Gloria in Excelsis Deo: Oktoberfest 2021

In the background of all last week was a hustle and bustle of preparations for our family spending the weekend in Buffalo, New York, at the annual family Oktoberfest. For the third time we traveled with Thomas since his hospital discharge six months ago: the journey was hard in the ways I knew it would be hard, but I was able to navigate the "new normal" difficulties and the trip was so well worth it.

Friday

Chris drove the 12 hours with three children and all our luggage while I flew the 90-minute flight with my 12-year-old as my invaluable helper and the two littlest boys.

The COVID restrictions of air travel were not as bad as they could have been. David (4) has been spared wearing a mask once ever in these 17 months since COVID hit the news waves and he's rarely even seen others wearing masks, so I had to actually teach him about masks ahead of time since they would be required on the flight. I bought children's masks decorated with dinosaurs, which he thought was pretty cool.

Since Thomas is accustomed to wearing a mask in medical settings, he was a bit of a kapo, correcting David repeatedly when his mask would fall below his nose.

Rental Car Fiasco

Once at the Buffalo airport, I took my band of travelers to the rental car kiosk, having received the email saying that because we are USAA members, we get Preferred Status: I was instructed to skip the upstairs counter (where the lines of people were shoulder to shoulder) and go straight to the kiosk where my vehicle would be waiting for me.

Unfortunately, the woman in the kiosk and later her manager told me that no, my reservation did not have Preferred Status. I showed my email to no avail. They agreed that USAA members are Preferred and I showed that I was a USAA member, but still: my reservation was not Preferred. Nope, negatory, definitely not.

I had no choice but to trek everyone back upstairs. By this time, Thomas was crying and he continued crying for the entire hour-and-ten-minute debacle of renting a car.

Upstairs we rented our vehicle without problem, travelled back downstairs, retrieved our keys, and approached the vehicle, where we found that the two booster seats we rented were replaced with five-point harness car seats. For those who don't have little kids currently: five-point harnesses are too small and not appropriate for tall kids ages four and six.

I marched back to the kiosk to request the boosters I rented and while the initial request was sent out into the mists to "find those boosters!" I returned to my vehicle: I discovered I could manage to fit the four-year-old into a five-point harness, so I let the lady at the kiosk know I needed only one booster.

It seemed like such a small request.

I returned to the kiosk something like five times every ten minutes to check on her progress.

Oh yes, someone is searching for your booster.

We didn't have a booster, so the man went across the street (to the hinterlands?) to search there.

At one point she suggested, "Maybe you should just drive to Wal-Mart and buy a booster." Yes, I suppose I could have done this with my six-year-old just sitting there, regular seatbelt flapping across his face because he is too short. At some point, I suppose I would have reached that point of desperation.

On one of my visits, one of the "rovers" (workers who run all over doing tasks instead of staying in a kiosk) returned and answered, "I thought someone else got the booster for her, so I haven't even been looking for it."

Then the lady called the other rover, who returned to the kiosk and said, "Yeah, I got her booster and I put it in her car," pointing to another car across the lot.

But before we would have trekked over to that wrong car that held my booster, the man directed me to walk with him over here . . . we walked two cars away from where my vehicle was parked, and we looked behind a parked rental car, where there was an entire stack of booster seats. This was the spot where this rental agency stored its booster seats. It was probably 30 feet away from where I had been standing this entire time, but obscured from view, and three other employees had no idea it was there.

That was a fun discovery.

Village Living

So, I finally got my booster and was able to drive toward freedom with crying Thomas, only 70 minutes after arriving at the rental car kiosk.

We then got a meal at a great family restaurant before driving the hour to the biggest village near our ultimate destination (a family campground on a mountain) because this village of 4,200 actually has a hotel.

One hotel.

Later that evening, I had to take the kids to a grocery store, so I looked on GPS and saw the nearest one was 3 miles away. I set out following GPS, which took me on a very circuitous route through the village, including strange turns and going down an alley . . . only to arrive at the grocery store which I could then see was several hundred feet away from the hotel and connected by three parking lots which I could have driven straight through.

Saturday

We checked Yelp for reviews of breakfast restaurants in this wee village and found two choices. We ate at the Apple Dumplin', a darling, old-fashioned restaurant located inside a house. Again, I loaded up my GPS only to turn left out of the hotel and drive a few hundred feet in that direction. We walked in and I noted that the various regulars all watched us . . . strangers in town! The restaurant had a prayer box available for receiving slips of paper with prayers written on them. It was such a cute place that we ended up eating there both mornings.

Then we were off to the campground where I believe 28 adults and 22 children (18 of them boy cousins and only four girl cousins) and 5 pet dogs gathered for a day of festivities. It was basically an eat-a-thon, with the latest German food always being rolled out for more snacking. Children used tire swings, climbed logs, went down slides, caught frogs and salamanders, rode bikes, tossed the football, and painted rocks. Folks of all ages rode the two ATVs on the trails through the woods. Some of the ladies sang songs from The Sound of Music. There was a fire pit blazing all day.

We were so delighted and appreciative that Aunt A----, who is the matriarch of that branch of the family, was still able to join us, despite her very delicate health. Her husband Uncle C---- has passed now, so the honor of tapping the keg has fallen to his dear wife. Everyone fawned on Aunt A---- and she spoke many words of love and advice to her many family members, and shed not a few tender tears.

Cousin C---- has made amazing photo collages representing each year they have held the Oktoberfest and they were mounted for all to enjoy trips down memory lane.

Watching a movie back at the hotel

Sunday

The consensus is that if we attend next year as a whole family, we really want to try to tack on at least one more day rather than be so rushed. This is easier said than done, given needing to make up the missing school days, but we have high hopes.

After Mass, we ate lunch at Ted's famous hot dog restaurant in Buffalo. The boys could hardly believe they were given official paper hats for free.

Then we stopped by to visit Cousin N--- and J----'s horse farm. Much to our regret and sadness, my crew had to rush off to the airport after too short of a stay, but Chris's crew was able to linger and enjoy the hospitality of a great spread of food and being able to feed the farm animals and ride the horses.

The flight home went smoothly after all, despite being rushed for time driving there and Thomas having a challenging medical issue during the flight. My anxiety tried to get the best of me, but I won that round.

Thomas was very anxious about his ears hurting during takeoff--something he's only heard about from me, never experienced. On the first flight, the boys chewed their ear-pain-preventing gum way too soon, as the airplane just sat on the tarmac, slowly inching forward for a very long time before taking off. So on the second flight, I told them they had to wait until I knew we were speeding up for takeoff. Thomas was not comfortable with me holding onto the gum, so he held the gum. He wasn't comfortable with the wrapper staying on, so he took it off for quicker consumption. Then he just watched his stick of gum intently and asked me over and over, "Are you sure we're not about to take off?" until finally it was time: "Okay, now you may chew your gum!" Ear pain averted, he was much relieved.

The rest of the crew drove home over Sunday and Monday. I'm always quite relieved to have all my chickadees back in one nest. I don't like them all being scattered.