Making Memories?

 It is currently alternating between snow and rain.  In the last week we have received about 2 inches of rain.  Spring started out fairly mellow, but I don't think we will be in the field anytime soon.

All of our school age grandchildren's spring breaks landed on the same week.  We decided to do a family trip to Southern Illinois' Shawnee National Forest with the whole family.  The old farmer and the wife of his youth had enjoyed our trip there several years ago, and we knew spring wouldn't be too hot or busy.  We rented three identical cabins at a spot near Giant City State Park for three nights.  They fit our family well with a total of nine bedrooms, twelve bathrooms, and a large enough area to all eat together.

Now unfortunately, the old farmers wife has a serious mouse phobia.  So we had to hide the fact that a dead mouse was discovered in cabin 2 upon arrival.  Then the first night we didn't tell her about the mouse that ran across DIL while she was in bed in our cabin (3).  When she learned about the dead mouse smell coming out of the furnace duct in the bedroom of cabin 1 and the abundance of droppings throughout the cabin, she was worried. Then the second day discovering mice had helped themselves to the chips, snacks, and bread in our cabin, there was need for action. When she alerted the manager, who said nothing could be done until an exterminator was called the next week, we had her purchase sticky traps for all cabins. During the night, we caught two mice in our cabin and one the next day in cabin 2.  She stayed amazingly composed and brave.  Perhaps she was distracted by the plague that hit us.  We didn't tell her the full mouse story until the last day.

We enjoyed our first evening together with a spaghetti supper and most went to bed early after a day of traveling.  Our first full day was spent hiking at Giant City, picnic, visiting the neat old CCC built lodge, and climbing the water tower to the observation deck.  There was an Easter egg hunt in the afternoon on the cabin lawns.  The grandchildren all enjoyed hiking, exploring caves, and climbing on the big rocks.  Games, supper, and birthday parties for two grandchildren rounded out the day.

Texts started arriving on my phone at about 1:00 in the morning the second night.  The call came about 1:15.  "Do you have any extra sheets, blankets, or towels?" Three children had vomited in cabin 2. There were no extra in any of the cabins. By morning, in addition to cabin 2, three children and an adult had vomited in cabin 1, and one child in our cabin for a total of eight.  Most of the children vomited in bed.  During the following day, two more children vomited, two adults were nauseous, and the two one year-olds both had diarrhea.  All the large kettles, bowls, and Easter egg buckets were called into action.  The manager brought us some extra towels and sheets, but it wasn't enough.  There was a trip to the laundromat somewhere in all this.  The few of us not thus occupied did some more hiking on the second full day, and some kites were flown in the afternoon. That night another adult and child vomited. We left for home Saturday morning a pretty queasy bunch.  During the trips home and into Easter, there were a couple more episodes.  The old farmers wife was nauseous all the way home (and the next day), so I got to stop at Arby's for the second time on the trip.  She stayed in the van while I ate.

I woke up at 6 AM Sunday morning nauseous.  All morning I wasn't sure if I was going to lose it out the top or out the bottom ( I know, TMI).  I slept in my recliner most of the day and missed even the online services.  I had some Gatorade and chicken noodle soup for lunch and it stayed down. By evening I was feeling pretty stable again and back to normal on Monday.  As of this writing, out of 23 of us, I think only thee escaped some form of the pestilence.

  

I doubt a virus would have acted like that.  It could have been some form of food poisoning, but with some picky eaters in the group, we are not sure at all that everyone ate the same foods.  If the cabins sat empty all winter (which we assume they did because of the mouse problem), perhaps the water was tainted.  We will probably never know. We informed the owner of the trials of our stay and chose not to leave an online review. 

 And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house:                       Leviticus 14:35