What would a road-trip or caving trip be without some unexpected disaster?
Tuesday morning we woke up to find the NSS Campground
buzzing with activity.
My intenary for the day was to have fun and get
underground into a cave, possibly the commercial tour of Cathedral Caverns and
to
see all the exhibits at the salons. I had hopes of taking Cavepearl, who
is
now 9 months old, on her first cave tour.
While sitting around camp under our large screen shelter, it started to
sprinkle. My wife felt an
urgent need to take the baby into the tent to protect her from the sprinkling.
In hindsight, I wish
I had brought a large tarp.
Anyways, Magdalena tripped over the entrance to the shelter and hit the ground
very hard, the baby flew out
like a loose football smashing its head on the corner of the cot and then
falling face first into the wet
grass.
My immediate concern was the baby might have spinal injuries, but I had to pick
her up and comfort her.
Meanwhile, my wife was in complete hysteria and limping around. I tried to
shield the baby from her,
as mom was going into NBM - nervous breakdown mode. Meanwhile, the
mother-in-law was in shock,
and she didn't know what to do. She tried to calm Magdalena down, and then
I handed the baby back
to the mom. The baby was screaming, mom was screaming. It was all
unpleasant.
Our neighbors in the tent next door must have really thought something crazy
was going on.
After everything calmed down, I tried to relax around camp with the baby and
make sure neither her
or mom needed to go get x-rays. Magdalena continued to limp around camp
saying that her hip
hurt the worst and then her knee. The baby just seemed to have a lump on
the side of the head.
By this point, my itenary for the trip had changed. My overall goal was now
to just get home safely.
Several hours later, we finally arrived at the building where the exhibits and
sessions were being held.
David Locklear
