Festival of Lights... Up CLOSE!

In honor of the holiday season and all of the lights we decorate with, today I’m sharing a story from years ago. Some of you may know it, some of you may read this and think there is NO way it could even be true. I promise you, sadly, this is 100% real. I can hardly believe it myself!

I can’t even remember the year, but it was December 31, 20??. Tradition has it that we gather at my mom’s house for Grandpa’s favorite dinner to celebrate his birthday. Dinner always consists of flank steak, mushrooms, peas (for me!), bread, salad, some form of potatoes.... and beverages.

Grandpa stayed as long as he could. All the older guests went home. My step dad went to his bedroom. Sheila, my mom and I were left on our own to ring in the new year. This may not have been the best idea!

It was the final night of the Umpqua Valley Festival is Lights. We always seem to procrastinate and miss the lights. But not this year! No! We would drive through and see the lights!

My mom, Sheila, my dog and I loaded up into my mom’s sedan and set off on the short drive to see the Festival of Lights. We made it on time! We were actually the final car of the season! Lady and I were comfy in the back, and we had our Christmas music piping through the speakers. We were freaking so festive!

They actually let us work at it one year!

We began our trek through the park innocently enough. Lady was on my lap looking out the window with me. She was so darn sweet! Our first stretch through the long parking lot was at a momentary pause so we could get around the bathrooms. An arrow was lit up, pointing to the left, so that cars knew to drive Around the building and not Through it. Um, we never saw the lights on the other side of that building. And that is what this blog is all about.

My mom turned left all right. A hard, left... where she proceeded to go straight. Straight over the raised curb on the other side of the lot!

There we were. In her 4 door sedan. Teetering on the curb. We were high centered! What do we do? The car kept wobbling and my mom kept hitting the gas. Next thing you know we are going forward over the curb.... and into the grass! For those of you familiar with the area, we were now in the grass facing the big covered pavilion in the main park area.

Did she stop? Oh heck no! She turned right... right through the displays!

The windows were digging up. We had to roll them down. We were laughing so hard and loud that Sheila was shouting “turn the music down! Turn the music down!” Even my dog was laughing at this point. I don't know how we didn't pee our pants. There was a lot of snoring happening. All of us were in tears!

Our plan was to drive through the lights, but we literally were driving THROUGH THE LIGHTS! My mom went down the entire display of lights toward the boat ramp. On both sides of the car were the displays. We could have practically touched them. Somehow she turned us around.... and we went right back through them again! I don’t know how she didn’t hit any of any of the supports holding them in place.

We made it back to the pavilion area where she had to make another hard left to avoid a sign. The car ended up driving up with walking path back to the main road. Somehow we made it through with zero damage to us, the car or the lights!

On our way out we saw a vehicle driving through checking on everything. Had they seen what happened? Who knows! Did they hear the roaring laughter? How could they not??

To this day we cannot drive through the Festival of Lights without retelling this story to ourselves. Those of you that have enjoyed the lights since then... you are welcome. Because of us NOT destroying them you still get to pay $10 a car to go see ‘em!