Road Trip Warriors

Well, we made it to Kansas after a rather eventful 10 hour drive. I don't know what traveling was like for the rest of you growing up, but my family always drove to wherever we were going. And it was always an adventure. Yesterday was no exception. I thought I would share with you a few of my top road trip memories (I had a lot of time to think in the car). I'm sorry I can't include pictures, but pictures of people in the car are just kind of scary. We all end up looking like we've been hit by a tornado (or thrown-up on?!).

1) Yesterday's trip. On Tuesday night Chris and I went to the temple and left my brother and my dad in charge. Seth was feeding Madison some pineapple, which she loves. We came home from the temple and Seth informed me that Madison ate really well while we were gone. "She even ate the whole can of pineapple!" he exclaimed. Of course my jaw hit the floor. You just can't feed a 2-year-old that much fruit, especially acidic fruit like pineapple. I was hoping Madison would just have the runs or something, but unfortunately it made her sick. She started throwing up about an hour into our trip. Thank goodness I don't have morning sickness anymore! We survived three "incidents" and then she felt fine for the rest of the day. Of course she was awake the whole drive until the last 30 minutes! But we survived. I also realized in the middle of Oklahoma that I forgot my wallet in my temple bag in Dallas. So I have no ID and no credit card. I feel lost. Luckily Chris is sending it to me.

2) Our family trip to Utah for Thanksgiving when I was 15. We left Kansas and headed across Nebraska and Wyoming. When we got to about Evanston, Wyoming the roads were shut down because of snow. We stayed at a hotel that night and then left again in the morning. We were on the road for about 20 minutes when traffic slowed to a stand-still. My dad got out of the car and asked one of the truckers what was going on. The trucker said that there was a wreck ahead that would probably take a few hours to clear. Never ones to sit still for long, all 4 of us kids piled out of the car and started sliding up and down on the ice on the INTERSTATE. Then we built a snow man on one of the guard rails and tried to get trucks passing from the opposite direction to honk at us. It was pretty much the highlight of the whole trip.

3) Our trip "back east" when I was 13. So when my family vacations we vacation. We don't just go stay in a hotel over the weekend. We drive from city to city for days touring the country. When I was 13 we took a trip to the east coast that included stops in Baltimore, New York, Washington D.C., Gettysburg, Plamyra, Philadelphia, and Niagra Falls over about a 16 day period. We drove to every location and all 6 of us stayed in the same hotel room every night. Well one night we ate at a Mexican restaurant that ended up giving my brother food poisoning. My whole family was up all night listening to the poor kid get it all out of his system. This trip also occurred during the Teenie Beanie Baby craze. At one point on our way to Baltimore aquarium my mom said that if we saw any McDonalds in time to stop we could stop and get whatever Beanie Babies that restaurant. I think we stopped at at least 7 different McDonalds! It was pretty fun.

4) Our trip to California when I was 18. Christmas vacation of my senior year we went to California for a vacation. At one point a bird ran into our car top carrier, or did we run into the bird. Well, either way the bird left a huge dent in our carrier. My dad drew a little picture of a "dead bird" in the dent just to be funny. This started us all off trying to decorate the carrier. We ended up collecting all the happy meal toys that we had acquired and taping them to the carrier. At least it put those cheap toys to good use!

5) My first temple trip. I have to share this in the interest of being truly unbiased. When I was 13 I went on my first temple trip. Now for those of you who have grown up close to the temple you won't appreciate what a true temple trip involves. We all packed onto the bus at about 5 a.m. and drove for 5 hours to get to the St. Louis temple. For entertainment on this particular trip a bunch of us had a Hot Tamale eating contest (the candy not the Mexican food). I won, but I ate so many it made me sick to my stomach. Well we got in the temple and I just couldn't hold it in. I tried to find a bathroom, but I only made it to the baptistry. I ended up losing it all over the white carpet in front of the boys changing room (of course it was bright red because of the Hot Tamales). I pretty much never lived that one down!

I know that there are a lot more road trip stories to tell, but I don't want this blog to last forever. Pretty much car trips with Porters are always an adventure! (I never realized that most of my memories involved Happy Meal toys and throw-up stories).