American Businessman Sleeps for Entire Two-Week Vacation

Jim Simpson, 42, was not trying to make it into the Guiness Book of World Records. He just wanted to get a decent night’s sleep.

But what began as a half-hour “cat nap” in a hammock in the Poconos somehow turned into a 282-hour power-sleep for the records.

His wife Pam had planned a full itinerary of “quality family time” at a family-friendly resort, including mini-golf, boardwalk arcade games, and visits to Splash City water park, a chocolate factory, and a local living-history museum.

“It’s hard to keep the kids entertained for 10 full weeks in the summer,” Pam explained. “Along with swimming and sailing lessons, our three kids each went to three different sports and arts & craft camp sessions. Now it’s August and they’re bored out of their minds!”

Unable to wake Jim from his slumber, the family enjoyed the activities on their own—except for one evening, when they propped Jim up in their triple jogging stroller and wheeled him to dinner at the hotel restaurant. When he failed to wake, Pam explained to the waiter that he hadn’t had much time off lately.

A well-dressed man at a neighboring table added his two cents: “Those lazy Europeans have five or six weeks’ paid vacation, plus they’re all drunk from mid-December through New Year’s Day. No wonder America is still Number One.”

Jim plans to take a week of unpaid vacation the last week of August, so he can clean the gutters and stain the deck while his kids go back-to-school shopping.

- reported by crime, travel + entertainment correspondent Agent SS