WILLIAMS: Vacation’s victim? Our plans

Sometimes life can be all about back-up plans.

Our vacation this past week really hit that point home. The original plans included a night or two of camping and a day at the Kansas City Zoo.

The official start of summer Father’s Day weekend ushered in a week of August-like temperatures. Thermometers hovered around 100 and heat indexes hit about 110.

Spending a lot of time outside no longer seemed appealing or safe. We watched the weather forecast and didn’t see a break in the heat anywhere in sight.

It was time for a back-up plan.

I spent an evening searching the Web for “air-conditioned recreation” in the Kansas City area.

A few things caught my eye, but the one that stood out the most was a Narnia exhibition at Union Station. Actually, it wasn’t just Narnia, but we would be able to see Science City and “3-D Dinosaurs” all at one stop.

On Thursday we made tracks to Union Station.

We arrived in time for the first showing of the dinosaur movie. It actually was the first 3-D movie for all of us.

Aside from dinosaurs popping off the screen at us, two other things stood out. One was the 5 1/2-story screen.

The other was the absence of others — we were the only three people in the theater. If nothing else, this allowed the kids to scream and shriek at will.

Having seen both of the new “Chronicles of Narnia” movies, we were all anxious to see the Narnia exhibits. In fact, we had watched the second film, “Prince Caspian,” the night before to get ready.

Once we passed through the wardrobe, the kids were able to sit on the Ice Queen’s cold throne. Another highlight was placing their hands in prints on a wall of ice. The top activity for them was getting to fling a “boulder” with a catapult.

After going to Science City with their daycare last summer, they were able to be the tour guides and show me around.

At times, my son would pull me one way while my daughter pulled the other.

All in all, it was a good day — until the trip home.

As we navigated Kansas City’s afternoon traffic, my daughter commented on how crazy people were driving. I told her to just wait an hour.

We made it through unscathed and had home in our sights.

Everything was going smoothly until we exited I-35 at 15th Street. Our car decided that it had enough, and the engine stopped at the off-ramp’s stop sign. We tried and tried to restart it to no avail.

After about five minutes of sweating, we tried again and it started and we made it about 20 feet. With the heat beating down on us, we called for a tow truck.

We were taken home, and our car was taken to the shop. Later that night, I looked and looked for my cell phone.

The next day it could still not be found. So, we were left “carless” and “phoneless.”

Time for a communication back-up plan.

Through instant messaging, I was able to get a hold of my stepfather, who called the shop for me to find out the status of our car.

Next up was finding a way to get a ride to work on Monday, and e-mail became the means for that.

As far as vacations have gone, this one will stand out, even if it was a back-up plan.

Brian Williams is Connections editor for The Ottawa Herald and a single father. E-mail him at bwilliams@ottawaherald.com.