Jeff’s work gives their employees 2 tickets to Hershey Park every year. We usually give them away. This year, we decided to use them. We chose this past Monday after some pretty stressful weeks. We were blessed with 2 additional free tickets from one of his friends, and two very discounted tickets. Our oldest had things to do so six tickets was enough.
Five days before the fun trip….Jeff breaks out in shingles! I mentioned that we had had some stressful weeks. It took much convincing, with the help of Facebook friends, but he finally went to the doctor and got some medicine to help shorten the duration. Jeff said that he still wanted to go to Hershey Park since he is not contagious, and his shirt covers the shingles. Plan still on.
Monday morning we pack a lunch, and leave about 9:30 am. It is a little later than we wanted to leave, but no rush. It is a fun day. We sit in LOTS of traffic on the way. The 40 minute drive turns into well over an hour, and we are still not there yet.
The van starts to whine. The battery light comes on and goes off. The Anti Lock Break light comes on and goes off. Jeff is now worried, and says that if the van dies we might have to push it to the side of the road. Minutes later….the van dies, and we drift to the side of the road….on Hershey Park Drive….TWO red lights away from the park. (GPS says 11 minutes, but that can’t be right.) Jeff tries to restart the van. NOTHING. TOTALLY DEAD.
His phone, which had been “charging”, is also dead. We use mine to call AAA for a tow truck, then a rental car that delivers.
August 19 at 10:40 AM · Supposed to be going to Hershey Park today….sat in lots of traffic…. now broke down with totally dead van…. 11 minutes away from the park on hershey park dr🙄😔
Waiting for AAA to get here.
And looking for a rental car that delivers🧐Update10:53am…enterprise on their way to pick us up🎉🎉
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Update 11:36 am. Tow truck going to be several hours…Enterprise already picked me up and settled everything. Jeff is going to wait with the van and I am going to take the kids to HP.😔
Enterprise was wonderful! They came out within the half hour and picked up me and the girls. We went back the the office signed the papers and took the car. In the mean time, as the Enterprise guy was telling me how unbelievable busy they had been this morning, AAA called to tell me that the tow truck would be several hours before it got to us. !?!?! She explained that she had called every garage within a reasonable area, and they are ALL severely backed up. We then went back and picked up Sam, and decided to go on to the park. Jeff was going to wait with the van for the tow truck, and then see if he would drop him off at the park. No sense in all of us sitting there all day.
The kids and I go on to the park. It is much busier than we expected for many schools already starting back. Three of the kids stood in line for ONE roller coaster for 45 minutes. They road it and now wanted ice cream and fries. I was happy to sit in the shade. The tow truck man calls and said that he is on his way, and will be about 20 minutes. NOW, the kids are wanting LUNCH. We just got there, road ONE ride, ate ice cream and fries, and want lunch. OK. Lets go get Dad, have lunch, and come back TOGETHER. We all agreed. I texted Jeff with the plan.
August 19 at 2:26 PM ·
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UPDATE! TOW TRUCK FINALLY CAME🎉🎉🎉
We left the park for lunch and to go pick up Jeff… literally a few minutes away.
Hopefully, we will enjoy the rest of the day😎🤪
The tow truck driver was great. He loved his job. He loved helping people. We sent down cold water bottles to him and Jeff when we got there. He was very thankful and was telling Jeff how unbelievably busy he was this morning
August 19 at 2:33 PM ·
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Enterprise Rent a car with pick up
(RANDOM CALL because of GOOD RATINGS)- under 30 minutes😁🎉
AAA (LONG TIME MEMBER)- 3.5 HOURS🤔😔
Although the Enterprise guy did say that today has been an unbelievably busy day with a tremendous amount of odd breakdowns.
Back at the park….we had lunch by one of the gazebos. The girls found a rock painted with a Hershey bar person. I know he probably has a name, but I’m not into all that. They were super excited, because we have put out dozens, and this is the first they have found out in public.
NOW… on to the park. Naomi road the Sooper Dooper Looper, and did Great! She LOVED it. The photo shows that she looks scared, but she absolutely loved it. She could not wait to move on to the next one, the bigger one…Sky Rush.
Johanna, Sam and Naomi came off of Sky Rush and I could tell something was wrong but they were kind of laughing?!? “MOM, OMI PASSED OUT ON THE RIDE!” “Wait, what, she is right here in front of me and looks fine”. “NO, COME LOOK AT THE PICTURE” as they are pulling me to the pictures. The guy flips back to the picture of them. Sure enough, Naomi is slumped over, and leaning on Jo’s shoulder. Jo said she looked over, and Omi’s eyes rolled back, and she slumped over. BELIEVE ME! I TRIED EVERYTHING to get the guy to let me take a picture of the picture on the screen. IF I hadn’t just bought the $15 picture from the previous ride, I WOULD have bought that picture, but TWO OVERPRICED pictures is out of the question. IF a doctors visit is necessary, they will have to take my word.
We did google for several minutes, OK… for maybe a lot longer… as we walked. It is normal to pass out on a roller coaster. Something about G force….. She should be fine. It does go 75 mph and straight down. Daddy did a lot of calming Mama down. Although we did BOTH watch her carefully the rest of the day.
August 19 at 5:20 PM ·
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Omi did great riding the Sooper Dooper Looper. Loved it. Rode the Sky Rush and PASSED OUT! She is fine. It is normal. It can happen. We are watching her closely. She wants to ride more….Mama is about having panic attacks…just kidding. All is good. Dare we ask what else can go wrong today?
We decided to go over to Zoo America for a little bit of a calmer time and had a nice walk through there. We especially liked the porcupines, since we recently had one in our tree. Then we came back to the park for a little more fun.
August 19 at 9:59 PM ·
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So we had a VERRRRRRY eventful day today, but overall, it turned out to be a pretty nice day. The kids did not fight or misbehave. Everyone seemed to be in a peaceful, happy heart attitude. The van died in a place that was easy to drift off to the side of the road very safe and easy. The car rental company came extremely quickly. The tow truck driver was super nice and loved his job. Jeff was ready to be picked up just as we were deciding that it was time to go out to the parking lot to get lunch. Jo and Lydia found a huge painted rock with a Hershey theme on it while we were eating lunch at a little gazebo. We all got to reenter the park together. Although it was pretty crowded and they only road a few rides, we enjoyed time together and a nice walk through Zoo America. The ride home was peaceful and quiet. Several of us are burnt and sore, but this terrible beginning ended up being a great family day.
The ride home was quiet with beautiful sunsets. Some of us were tired, sore and burnt, but everyone was happy.
Van Repairs-It was going to happen whether we went or didn’t go. It was just a matter of time.
New alternator – $200. Husband and son that can change it themselves – Priceless.
New Battery – (expecting high cost) FREE! still under warranty!!!!
Enterprise – $89 for 24 hour rental of 6 passenger vehicle. (plus $200 deposit which we got back) I would ABSOLUTELY use enterprise again. They were quick, polite, and had what we needed on one of their busiest days. They were just as busy when I dropped the car off, and just as polite.
