My Buttons

I like to think that I am a very low key, calm, patient, and reserved individual. There are not too many things that get me going and ruffle my feathers. The last two years the family and I have headed to northern Wisconsin for some camping and berry picking with our good friends. This weekend has become a highlight of my summer and this year was no different, but we had to modify our weekend slightly due to some other plans we had on our usual berry fest dates. So the wife and I decide to bring two of our nephews with us in order to free up their parents to join us a day late at our already established camp. Things seemed to begin to unravel as we departed an hour later than our desired departure time, but I was hopeful. The construction that stopped us on the interstate added to the future derailment of my mental train. When we stopped in Duluth to enjoy some pizza at the park it was coupled with a Baby Ruth in Wyatt's Handy Manny drawers to further aid in the eventual train wreck. The wheels really fell off though when we drove through three different campgrounds that were ALL full! We have NEVER had a problem finding a campsite in Bayfield, let alone the twenty mile radius around Bayfield. After we drove twenty minutes down some gravel to a National Forest Campground to find NO VACANCY, I was mentally off the track and in a pile of burning rubbish! We ended our night at a roach motel in Ashland Wisconsin where the guy behind the desk had to be awoken by the doorbell and needed a couple minutes to button his shirt before checking us in. The blankets were not even pulled off the beds. So there is button #1 of mine that results in toxic melt down: "No place to stay on vacation and having to spend money on a roach motel when it was not planned."

The second button was pushed on I-35 south near Rush Lake Minnesota. When traffic that is supposed to be going 70 mph grinds to a screeching halt four miles before the actual construction my blood begins to simmer. Boiling takes place thirty minutes after we have been stopped and have moved about two miles. Why are their no detour options? Why did I not get off on the last exit that was just before the parking lot that is the interstate? We left early because we had to get to the airport to pick up a friend I hadn't seen in over two years. The worst part of it all was that we had sent our food with friends because the car was too packed and we didn't think we would need the food in the car. I was irate and wanted to drive through the ditch and be anywhere but on the southbound side of I-35.

So there it is, two of my buttons that were pushed this weekend and sent me over the edge. It was not a pretty site, but it was reality. Just a little full disclosure on my end!