Tales from the Hill's Country

Quips, stories and observations from our adventures in marriage and parenting (as told by Katie).

Thursday, October 6, 2011

The Road that Never Ends

I recently returned from a trip to Maine to see my brother, sister-in-law and two nephews.

Stay tuned for stories and photos from that adventure!

To get to Maine, I foolishly decided to drive. In a car. With my parents.
Mercifully, I flew back. Thirty-six hours to get there, six and a half to return.

Although there were some highlights (seeing Appalachian Mountains, stopping outside of NYC to visit my cousin's family and a visit to Amish country for shopping) it isn't a challenge...er... adventure... I plan to take on again.

I only have one photo of the experience that I'm willing to post... but I do have three humorous moments you might enjoy.

First, the photo. This is my dad snoozing in the backseat. It's misleading, because he did 99% of the driving. But it's cute-- notice he's snuggled with a stuffed animal...


My first indication that this might be a mis-adventure was when we stopped for gas. I was sleeping quite well in the backseat and my dad woke me up. "Katie, you have to go use the restroom". "No I don't, I'm sleeping". "Well, just go in and try." Um... I haven't been told to "just try" to use the restroom since I was 7. Dad, an fyi-- I now have full control over my bladder. Thankyouverymuch.

Later, my sister-in-law, Jojo, emailed me to ask about getting stains out of fabric. She knew I was in the car with my parents and my mom has a reputation for restoring stained clothes to their former glory. The conversation went a little like this:
K-- "Mom, Jojo wants to know your secret formula for getting stains out of fabric."
M-- "Ok, one part water..."
D-- "no, Lynn, it's three parts water"
M-- "Tom, that's only if she's doing towels, Katie, is it towels?"
K-- "I have no idea"
M-- "ok, then one part water..."
D-- "Lynn, how do you know it's not towels? Katie, tell her three parts water."
M-- "Tom, it's probably a baby item. Katie, is it a baby item?"
K-- "I still don't know."
M-- "well then, tell her two parts water."
D-- "Lynn, what's that for, you don't even know what the item is!"
M-- "Tom, I'm sure it's baby clothes."
D-- "Lynn, it could be sheets. Katie, is it sheets?"
At that point I stopped listening and e-mailed Jojo an SOS symbol.

We finally made it to my cousin's summer-home outside of NYC. It was nice to have some different human interaction! My cousin has two adorable children who were a joy to play with. Jack, the older, walked into the room with a flower he made out of tissue paper:
 "what a pretty flower" my mom said
"it's for my mom" answered Jack
"oh, thats very sweet"
"it's poison ivy"

Hm.

Maybe he had just endured 36 hours of driving in the car with his parents.

2 comments:

  1. I love it!!!! Glad you survived...and what wonderful stories!

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  2. Thanks for telling the tamest tales of the road trip. I just KNEW you were taking notes while on the road. Love, MOM

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