Sowing Seeds of Mayhem and Madness

Wednesday

As I previously mentioned, we were planning on surprising everyone. To that end, we told Ryan not to tell anyone. This became a problem for him as he had previously told Josh and Brit that he was going to travel with them. When they texted him about the departure time, he came up with a lame lie about having to work that day. Then we took off to the lake. Apparently, that lie came back to bite Ryan as later when he checked his phone, they had sent a text to see if Brit could ride there with him (as she was also working). By the time we had seen that text, we were already in Mountain Home.

At Mountain Home, we decided we would hit up Jonathan’s grandma’s place first where Ryan’s dad was supposed to be working on Ryan’s boat. As we pulled up, we were surprised to find no one there, including the boat. We went inside and found Bill taking a nap. We talked with him a few minutes before we decided to go on to the rental after we stopped by the rental. We mentioned to Bill that we were there to surprise everyone. Here the mayhem and madness begin in earnest. As we went to Walmart for some supplies, Ryan received a call from Cyndi. Apparently, Bill had called June and told her that he had had three visitors: Ryan and us. Fortunately for us, they didn’t believe Bill, thought he was groggy from his nap and probably still dreaming. Still, it bothered them so much that they called Josh and Brit, who were by now on their way to the lake. They told Cyndi that they were still on the road, had not visited Bill, and that Ryan was not with them and, in fact, believed him to still be in Tulsa. So, they of course then needed to call Ryan to see where he was. Ryan did confirm that he had visited Bill and was now going to Walmart and would see them at the rental. He did manage to alleviate their concerns without letting them know we were there.

At the rental, we had the place to ourselves for an hour or so until, one-by-one, people began to return. Josh and Brit were the first to arrive. When they came, their confusion and consternation with Ryan began to dissipate as they saw what had transpired. Then the Krals came back. They were happy to see us as well. Finally, Dave and Cyndi and James entered. They were each pretty much astonished into slack-jawed quietness as they discovered Jonathan on the coach teaching Josh about Roller Coaster Tycoon. Lastly, June and Bill came in. I think June was just as happy to find us there as to learn that Bill wasn’t going off his rocker. So, all the confusion and mayhem we had sewn throughout the day was forgiven when they learned why things hadn’t added up.