The Real Deal

What a road trip in our family is REALLY like.

• 8:00 am - wake up. Think about packing, knowing we need to be on the road in 2 hours. Not woried...we'll have a washing machine where we are, so how much stuff do we need?
• 8:30 am - middle son arrives home from sleeping at a friends where they did everything but sleep.
• 8:35 am - send middle son to pack. He sits on his bed and falls asleep.
• 8:45 am - finish coffee. start packing.
• 9:00 am - oldest son comes home from his dorm, dumps stuff and falls asleep on couch.
• 9:15 am - shove things in suitcases, pile stuff on kitchen table, unload dishwasher.
• 10:00 am - that guy that I like so much starts packing the gas guzzling SUV with everything from boogie boards, skateboards, trumpets (4 of them) and various other strange things like an arsenal of nerf guns.
• 10:30 am - that guy that I like so much ceases speaking and starts throwing things back into the house...among them: one trumpet, boogie boards and all board games.
• 11:00 am - time we had hoped to be on the road even though we had told my in-laws we would be on the road by 10. Son #2 is still sleeping, son #1 is still sleeping, and son #3 is bouncing off the walls and adding things to the pile of things to come with us. I hop in the shower.
• 11:45 am - in the car.
• 11:50 am - car is making a strange rocking noise. Discover it is child #3 in the 3rd row, rocking back and forth just because.
• 11:51 am - the four people in the front two rows all turn around and yell at the overly excited to see his cousins 12 year old, telling him to SIT STILL.
• 11:52 am - middle row boys are already sound asleep.
• 11:53 am - sniffles heard from the 3rd row.
• 11:54 am - calmly calm down the child in the 3rd row.
• 12:30 pm - hunger. Try to stop at a Five Guys for burgers but discover I cannot figure out my own GPS. That guy that I like so much still isn't speaking much except to say 'find. me. food. now.'
• 12:40 pm - settle on In n Out and have the worst experience ever. An onion on my cheeseburger with spread only? Really? Uncrispy fries? really? Non-bubbly diet coke? REALLY?

• 1:15 pm - rain. traffic. rain. traffic. rain. traffic.

• 2:30 pm - stop for gas in a gas-less (minus the boys in my car) town. Comment that I would use the GPS to find gas. Get no response.
• 2:45 pm - find gas. Whew. Get lost trying to get back on the freeway. Comment that I would trust the GPS. Get no response. Drive for 10 miles and comment AGAIN that I would trust the GPS. Still no comment.
• 2:55 pm - find freeway.
• 3:20 pm - drive by miles and miles of vineyards. That guy that I like so much smiles. Progress. =0)
• 4:45 pm - pull up to the house. Unload.

• 4:46 pm - boys sit down to food Grandma has ready for them. One (not quite sure who) comments that I could learn a little something from her.

• 5:00 pm - cocktails. All is well.

=0)