A Vacation that Goes Awry

One carefully-planned trip took a sudden bad turn.

Years ago, we decided to take our kids prospecting at the Herkimer Diamond Mine. The mine contained tons of quartz diamonds, and our children were eager to dig for them.

Our vacation got off on the wrong foot. Traffic jams made our trip much longer than expected. We had planned to arrive before dark to set up camp, but it was almost midnight when we finally neared the campground. Our youngest son kept asking, “Are we there yet?”

A few miles before we reached our destination, a small animal darted across the road in front of our car. We swerved to avoid it. Our initial relief that we missed it was short-lived. Although our car avoided it, a sickening thump followed as our camper ran over it.

My husband got out to assess the situation.

He told us our camper had skunk guts all over the bottom of it. Our children groaned. Then they held their noses and cried, “Yuck!”

Unfortunately, no car washes were open at that late hour, so we drove directly into the campground. We were lucky to get the last available campsite.

As we quickly set up camp, the strong odor of skunk almost gagged us. We soon became extremely tired and fell into a deep sleep after only a few minutes. The fumes must have gassed us because none of us woke up until 9:30 am the next day.

Imagine our surprise the next morning when we looked out our camper.

No other campers were in sight! We couldn’t believe our eyes. Although the place had been filled the previous night, we were now the only camper in the whole section. The rest must have hi-tailed it out of there in the middle of the night! Since we slept so soundly, none of us heard anyone leave.

We decided to pack up, get our camper washed, and then move to a different site. When we returned to the campground, the desk clerk thought a new family had just arrived. He mentioned the skunk, but we pretended to know nothing about it.

Our mining adventure made us forget about the skunk problem.

After we set up camp with a clean camper and headed to the diamond mine, the children forgot all about the previous night’s disaster. They spent the entire afternoon and most of the next morning prospecting.

I couldn’t believe they could be so engrossed in an activity for so many hours. I had to coax them to come back to the campsite to eat lunch. Our oldest son said, “Do we have to>” and our daughter pleaded, “Can’t we stay a little longer?”

A quick shower after lunch emptied out the clouds. As we hiked back to our digging spot, the sun shone, and the pathway sparkled with quartz diamonds! The rain had washed away the dust that had hidden them from view.

Our three-year-old son was the first to discover these gems. Adults needed to bend down to spot them, but he was short enough to see them at the right angle. He picked up the most of anyone in the family.

In fact, he collected more quartz diamonds than the college students who had worked in the mine a whole week!

Our disastrous vacation proved to be educational.

Despite our trouble, the prospecting experience taught our children valuable lessons. They learned digging is hard work and requires patience.

As they dug through the layers in the ground, they discovered all kinds of interesting things – colored rocks, tunnels where small creatures had burrowed, and an underground hornet’s nest. They quickly left this without disturbing it!

Our children also learned one important lesson they will never forget: If you see a skunk, run the other way! This continues to be our “common scents” rule to this day.