OK—Now the trip has just gotten bizarre.
But first our tire problem—We had our trailer aligned, but of course that wasn’t the problem. All 4 new tires had separated and the only reason anyone could come up was just poor quality tires. Guess we won’t be buying tires again from our local guy (even though he ordered them special). So we bought four new tires and will probably have to eat the old ones since I refuse to carry 4 old tires for the next 1 ½ months so we can take them back to West Plains. So that little problem went up to $600.
We then headed south—slightly beaten but still enthused.
And then it got real bizarre. I guess Kelly had mentioned to her mom that we were thinking about stopping in Seattle at some point in time. Terri suggested that we should check out colleges although Kelly hadn’t even considered Seattle and already had one picked out that she liked in Portland, OR. But then Terri, without any consideration for our plans, decided she wanted to come up and see colleges (she loves an excuse to travel) and made an appointment for Friday, which would lock us into having to meet her in Seattle and cut Kelly’s trip short with us by 3 days. No one wanted to do that (including Kelly) but once Terri & Eric decide something, they don’t back off. It’s their power trip.
We offered to take Kelly to the interview ourselves since we have no desire to stand in the way of Kelly deciding on her college and then we wouldn’t have to shorten the trip, but then Terri wouldn’t have the excuse to go to Seattle. And the Friday before a holiday weekend was the ONLY time this could be done—according to them, (although Terri admitted none of this would have been happening if we had gone to Alaska). Little did we know that when we gave up that dream so we could actually have more quality time together, things would turn out like this.
So they demanded that we meet them and give them Kelly next Thursday night at 6pm. The vacation was “officially over” according to Eric.
Just a quick review of what they have put us through on just this trip-First Kelly had invited herself, which we were very happy she wanted to come, but I did think it fair that her parents split the airline tickets with us since the trip itself was quite an expense for us. Of course that was unacceptable and I would be “stealing my nieces college fund” if I paid for it out of the trust. They finally agreed to pay for half but we had to have the extra cost of flying her in and out of Klamath for their convenience and it costs $30 extra because Terri booked it through her travel agency instead of just doing it online. We also were given no choice on dates or times. It started it all off with a huge ordeal. Then they missed the flight and we were stuck for an extra 14 hours waiting for her—basically lost a whole day. And now this.
But it gets better.
Then the threats began. They actually called the police on us and said we had kidnapped Kelly! Even though she’s 17, she’s technically a minor, and they told us that we would be arrested at the border if we didn’t do everything they said. I am NOT kidding! I have the threats and the police calling me on my voice mail. Kelly was shocked that her parents would do this to us and it’s just been tearing us all up. It’s my bi-polar mom all over again and we just don’t understand how they could do this to Kelly, no matter how much they hated us. This is only the second time we have seen her in the last 6 yrs so we are all feeling pretty cheated. I can’t even describe what I feel. Ironically, Kelly is finally seeing the behavior that we have been dealing with for all of her life and we have protected her from, and it’s been a rude awaking to what her parents can do to us. The only positive, and believe me, we had to search hard for a positive, is that she is even more committed to keeping in touch with us and now knows, that if we are willing to jump through the vindictive hoops her parents make us jump through—we must really love her. And we do. She has even asked us “why didn’t we just give up on her?” But once again—we love her. And no child should have to ask that question. It’s still been shocking to us. And it is very sad.
But now we are curious to see if we get arrested at the border. It could prove interesting…on another positive note, going to jail would give me time to write that book everyone wants.
And I thought the threats of arrest had died with my mother…guess I shouldn’t be surprised by anything my sister & brother-in-law does at this stage, but I hope God is paying attention. This is not right. I did suggest to Kelly that from now on she might not want to stand too close to her parents during a lightning storm, just in case. The whole thing would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. Although we are well on our way to finding humor in it all, it’s the only way to deal with it without killing someone!
Obviously the trip isn’t the dream vacation Stacy & I had originally planned, but we will still try to salvage what we can. Letting her parents wreck our trip even further would only give them satisfaction, so we are going to still have fun--come hell or high water.
After Kelly leaves us we will probably be going over to Yellowstone for a couple of weeks to recover from it all. Whether we are going for fun or running from the law still remains to be seen!
We’ll keep the soap opera coming…ain’t it amazing? And you thought this trip was just going to be about moose and bears. Welcome to the world of Janet & Stacy…sometimes it even surprises me.
And yes—they are insane…But as a couple family and friends have said, “Isn’t this what they always do?”
I know some would think it strange that I would share all these details on our blog. But all that know me, know I am very upfront with our life, the good and the bad. And this saga has been going on for years now—And, at this point in time, this BS is our trip.
If you have good family hug and kiss them now and be grateful…and start gathering up bail money in case we need it. Wish us luck…
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