Take a Friday...mix it with 156 kids and adults, add plans for a three day camping weekend, top it off with a quarter inch of rain and you usually get a headache. What I got was not a headache, but an experience that I will never forget.

Our June 4, 5 & 6 Camping Trip was canceled due to the muddy conditions of the La Jolla Indian Reservation. Yet a couple dozen of us were determined to do something fun for the weekend anyway. So I thought... Palm Springs!

Multiple phone calls resulted in reservations at the Ramada Resort in Palm Springs(okay, so they only had five rooms and one suite available). When I penciled out the sleeping arrangements on my clipboard, I knew it was tight, but I made it work and headed for the desert and the ninety degree weather.

Upon arriving at the Ramada, everyone waited outside while I went in to register. I stared at the six sign-in forms the clerk had laid on the counter and was dumbfounded. Not only was there not a suite among the paperwork, which I had planned on assigning the two single moms with five children, but all six rooms had only one queen bed. I turned and looked at the huge group outside the lobby window and wondered what ever possessed me to think I could pull this off.

I anxiously asked the night manager if he had any rooms with two beds. "None", he informed me. To top that, he added that he had seven roll away beds, but only one that was not in use. Once again I glanced out the window and saw that the natives were getting restless. My daughter being no exception.

I quickly figured out the best sleeping arrangements and accepted the blankets, sheets and pillows that the hotel offered. I then ventured out to share the news of our dilemma and the new sleeping arrangements to the group.

Sylvia and her 4 year old daughter shared a room with Liz and her 7 year old daughter and 9 year old son. Single dad John had not only brought his three children, but his 13 year old daughter Amanda had brought her best friend Nicole along as well. They more than filled up one room.

Sheryl’s 13 year old daughter also brought her best friend Mandy. Add 8 year old Courtney and Sheryl had her hands and her room full. Dawn, a single mom friend of Sheryl’s, was not only accompanied by her two children, but ended up inviting single mom Kathy with her 9 year old daughter Katlyn to room with her troop. David had brought his 10 year old son and 11 year old daughter Ashley. The last three single parents (including myself) and kids shared the remaining room (thank goodness they had the one roll away bed left).

We couldn’t venture to the bathroom in the middle of the night or quench your thirst with a drink of water. Our showers were limited to five minutes and we learned, after one time, not to lay anything down that you were going to need immediately. Otherwise, it was buried under mountains of clothes, blankets, sleeping bags, towels, wet bathing suits, and pillows for the rest of the weekend.

I had brought watermelon, potato chips, cereal and approximately 25lbs of macaroni salad (made for the over 100 RSVP’s we had for the camping trip). John bought milk and David picked up stuff for sandwiches. Our rooms doubled as restaurants as we tried to economically feed this party of twenty-six.

The kids ran from room to room in search of the milk to go with the cereal and to find where the chocolate donuts were, no doubt terrorizing the other hotel guests and most definitely keeping security busy.

On Saturday morning, our group took over the swimming pool area. The hotel, normally occupied by mostly seniors, resembled a Nickelodeon function. Our kids were everywhere(and I do mean everywhere). By early afternoon, I had decided that we should start the games. I started with a scavenger hunt, hoping that our children wouldn’t wake to many napping seniors as they ran up and down the hotel corridors.

I brought out the hula hoops, the squirt guns, large black hefty bags(recruited from maintenance) and more than two dozen old pillowcases from housekeeping.

Single mom Sheryl and 9 year old Katlyn went head to head for the first couple rounds of hula hoop, with Sheryl winning the first round. Three more kids challenged her and lost. Everyone took their turn at challenging the winners. Single dads John, David and David didn’t do any better than myself, Kathy or 4 year old Corrina.

Some hotel guests were entertained to the point that they turned their chairs so that they faced the grassy area where our desperate attempts at kids games were taking place. The final winner of the hula hoop contest was Sheryl.

Teenagers Cara and Mandy had a good stride when it came to the three-legged race. With their arms around each other, they practically danced their way through the course. John and Sylvia were not perfectly suited in size and less graceful as they lay sprawled on the grass. David and Pam had rhythm, unfortunately they weren’t dancing to the same tune and resembled pistons working against each other!

The pillowcases used in the sack race were perfect for the little ones who could grasp the material at waist height. Not so for the adults who had to bend over so as to hang on to the thin worn out cases which only came to their knees. Leaning over at such an angle proved not only to be challenging, but virtually impossible to hop about in. John, determined to not take last place, cheated when he took one leg out of his pillow case and tripped me. He took off and ended up to be the next to the last place winner.

Winners of the contests were awarded squirt guns and the right to attack all non-winners(needless to say, I was still being attacked with the cheap neon colored weapons the Monday morning after the weekend).

After the contests, we ventured into downtown where we went shopping together and treated ourselves to a dinner out. Following dinner, we enjoyed a 3-D T-Rex Dinosaur movie, compliments of the IMAX Theater. On Sunday afternoon, a few of us even made the trip to the Palm Springs Tram where they enjoyed the view from the top of the eight-thousand foot mountain.

All in all, it was a fun and adventurous weekend. Everyone made new friends, shared stories about their lives and tried new things. I think all will agree, that the weekend was indeed a great success.
 


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