the auto shop who promised it back in four days - which ultimately turned into two weeks.  Apparently, we passed our bad luck on once again because the auto shop became plagued with several accidents including work injuries, ill employees and out of stock parts, which they reported caused the delay in repairing our car. 

It then poured down rain for about the first five days which the Florida locals said "never happens for that long."  In an attempt to salvage somewhat of a vacation, we borrowed a car and traveled to Walt Disney World for some theme park fun, where on the way back to the hotel from visiting a video gaming attraction, the shuttle bus that my husband and 9-year-old son took, broke down. They had to wait two hours for the rescue bus to arrive (it got lost on the way to pick them up). 

With our luck not improving (and the rain coming down again), we headed back to “Grandma’s” and after learning that our car would be a few more days, and my children crying at that point that they wanted to go home, I drove the kids home myself in a rental car (which after we returned it we realized my oldest son left his new headphones in the glove compartment), and my husband stayed behind to wait for our car to be finished. 

When it was finally ready four days later, two hours up the road (not even out of Florida yet) the engine warning light came on - he made it home but had to take the car right back to the shop.

So this year, in order to still incorporate viewing fireworks over the water and some water sports fun, we decided to stay in the great state of Virginia and headed down to Lake Anna.  My kids loved the much shorter road trip, and we were even able to take our chocolate lab along.     

We think we will be safe venturing back down to the “Sunshine State” next Fourth of July after we have fully recovered, but then again, with our luck…