Tuesday, November 23, 2010

My Favorite Road Trip.

Wow. I was recently asked to write about my favorite road trip as a part of a campaign with Twitter Moms. Shew. Harder than you would think. I haven't really had many road trips to blog about, you know, with the graduating high school and almost simultaneously popping out babies...

But, there is one road trip I can write about. 

I was 17 years old, still in high school. This is when I lived with my sister, brother in law, nephew and two nieces. I moved in with them when I was 14, right after my mom passed away. 

We drove down to Florida, a thirteen hour drive from our house in Kentucky. There were six of us, and we were in an old white Oldsmobile Cutlass, that had no air conditioning. Three in the front, three in the back, and bags and suitcases stuffed everywhere. It was the freaking middle of July. And it was hot. So flipping hot. That's what I remember the most. The carpet in the passenger side floor board was gone, and there were all these tiny holes under my feet. I could literally see the interstate through the floorboard of the car. I had my shoes off, and the metal of the floorboard would burn my feet when I tried to put them down.  Good times. 

The drive was so long, and so very, very hellacious. My neices and nephews were like 2, 5, and 10 at the time. They fought the whole entire way. Then my sister and brother in law would fight. Ahh, good times. There was the one stop in Dothan, Alabama, where I almost got arrested for throwing a Butterfinger wrapper out of the window.( "What do you think you're doin', litterin' up the good town of Dothan, Alabama?", says the lovely officer.) There was the stop in a tiny town outside of Atlanta, where my sister almost punched a Wendy's drive thru employee with a broken leg, for forgetting the cheese on our burgers. (It had been a long trip, what can I say? )And the time my sweet little two year old niece choked on a piece of ice and we thought she was going to die. Scariest moment ever, she was all blue and purple. Ahh, shivers.  And running over a giant turtle so hard that a piece of it's shell actually cracked our windshield. And I will never, ever, in my entire life, forget the moment, when I said, whiny, groggy and tired: "I feel so disgusting. I can smell my own ass", to which everyone in the car continously laughed for at least an hour, no exaggeration. 

And, then. There it was. The smell. That, sweet salty smell. I could have been blindfolded, and I would have known we were there, just by the smell. I actually remember being asleep, and the smell of the ocean waking me up. And then I saw it. Oh My God. It was my first time seeing the ocean, and I was mesmerized. I could have stayed forever. The most beautiful and breathtaking site I had ever seen. I am almost glad that I didn't see it until I was seventeen, so I would appreciate it, and know just how grand and majestic it was. I will never forget the way that I felt just seeing it. And I still feel that way, just thinking about it. Ahh. I could go back right now. 

And that my friends, is my favorite (and only) road trip I have to speak of. A little sweet, a lot dysfunctional, just like me and my family. That's how I roll.  I can't wait to take my boys to the ocean some day, hopefully they will have the same experience as me. Well, maybe in an air conditioned SUV, and no drive- thru violence. But,then again, that's the stuff memories are made of! :)
“I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Discount Tire blogging program, making me eligible to receive a $50 gift card and be entered for a chance to win a prize valued at $1,000. For more information on how you can participate,click here.”

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