It is 1993, Summer, July, these are three teenagers who have driven from Oklahoma to Washington with extreme togetherness in the back seat of a Ford Taurus. Now we can't park, the metro is crowed, the food places are crammed, it is hot, and people are EVERYWHERE! One of the most interesting places in the world and, "it sucks daddy"! How much art can one person appreciate anyway? You mean we have to walk that far? How much longer do we have to stay here? Wright brothers, So? Can we go now? Do we have to go to that museum? But I wanted to go up to the top of the Washington Monument. Why can''t I take a tour of the White House today? Surely you are not going to make us go by Tennessee and see YOUR relatives on the way home are you? They were 13-16-19, what was I thinking?
So what trip from hell do you have to share?
4 comments:
1983. Me, then a svelte 200 pounds. My best friend, around 185. My big brother, 300-plus pounds. His best friend, 200-plus. Drove from where we lived near the Arkansas-Oklahoma border to Las Vegas, in a VW Rabbit.
The trip back, though, was the hell. We took off from Vegas for Needles, Calif., so we could say we'd been to California, then headed back east, and drove all the way back nonstop, fighting and cussing and threatening to kill each other just about all the way. By the Texas Panhandle, we were stopping every 10 miles or so to get out of the car and walk around to stay awake. It was the first time I ever actually hallunicated because I was dreaming while I was "awake," or while my eyes were open anyway. Crazy.
Oh, and I drove about six miles the wrong way on I-40 before some ongoing 18-wheelers pointed out the error of my ways.
Oh, and Vegas was having a 100-year floord while we were there. When we headed west to California, we drove through the storm systen. And when we turned around and headed back east, we drove through it again.
Shudder. My brother, in 2003, wanted to reenact the trip, compete with VW Rabbit. Right.
Traveling with kids has it's challenges. Suspect your 'vacation' in SE Asia made the trip to DC pale in comparison..
First of all, we probably passed one another on your visit. That was the summer after Lisa and I got married, and we spent a whole lot of spare time down on the Mall, the Zoo - we were DC residents who enjoyed all that touristy stuff, too (except, sometimes, we'd go the Mall at night, which is a bit surreal, yet even in the crime-ridden 1990's was pretty safe). As for the "This sucks, Daddy," I might have a few words for such Philistine children.
Never had a trip that wasn't fun. Even as a kid - I loved traveling and sight-seeing, and pretty much everything. Sorry.
ER said: "Shudder. My brother, in 2003, wanted to reenact the trip, compete with VW Rabbit"
Which goes to prove one man's hell....
BB-I, you reminded me of a[CAUTION:War Story] courier run when the weather was so bad the choppers were not flying. We went from Lai Khe to Long Binh, in a monsoon, in an open jeep, down a dirt(mud)road flanking an ongoing ambush on highway 13. Me, a "volunteer" shotgun, and a "volunteer" driver all carrying way too many weapons. The driver took a short cut that took us around a barricade in the road. It was shorter, and an hour later when came to the other end of the road as it intersected with highway 1 and swung around that barricade, we looked back at it and it had a sign that said in very big letters MINES!
GKS, yep I was disappointed with them, but they were good kids for the first half of the trip. Oh yes, and you still have adolescence ahead with your's yet.
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