MURPHY’S LAW
You Thought YOU Were Having a Stressful Day!
Tales from our daughter’s backpacking adventures
“ — and, just when I thought the day couldn’t get any worse — I stepped in a pile of dog poop!”
Our 22-year-old daughter, Chris, just called with an update on her Australian adventure. She’s on a 12-month backpacking trip, and today was one of those days that had gone from bad to worse.
This afternoon, she sent us a picture of a blown-out tire with an “Uh Oh😖” caption. She’d been on her way to work at a market in her boss’s van. Luckily, the blowout happened just before she got on the highway, or it could’ve been way more serious.
She pulled onto the side of the road and called her boss. When he arrived, they switched vans, and she set off again to the market. She was upset about the blowout and likely distracted, handling an unfamiliar vehicle and still getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road.
A few miles down the highway, a kangaroo jumped onto the road in front of the van and suffered a slight bump before running off into the bush. She stopped and sat shaken and in tears for a few minutes before getting back on the road.
When she arrived at the market, the other stall owners yelled at her for arriving and getting set up late. They had no interest in hearing her story. She opened the back of the van to get the ice cooler but remembered it was in the other vehicle, so she had no ice for the day.
After climbing into the van to start hauling out the cider she planned to sell, the rear door swung closed, and she found herself locked inside.
She scrambled around in the pitch dark, banging on the van’s sides to attract attention because she’d left her phone outside. Finally, after shifting some crates of cider, she found a handle to one of the side doors and managed to get out.
At the end of her shift, while packing up the van, she stepped in a pile of dog poo. At this point, after everything that had happened, she said she just burst out laughing.
Chris called us this evening, and I said, “Please — I beg you, go home and stay in all evening.” But our daughter is 22, so of course, she has other plans. Tonight she’s going to a beach party!
Our intrepid adventurer left three months ago on her year-long trip. Yesterday she told us she plans to go skydiving, white water rafting and scuba diving while on her way up the Gold Coast.
How on earth will my husband and I get through the next nine months? I don’t know if our poor hearts can take it! We also backpacked around Australia in our 20s, but it’s very different when your kid does it. Now I know how our parents must have felt. Wish us luck!
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