Heading to Williamsburg

The big trip of the summer took place last week. As you all know, I work at a camp in the summer.  We take our kids to Williamsburg for two nights and three days. It is about a 6 ½ hour drive from suburban Philadelphia. This trip presented lots of challenges that myself, and I am sure other Crohn’s patients, would have to encounter. I do think I did a great job overall, but I want to share with you those challenges.

The drive

I was in charge of driving a 15-passenger van, full of excited teenagers looking forward to a few days away from their parents. My colleague told me that if we needed to stop to use the bathroom, it would be no problem. I hate drawing attention to myself. And holding up the bunks because of an extra stop that would just lessen the time the kids had in the theme parks. Welp, we had to make an extra stop. That is the way it had to be, but since I was driving, I had to be comfortable. It only took us fifteen minutes out of our way. I felt like everybody was looking at me as I exited the van and entered the rest stop to relieve myself.

The hotel

I know that my campers understand Crohn’s, but they are still fifteen, so who knows what is going through their head. About 7 hours later, we arrived at our hotel. The difference from last year and this year was the room situation. This year I had to share a room with two other teenagers. Last year was easier, as I shared a room with only another counselor. It was much easier to share a room with somebody my own age, as I would not feel so self-conscious. I will have to admit, the bathroom situation in the room was weird. Even though I had my own bed, we all had to share a bathroom.

The bathroom

There was no fan in the bathroom, which meant they would hear everything that went on. I don’t know if I was ready for that. Also, other campers from other rooms were coming to our hotel room to hang out. Apparently, our room was the “chill spot,” so all of the girls that were part of the group wanted to come and hang out. I was doomed! I figured the only way to make this work out was to go use the bathroom in the lobby. I had used it before, and it was big enough that others would not know if I was in there.

I always seem to go to the bathroom when all the kids are in their rooms hanging out. Nobody was going to follow me downstairs to the lobby. The only time I used the bathroom in the room was in the middle of the night. Finally, I had a strategy to wake up about an hour before my campers did. That gave me enough time to use the bathroom, shower, get dressed and get out of their way before they got up. I felt like the hotel situation worked out better, and once again I had myself worked up. Next up is the Busch Gardens part...