Day 17 - Chocolate Bars and Broken Vans

All well that ends well, they say, and last night after seeing Denise, disappear into the night on the subway things did work themselves out. Of course. They usually do. But not before it left an image in my mind of something from a movie. We had a chuckle at it later, but as the doors closed and she was on the inside and we were on the outside, I was calling to her, “What do I do?” And she was responding and all I could see was this exaggerated expression of words that I couldn’t quite make out. It might have been, “Go to the end of the loooiiinnnnneee.” You know that dramatic, elongated sentence when things go wrong and the sound producers mess with speech to make it more exciting? Or perhaps, “Get offfffff at the nexxxxxttttt stttooooooooooop!”

Really, I couldn’t tell which she said, and suddenly we were alone. Oh boy. I was okay alone. The problem was reconnecting with her. As I stood there with all six children thinking what to do, a security woman was also there, and honestly, I don’t remember what happened. I do know that she helped us out. Courage told her I had a cell phone, which of course, I forgot I had, as it was Denise’s so that we might contact her. The woman tried to reach her, but couldn’t due to the tunnels. We ended up running upstairs to see if she had called in as the guard had a call come into her phone about stopping at the next station and she thought it might be Denise. It wasn’t. 

We decided to get on the next train and take it all the way to the end. We figured if Denise couldn’t find us, then hopefully she would figure I would take the kids to the station we were bound for. That was easier said than done. There was a mad crush of people trying to get on the subway. I kept the kids tightly attached to each other, while being sure to keep Kenzie’s spirits up, as I did not want her worrying that her grandma was gone and she was stuck with us! I told her her Grandma ran away. ;)  They all had a giggle at Denise’s expense. When the next train came in, I had the kids in a huddle and I basically shoved them all in with each attached to the one beside. Once in, we relaxed knowing where we were going. We did get a few stares, since how many women with six children are traveling at 11:30 pm? Shortly after I got a call from Denise saying that she had got off at the first station, and then jumped on the second train - the one we missed - thinking we might be on that one - which of course, we should have been. She ran madly from car to car looking for us, only to find we weren’t there. She has her own stories to share about drunks.... 

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Day 17 - Saturday, September 6, 2014

The final day of our stay with Denise, Mary, and Michael was here. Mary and Michael had been incredible hosts taking care of our every need. Michael even sent us on our way with a cooler full off meals!! There was no concern about running out of food, that’s for sure. It was wonderful to get to know the people in Denise’s life that I have only heard about, but never had the chance to get to know. Now, when she speaks I will be able to envision: Patricia, Hayden, Carrie, Michael, and Mary, and of course, Kenzie! 

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It was time to head to Hershey, Pennsylvania. I was intending to go to Hershey, then onto Lancaster, and then New Hope. Lancaster is where all the Amish live, and Ayana has been reading books about the Amish, and Courage also has a book about them. The drive would be easy, as the three stops would break up the day before I got to Walmart, an hour from New Jersey. Now, if I found a campsite in Pennsylvania countryside then I would certainly stop there. It was just that Walmart is a safe stop if I can’t find anything else, and it offers bathrooms, and shopping. 

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The drive was simple and then just before I entered Hershey I began having issues.

 I noticed the gears sounding like they were struggling, and soon I was really having a hard time. I pulled over to get my bearings, and then limped to Hershey World. As soon as I got in the gate I explained to the gate keeper my struggled, and my first helping hand in the struggle was there: He gave me free parking for the day. Normally, it is $35 for five hours. 

Honestly, it really was discouraging. I was so looking forward to this part of our trip. It was the fun field trip. The kids would get to go on a tour of the chocolate factory and make a chocolate bar, not to mention wandering through the chocolate stores! But instead, the first two hours was spent in my van trying to work out what to do: I called Triple A, only to have them say I did not have the right coverage. So then she connected to BCAA, only to have her drop the line, and by the time I was off with BCAA, who was really quite unpleasant and unhelpful and unsympathetic, an hour of my 100 minutes travel plan used up, and I was still no further forward.

Calling the Framer, I discovered he had just boarded the plane, and was on his way to New Jersey. He would be in by 11:00 pm, and it was now about 2:00 pm. I had a limited nine hours to sort out this mess. I decided to take the kids inside and see if there was WIFI, to call for prayer back-up, and to let them do some of the fun before I continued with my problem. 

They did the chocolate making part of the day and that was fabulous!! Well worth the $15 per person. 

They got to go to a scanner and choose the ingredients they wanted for their chocolate bars, including the taste of the shell: dark, milk, or white chocolate. They then walked through the glass walled factory watching their individual bars being made. As they passed different stages they saw their names in lights, and even on the scanner at the beginning it had their name. It was very personalized! At the end, their bar was boxed up in the wrapper that they designed and then deposited in a tin keepsake box!

Once this was complete, I began again with my work. Long story short, there was a kind gentleman named, John, and he usually runs the trolleys. He was so helpful. He let me use his cell phone, he got me phone numbers, he made phone calls for me, and in the end, he drew me a map to the Hershey Campground. And the irony is that he went over the directions about six times, even though they were very simple. Another little helping hand, because anyone that knows me knows that I am maplexic and can’t digest the verbal direction!! 

Earlier, when I was first talking to John, a younger man and his wife had happened to come to the counter, and I asked them a question, and they found out my problem. They were very kind and tried to help. He told me that he was actually from Jersey Central. And then later, after the tour, when it was about one to two hours later, and I was talking to John, he reappeared and checked in to see how I was doing. He said he was going back to Jersey but he had seven in his minivan already. As he was pulling out paper to get a phone number of a mechanic he knew I saw a name written on his phone: Raju - I asked him if this was his name, and he said, No, it was his brother’s name. I told him my daughter-in-law’s name was Raju, and he told me it was an East Indian name, and considering he was East Indian, I was not surprised. Another little sign. 

Eventually, the kids and I left to the campground, but not before John gave me a fatherly hug and said, “God bless,” as he sent us on our way. What a wonderful man!

The van started up fine and shifted into drive nicely, so I got to the campground, while pondering what to do the following day. I knew I was only 2.5 hours away from Jersey City, where I was to meet Ray. The campsite was wonderful, and I wish I had been there earlier to enjoy it, but for now, it was still restful. The kids and I got a simple dinner together, and then they did a little scootering before everyone headed to bed.