Family Adventure in the Poconos, Take 2

Several months ago, I wrote about our family adventure in the Poconos. Little did I know that only a few short months later I would be adding a sequel posting.

It's December 24th. We're heading to the Poconos for the Christmas holiday. This is an all day affair - we start at 6am when our daughter gets up. Judiciously pack the car. Leave 1/2 the things we need while driving in the truck and curse ourselves for it all the way to the first rest stop.

Fast forward 6 blissful hours, we've finally arrived at my parents' complex in the Poconos. It's 3pm. We're all cranky. We've been in the car for far longer than is necessary, we're tired, we're cramped, we want to get there already and unpack and rest. We come to the turn for my parents' road and we make 5 attempts to climb the hill. These fail due to a nice cover of ice on the hill right at the turn, covered by a nice thin layer of water mist. Needless to say, this makes conditions rather slippery.

After the 5th attempt, I take my frustration out of the car, grab the shovel that my husband put right at the top of our junk in the trunk (what good foresight!) and start shovelling piles of dirt, slush and ice from the bottom of the hill onto the hill to create 2 tracks for the tires.

You have to imagine this. I am dressed in corduroy pants, in hiking boots which are slippery and not meant for iceclimbing, and a ski jacket that matches neither the hiking boots nor the pants. After 10 minutes, I am splatted in mud, my pants are wet up to my ankles, I am muttering curses under my breath at the association, at our timing and at our stupidity in arriving at this place first. Finally, as I am about to finish this job and we are about to undertake our fist attempt, we see a gravel truck from the association making the rounds. After a little more muttering from me, the truck finally gets around to our section of the road and heads up the hill.

It's now 4pm. We follow. What meets us at the driveway is even less inspiring. The hill there is completely frozen over with a nice layer of ice and there is no gravel or dirt that we can throw. We quickly abandon all hope of getting the car up the hill and park at the culdesack. My husband takes the shovel and makes heads up the hill to try to make a path for us. 5 minutes go by. 10 minutes go by. We start to approach 15 minutes when I start thinking of a contingency plan. What if he'd fallen on the ice and can't get up. I'm in the car, so I won't hear him. It's starting to get dark, so soon enough I won't even be able to see the small path he's managed to crack in the ice. I have a baby with me. Do I leave her in the car, and go by myself or do I take her with me?

Finally, I see the careful descent of his black boots, and I make a mental note to take our walkie talkies in the future when travelling in the winter.

And, so, we make it into the house, we unpack and then my parents arrive and my dad makes it up both hills without much trouble, because, after all, it's not his first ice storm.