John Mark was gone to Body Pump training for three days so I decided to venture out to Branchville for Raylrode Daze (I have no idea why it is spelled like that.) It was the first time going so I made several critical mistakes. 1) Listening to the three-year-old.
We got to town just as the parade was ending so we ended up having to walk a really good ways to get to the center of town. I did not bring the double stroller, because Judah has informed me multiple times that he does not like the stroller. This was a bad idea and I paid for it later.
2) Thinking that the heatwave was over.
It ended up being really, really hot (sweat all down your back, hair stuck to your head kind of hot), and I believe that Branchville was suffering from some strange infestation of gnats (kind of like Hitchcock's Birds but with gnats). Clouds of gnats everywhere! We didn't even get any fair food, because I ended up taking the kids to a restaurant in town that was air-conditioned. Just too hot.
3) Thinking that a small town like Branchville would not have ridiculously high prices for tickets.
Tickets were $1 apiece and each ride was at the minimum four tickets. Multiply that by two kids and it got out of hand quickly. After I had used up the $10 in tickets that I had purchased and the $8 in tickets random people had given me (told you it was hot), I decided to call it a day. At this point, Harper is shrieking because she does not want to get back in her stroller. Judah is shrieking because he wants me to give him $5 to play some kind of fish game in a kiddie pool (seriously?).
At this point, me and my two shrieking children began the mile-and-a-half trek back to our car. Judah is crying that he is hot and tired and can't take another step. Harper has passed out and is almost falling out of the stroller she is so asleep. We finally make it back to the van and I crank the air-conditioner way up!!!
The moral of this story is that I don't know that we will be going back for Railroad Days or Raylrode Daze or whatever it is next year. Not unless it is seriously 30 degrees cooler.
