I’m worn out from pushing a stroller all day.  I spent the afternoon wrangling kids in a gift shop, and I paid way too much for a mediocre lunch.  It can only mean one thing: the McKibben’s are on vacation!

 I have now learned from experience that every vacation we take in the future we will be departing on a Saturday.  My original plan was to leave on Tuesday, but as soon as Ken got off work on Friday, he put his vacation shorts on, dug his flip flops out of the closet, and said, “Let’s go!”  I spent the next day and a half slinging clothes into laundry baskets and shuttling stuff between our house and the motor home.  I didn’t stop for 18 hours straight, but I turned three days of packing into one.  We finally pulled out of the driveway on Sunday afternoon, and it was a good thing because after all that packing, I really needed a vacation.

 Our first destination was to Natural Bridge, Virginia, or to be more precise, Jellystone Park in Natural Bridge, Virginia.  The internet made it look like a kid’s paradise and the best campground in the world, but from what I can tell, it’s basically a normal campground with a slash pad, inflatable bouncing pad, and Yogi Bear’s picture plastered on anything that will stand still.

 However, as far as Edie’s concerned, it is, in fact, the best campground in the world.  She is especially a fan of the times Yogi Bear himself has come by our campsite for a hug.  Two days ago, she’d never even heard of him, but I guess she thinks he must be pretty famous since she’s been seeing his picture everywhere lately.

 There is a fair amount to do in this little area provided you have good weather.  I can say for a fact that there is absolutely NOTHING to do here if you don’t.  In hindsight, I might not have busted my butt to get us out of the house early if I had known that we would just be spending the extra day cooped up in the RV due to rain.

 It started raining first thing in the morning while we were saying the pledge of allegiance with Yogi Bear.  We immediately began searching the internet for something to do indoors since all of our planned activities needed sunshine and quickly realized that we were grasping at straws.  Our first day of vacation consisted of lunch at Burger King, and a stop by Radio Shack and the Dollar Store. 

 By evening the rain had not let up.  So onto the next plan:  the movies.  However, even that seemed somewhat impossible.  According to Fandango, the nearest movie theater was over an hour away.  I kept searching and coming up with nothing.  I could feel the RV walls moving in on me.  Edie was whiney.  Roark was getting into everything, and I was quickly losing it.  I told Ken, “I don’t care what we do, but we’ve got to get out of this RV!”

 So Ken set down in front of the computer and began to work his magic.  Five minutes later, he was telling everyone to get their shoes on.  He had found a little theater showing the Beesus and Ramona movie about fifteen minutes away, and it was starting in ten minutes. 

 I can’t imagine a more perfect movie theater for our purpose.  First, when I was buying our tickets, the young girl behind the counter told me that Tuesday was “Family Night,” so right there I could feel our luck changing.  Second, we were the only people there, and I mean, in the ENTIRE theater.  As in, we were the only people that patronized the establishment that whole evening.  This was great because Roark could run the aisles once he was bored with the movie and no one would care.  They actually waited until we took our seats to begin the show.

 Now to really appreciate this scene, you have to remember what we do for a living.  Ken has worked in some of the finest movie theaters in the country, and we are proud to boast that some of them are even our clients.  So when a third of the movie was being projected onto the curtains and there wasn’t even a sub in the speakers, we just looked at each other and laughed.  We drove nine hours to watch Ramona Quimby in a two bit theater.  The scene was priceless. 

 It was really a cute movie.  I had secretly wanted to see it since Beverly Cleary was one of my favorite children’s authors.  So it worked out because I didn’t really see Ken allowing me to add it to our Netflix queue.  There were even several funny parts where we all laughed out loud.  But the best moment was when the train went by outside and was so loud I thought the stained ceiling tiles were going to fall down on our heads. 

 We all had popcorn for dinner and bladder-busting-sized cokes, and during the credits, the kids and I danced in the aisles just because we could.   Once again, Daddy saved the day, and whenever I think of that movie, I will always remember that night in Virginia where we got to enjoy our own private showing.