June 2, 2009

The Tumultuous Trolley Experience...

So, remember how I told you that our trolley experience deserved a post of its own? Well, here's that post...

We made sure to get up early and get ready so that we could arrive at KidFest when it opened, and in time for PAT Cookie Bookie at 10:30.

We pulled in the elementary school parking lot, unloaded 3 adults, 4 kids, 1 stroller, 2 diaper bags, 1 purse, and 1 very large camera bag from Lynzee's minivan. We lugged everything across the parking lot and sat in the designated "trolley pick-up" spot. We waited. And waited. Now, you have to keep in mind that we were working very hard to keep three excited and anxious toddlers safe and out of traffic.

Trolley A pulls up. To our dismay, they were full. We'd have to wait for the next one, promised to us in 5 minutes. 18 minutes later, Trolley B pulls up. They were almost full, and had no room for our large party. So, our fellow patient patrons hopped on, and we were left in the dust.

The girls were growing increasingly impatient. Sassy wanted to see Bubble Man. LMB wanted to ride the rides. Little A was busy pulling up handfuls of grass and LuLu kept shoveling gravel into her mouth. Yeah.

Finally, Trolley A rolled back into view. For the third time, we stood up and gathered everyone, held hands, folded strollers, and told the girls that it would just be a matter of minutes. Well, guess what... the trolley was full. I went up to the conductor and kindly explained that we had been passed up twice before (which I knew that he knew, considering he was the first to pass us 34 minutes ago). I asked him if he could please radio the other trolley and ask them to skip the stop previous to us so that this cycle would cease. He said they couldn't do that.

We decided to give it one more try. We waited another 15 minutes, dealt with 4 cranky children, and lamented on how we wished we had stayed in bed that morning. Alas, Trolley B came barreling towards us. And, low and behold, there was an entire bench seat and additional standing room available. Wahoo! As we began to load up and climb in, the conductor apologized and told us there just wasn't enough room to have us on. Are you kidding me? You have been packing people like sardines on these things, and we have waited forever! Grr...

Then came the kicker. Trolley B pulled away, drove 25 feet ahead, and stopped to pick up a huge party of people that weren't even in the designated trolley pick-up spot!!! Can you say livid?

We marched back to the van, packed everything away, buckled all the kids back in, and had Tyler drop us off at the doors. He then had to park and run back to the site. The girls were disappointed that they didn't get to ride the trolley. Oh, and Cookie Bookie was long over.

Lynzee did make me laugh though. She said, "I am SO not like this, but I hope that damn trolley passes us so that I can give them the finger". Ha!

2 sweet tweets:

Mandy said...

That really is awful! I am so sorry.

The Hoffman Family-Adam, Laura, Easton & Emerson said...

That TOTALLY stinks! I would have been livid!