The Conclusion to the Griswold Family Vacation:  The last 24 hours of the “Griswold” Family Vacation were most exciting.  The conclusion certainly made the flying dust and screwed shut pocket doors seem like nothing in the great scope of things.

On the day prior to our departure, the remaining family members, namely, my mom, dad and Jackie, were sitting on the beach area of the beautiful cottage we called home for the week.  It was a perfect day to sit near the water and enjoy the sights and sounds.  Being that I hadn’t taken my drone out all week, I decided it was time to do so and take some aerial photos.  I’m usually not daring or adventurous in flying my drone simply because it’s an expensive little toy!  The most adventurous I get in flying my drone is over the water at this cottage.  I usually don’t go too far out.  On this particular day, I got my drone out beyond the trees and was enjoying all the aerial sights.  Now the cottage is filled with huge pine trees.  These trees seem mammoth in size because they stretch far into the sky.  As I was coming in for my landing, I heard this inner voice say, “NO, Michael land on the boat dock.”  But I was too lazy to move from my little beach and decided I would fly the drone between the pine trees and land near the beach.  As I was coming in for my landing (okay you can already see what’s about to happen), I got disoriented with my controls and flew the drone right into a tree.  It was too late to recover.  Suddenly, I watched my drone flip upside down and take a dive into the shallow water near the beach.  There were gasps from a nearby pontoon boat.  My parents and sister looked in dismay.  I gulped and my heart sunk.  Jackie grabbed the drone and handed it off to me.  While it only was only in the water maybe 5 seconds, I figured it was doomed.  I pulled the battery and started shaking it out.  I was trying to give the impression I was calm … but I was far from that in reality.  I briskly walked up to the cottage and grabbed a hair dryer and fan and started to dry it out.  I scoured the internet to see what people have done with their drones that have taken a swim.  My research didn’t reveal anything more than what I was already doing.  After several hours of drying it out, I determined I definitely had a ruined battery.  My attention then turned to the drone itself.  I put in another battery and turned it on.  It responded with its usual start up noises and appeared ready to fly.  Much to my surprise, it took off and flew and took pictures like normal.  My dad and I put it through some rigorous tests and all seemed fine.  Blessed be God!  I escaped a potential disaster! Was I lucky!  I put my drone away; I wasn’t going to test my luck any further.
 
On the following morning, it was time to clean up, pack up and hit the road to travel home.  As we were cleaning up in the morning, someone in the family dropped a small lantern on the kitchen counter.  Of course, the glass broke.  As I looked at my watch, I realized I had enough time to run into Kalkaska (about 30 minutes away) to get some new glass cut to fit this quaint little candle lantern.  My dad and I got into the RV and made the trek to Kalkaska while my mom and sister finished cleaning the cottage.  We made the trek to McLean’s Hardware, the Kalkaska version of Gilbert’s Hardware.  We got what we needed and returned to a clean cottage (okay it was a sneaky way to get out of cleaning I guess).
 
All was fine for the rest of the journey.  Once we got back to my parent’s house, we started to clean the RV, and given the time, I decided I would return it that night rather than take several hours to do so the following day.  The trick at this point was that I still had to dump the RV (for all the non-RVers in the crowd, this means I had to make it to a dump site so the RV … well, could go to the bathroom)!  I wasn’t watching the time because we were so engrossed in unpacking and cleaning out the RV.  At one point I gulped because I still had to travel about an hour to the closest dump site that was still open that late at night; thankfully the site was on the way to my friend’s house.
 
After leaving my parent’s condo, I confirmed my destination.  Knowing that my GPS was programmed and I was on my way, I decided to make a phone call.  As I was yapping away, I shared my plight and worry about making the trek to the dump site on time.  The other family on the call reminded me we had a close family friend who owned a septic cleaning business, Allemon Septic Service.  Beautiful!  I made a quick call to Dean and he told me to head over to his place and he would help me with dumping the RV.
 
After I got to Dean’s place, he told me where to park.  He moved one of his big septic cleaning trucks right next to the RV.  I connected the RV’s hose (of course pretending I knew what I was doing) and he put together the contraptions he had to … well … suck up all that would come out of the RV.  He warned me the suction would be great.  He turned on the truck and activated the vacuum.  I opened the RV valves.  The suction was so great I was worried the whole RV was going to be sucked through this septic truck’s hose structure!  If there was any dust in the RV it was probably gone now with the suction from that truck.  We finished this part of the project and it was now time to clean the RV’s tank hoses.  Dean got a water hose for me and I tried to wash it in such a way so I wouldn’t get sprayed.  This is one thing I haven’t conquered yet in my amateur RV-ing adventures.  Sure enough I got sprayed; not as bad as last year, but by golly it happened again.  All I could think of was that I needed a hazmat suit! As I wrapped things up and put everything away, it was time to start the trek up to Caro to return the RV.  I really didn’t want to shake Dean’s hand because of the mess and sure enough Dean didn’t extend his hand either as we said goodbye.  He obviously saw what happened!  Yuk!  One day I’ll learn!  So I thanked Dean for his kindness in saving me and allowing me to dump my RV into one of his septic cleaning trucks.  It was another one for the record books.  So I went on my way.  Oh, but there is more!  Stay tuned.  It truly was a Griswold Family Vacation conclusion!
 
Enjoy the week.  Know of my prayers.
 
In Christ,
 
gmb
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