Driving to Idaho

Ok,. I'm used to the windshield being covered with bugs on a road trip, or really anytime you are on the freeway for more than ten minutes. You always know if you are on the freeway for any length of time you are going to have to do some major scrubbing every time you stop for gas. We know this, we are prepared.
Or so we thought! Marty and I are driving along, Donovan is in the backseat watching a movie, Mercedes is in the car in front of us with Rick, Becky and Nariah.
We're listening to the radio, talking about all the things we want to do on this long weekend and basically enjoying the kid free silence.
BAM!!I swear a freaking eagle hit the windshield. I was surprised it didn't break, that's how loudly it hit. As I watched in horror it slid down and jammed itself under the windshield wiper on my side. Ok, maybe it wasn't an eagle but it was easily the size of a freaking hummingbird. I was mildly afraid, waiting for a whole flock of the things to attack the truck for killing their leader.
Did I mention the guts? They sprayed up the entire windshield on my side. I'm freaking out, Marty is laughing like a hyena because I'm trying to climb into the backseat to get away from the guts.
Then I notice, some of the guts are light blue, and the stripped head of this thing is orange. I thought we were going to Idaho but apparently we have stepped into another dimension of weird bugs. I just hope they only eat boys on this planet.

Pat Sajak, in the house!

So, we went to Tahoe, the end. Pretty boring, eh? Well not our trip, no sirree bob. There was fun, there were games, and don't forget the excitement!

Anyone who has ever driven ten hours to the land of water and lost dreams knows car trips can be excrutiatingly painful. Not so for us. Why you might ask? Well we brought our very own Pat Sajak.

Jon is a very entertaining fellow, no one really asked him how he felt about traveling with three sisters, we just kinda roped him into it. But he did good, he did better than good- he entertained us the whole trip.

This was very different than the car trips we took together as children. Not once did anyone say, she's touching me, she's looking at me, and no one got shoved into the side of the car either.........ah, the good old days.

We played Name that Tune with Ipods, freaking hilarious. At times we had to sing the song all the way to the chorus before we got it, there was lots of laughing. Jon didn't stand a chance against us. Well, I should say against Terrie, she is the one note queen. Angie and are look like old ladies, squinting really hard, cause that helps us hear better, and Terrie already knows it. Damn her!

And then came Trivial Pursuit. If you haven't played that going 70 miles an hour, you should try it sometime. I found out there are some competitive people in my family, not me, but that other sister in the back..........and her boyfried!

I'm not competitve, I keep my mouth shut until I kick your butt and then I rub it in for the next three hundred miles! Just for the record, I suck at this game, I don't watch TV, paid no attention in school and struggle to form complete sentences, yet somehow, Angie and I beat Terrie and Jon three, count 'em, three times!



Woo hoo! Who knew random things like Adam West as Batman and what color Shrek is, live in my mind? No wonder I can't remember where I live, I'm too busy storing up useless trivia for a long car ride!

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Lunatics

Ahhhhhhhh, vacation. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it? Four days, no work, no chores, just relaxing with my family. What could be better?

I don’t want to give you the impression that the trip wasn’t wonderful, it was, it’s just that twenty eight hours in a car with two PMS’ing girls, really, not at the top of anyone’s list of a good time!

We left on Friday, as soon as Kay got home and Mo got out of school. That was the plan, Ned and I watched the clock and paced, come on, come on, we wanna get out of here!

We were waiting for Kay, who called us in somewhat of a panic, she was trying to cash her paycheck and it was unreadable. She was panicking because she needed money for the trip. So, after Ang talked her down off the ledge, we waited for her to come home.

Ok. Girls are accounted for, and we are off. I won’t bore you with the details of the trip but I laughed so hard that my sides still ache. Who knew knock knock jokes were still so funny? We laughed until we cried, we were tired and giggly a lot of the trip, so everything was funny. Like Kay walking into a motel in Gallup with her bag and a lemon cake, at two in the morning. Or Ang talking to me on the phone and asking Kyle if he took her phone again because she can’t find it.

We had to stand on the hotel bed to take pictures because the room was so small there wasn’t anywhere else for all of us to stand, and there were eight of us. We tried to make Kyle do the Zoolander face, he didn’t want any part of it, but we laughed anyway. We went to dinner at the casino and Kyle’s uncle ate on a little plate and broke his chair while his girlfriend danced with her ice cream. Doesn’t sound that funny but trust me, it was.

They sell actual alcohol in Walmart in New Mexico. We looked like a bunch of Mormon’s let out on a weekend pass. We were amazed at what you could buy in Walmart. We bought box wine and paper cups, nothing but the best for us!

Kyle’s graduation was wonderful, his graduating class had around 100 kids in it, small town life at it’s best. Since we are not very good at organizing what comes next, we left when the last speaker was droning on. Poor Kyle had to call us at the hotel and ask for a ride, there were fourteen people at his graduation and we had all abandoned him, thinking someone else was giving him a ride.

My beautiful Mo, why do boys check you out everywhere we stop? Tell them you are too little, tell them your Daddy will kick their butts, tell them anything so they stop looking. Oh wait, you are checking them out too.

Kay had two Native American’s comment on her tattoo in Gallup, if you read her blog it’s very funny, she calls them Gallupians. Kay is the only person I know that can make chubby Indian men take their shirts off at 8am in a McDonalds.

Mo told me gullible isn’t in the dictionary, guess who’s gullible enough to believe that?

No trip is complete without poop talk. I don’t know what it is, but even now that our girls are grown, that’s still the first thing we say when they don’t feel good “ Did you try to poop?” “ Mom, I don’t’ have to poop!” “ Go try, you’ll feel better.”


I spent time with my ex husbands family as well, my sister and I married and divorced brothers, so our families are still intertwined with theirs. I was grateful that I have a good relationship with my ex husband and his girlfriend, that we are able to stand together and provide a united front and lots of support to Mo, that I am able to continue to have a relationship with people who were part of my life for so long.

It was a sad time as well, my ex brother in law has Lou Gehrigs disease and is now in a wheelchair, it will probably be the last time I see him. My heart broke for his wife, she is such a wonderful person, and they have been so happy together after taking so long to find each other.


I had the time of my life. I love these people more than air. Waking up in the morning to my sister, my niece, and my daughter, hearing their laughter, juggling showers and hairdryers and teeth brushing. Sharing a bed with my daughter, peeing on the side of the road when the next services are just too far away. So many moments we wouldn’t have had together without this trip.

It was the best twenty eight hours I’ve spent in a long time.