Ever have one of those days that seems to be just a series of unfortunate events?  I had one today.

First off, I stayed up late last night--5 am--because I just wasn't tired and I had it all worked out so I could sleep in today.  Hubby was leaving the house early.  Daughter and her friend that was staying over are both notorious late sleepers.  Son gone on a boy scout campout for the weekend.  I looked forward to luxuriating in bed until at least 11 am, if not noon.

7:50 am--get a call from a friend who wants to know if Chris is coming to the umpire clinic this morning and where it's being held.  Explain he's not going, he's on a boyscout campout, clinic is at the complex. Debate getting up to 'relieve myself' but decide to roll over and go back to sleep.

8:10 am--boy scout outing leader calls--Chris' toe is really hurting him and they are concerned he will not be able to do the hike.  Now, Chris had an ingrown toenail removed about a month ago, and it was pretty nasty with drainage and cellulitis.  He finished his 10 days of antibiotics, and it looked to be healing well.  He had me look at it last week, and it had a little crusted drainage, and was a little tender when I pressed on it, but looked okay.  We decided he would continue to dress it and let me know if it got worse, and I never heard anything else about it.  So I talk to him--it's apparently been getting progressively more painful and draining more, and then he whacked it into a root last night setting up camp and it's been really hurting since then.  So I talk to the leader--the hike is 12.5 miles, all up and down hill, and he'll be digging in with his toes to climb uphill and probably having them hit the front of his shoes on the downhill part.  It's a very rugged hike, with little access, and they are concerned that he'll get partway and be unable to finish.  But the biggest problem is they don't have enough adults to leave 2 at camp with him and have 2 to go on the hike.  So I either need to go get Chris or the hike is cancelled for everyone.  So I say I'll come get him.

Then, this lady--who is a talker--starts in on tales of when her oldest son was a scout, and problems he had with his toe on a weeklong hike.  I keep trying to cut her off so I can get ready to go, but she just keeps going.  Finally, I get her off the phone so I can go pee.  I was about to take the phone in there with me!

Going to pick up Chris doesn't sound like a huge deal...but he was 2 hours away...each way.  Not exactly how I intended to spend my morning.   But, I mapquested the address and took off.  I woke up both Katie and Nat and told them where I was going, but they didn't want to come with, they wanted to sleep. (So did I!)

It really did take me 2 hours to get there.  This place was in Brown County, IN which is a beautiful area with a huge park, lots of hiking, and the town of Nashville, which is known for it's craft and specialty stores.  Nashville is always crowded with both cars and pedestrians, and of course the area they were at was on the other side of the town.  I'm just a couple of turns from where I think I need to go when the phone rings. 

Whiny Voice:  Where are you?

Me:  I'm almost there, just a couple turns left to go.

WV: But where are you?

Me:  I'm through Nashville and almost to the park.

WV:  But why aren't you here?

Me:  I'm coming as fast as I can.  Where exactly are you?

WV:  I'm at home...why are you in Tennessee?

Me:  Wait a minute, is this Chris or Katie?

WV:  It's Katie.

Apparently, despite the fact that they both spoke to me, and Katie was sitting up with her eyes open, neither of the girls remembered any details of our conversation, although bits and pieces came back as I updated them.  Told them I'd be home again in about 2 hours, and to call Nat's parents if they had any problems. 

After I turned off 'Bear Wallow Road' and onto 'Bear Wallow Hill Road' I found the campground and after a few more tries found where Chris and the scoutleader were.  They had stayed at the house at the head of the trail, with a ranger as the second adult. But of course, the phone number I had was for the adult who was on the hike, not the one with Chris.  And cell coverage was in and out  with all the hills, so they had trouble getting me by phone (even when they saw me pass the house LOL).  But we did manage to find each other.

I pile Chris in the car and take off for home.  It's almost 11 am now.   I'd talked to my mom on the way up (had to dish on Survivor with her) and we both thought it would be quicker for me to go home all the way on IN 46 than the way Mapquest brought me up, so Chris and I thought we'd try that on the way home. 

It's never a good idea for someone with no sense of direction and no gps to try muck with directions.  I followed 46 W (after all Indiana is W from my house) and we took off.  Unfortunately about an hour down the road we hit Bloomington...which I didn't think was right.  So we got out the big paper map--the one you can never get refolded right--and sure enough, we should have been taking 46 E.  (duh...Indiana is west from my house, but since I was already in Indiana, I needed to go east to hit OH).  So, we called the girls and told them it was going to be probably between 3 and 4 when we got home, and I fessed up to being somewhat lost, which entertained them to no end.  And we grabbed a little lunch and took off back the way we'd come.  There really wasn't a better way home that wasn't total squiggly little backroads.

Have I mentioned that at this point, we'd pretty much had it with Indiana?  We'd been behind people gawking at yard sales and flea markets, people driving 20 miles under the posted speed limit, and stuck behind a tractor trailer and an RV that were neck and neck for so long they could have shared a meal. 

So, we backtrack. And backtrack.  And backtrack some more.  I call my mom and entertain her with my 'lack of direction' story.  Hubby calls home to see how the trip went and my darling daughter rats me out to him.  So he calls me to express his disbelief that anyone can be that 'challenged' and generally make fun of me.  So I call my daughter and make idle threats to her for ratting me out.  And Chris and I have a really good time listening to music and talking about all sorts of things.  The time one on one with Chris was the one redeeming factor of the day.

As we are sitting in traffic stopped for roadwork--and I do mean sitting, I actually ended up turning the car off--we reached the conclusion that we don't really dislike Indiana. Indiana dislikes us.  They probably dislike anyone with Ohio license plates.  We were there for at least 15 minutes if not 20, watching the backhoe go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, getting dirt and filling up a hole.  And then the concrete truck had to maneuver around and reposition itself, so it could dump it's load of concrete in the hole.  You'd think that the guy holding the sign would have stopped the oncoming traffic on occassion and let us go, but NO, we got the stop sign the whole time.  Except for that one second after the backhoe when he turned  to slow for a brief second to tease us, before he figured out that the concrete truck was on the move.

We finally get home about 4 pm.  Unexpected 4 hour trip turns into unexpected 6 1/2 hour trip.  Had to stop and get dressing supplies for Chris' toe.  It really does look nasty and painful, much worse than a week ago when I saw it last.  No way he would have made that hike.  He's gonna need to see the doctor again.  Katie and Nat spent part of the afternoon at Nat's house, so I had to pick them up when I went past.   Still had laundry to do.  Never did get to sleep in.  I know Jon's gonna poke more fun at me when he gets home.  

All I got to say is its been one helluva Saturday.  I hope Sunday goes better.