Road Trip Flop

Every Summer, right when our family, the Levines, gets out of school, we go for a traditional family road trip.

In my opinion, the road trips are usually not very fun, and they include lots of fighting and stops.

So today, June seventh, is the last day of school and I’m not very excited for the road trip.

“What are you doing this Summer? Maybe you could come to my family’s cabin on the lake for a few weeks.” Asks my friend, Caprice.

“I’m going on a boring old road trip. I wish I could come with you!” I tell her.

“Well, when are you going? Maybe we could figure out a date to go. Ask your mom when you get home, okay Kaitlyn?”

“I will.”

The walk home from school was very hot, and I was glad to have my iced water to cool down and the big oak trees that provided shade.

I opened the black door that led to the foyer of our big white house and I wasn’t surprised to see my mom running around the house packing and getting the car ready for the road trip.

“Hi, Kaitlyn. How was the last day of fourth grade?” Mom asked as she shuffled over to me and kissed my head.

She had pulled her long black hair into a tight bun that rested on the top of her head, and her dusty rose dress accented her hair.

“It was good, Mom. I have a question.” I waited until she nodded. “Caprice and her family go to their cabin on the lake every Summer and I was wondering if maybe I could go with them. Caprice invited me today.”

She shook her head. “You know we have the annual road trip every summer. This time we’re going to try and go to all the states. We’ll only have a little over a day in each state, but it should be just enough time to explore a few places in the states. So, no, sorry honey.”

“It’s fine, Mom. I'll pack for the trip.”

I raced upstairs and found that all my stuff was already packed into two suitcases and one duffel bag. I figured my mom had done it with all her spare time.

“Thanks Mom!!” I yelled downstairs and I picked up my luggage to take to the car.

The van barely had any room for my luggage in the trunk, so I put it in the rooftop cargo box.

Afterwards, I ran upstairs to help bring down more luggage.

“Need me to bring down more luggage?” I asked Mom.

“No, just go get your siblings and your father.” She said.

I ran upstairs to get all my siblings, and I think I forgot to mention how big my family is. We have to take two vans on the road trip because our family won’t fit into one.

“Emily! Road trip!” I called into my 15 year old sister's room.

“Blake, Jake! Road trip!” I yelled into the blaring music of the twelve year old twin boys bedroom.

“Eliana! Road trip!” I yelled into her room but soon realized she was standing right next to me trying to get into her room.

“Sorry, I forgot my phone.” She said, tossing her blonde curls out of the way and squeezing past me.

I ran down the hall and got the rest of my siblings. Hannah, who was nine, Kimberly, who was eight, Samantha and Savannah, twins who were six, Liam, who was four, Oliver, who was three, and finally, last but not least, my baby brother Lucas, who was two.

“Everyone! Let’s go!” I heard Dad call from downstairs.

I ran downstairs in a stampede of children with a drooling Lucas, who was clung to my side.

“Need me to go over the rules for the trip or does everyone remember from last time?” Asked Mom.

“We remember!” I shouted along with everyone else.

“Okay, no devices, if I hear even a sound from a device, we will not stop today for ice cream.” Mom said, and of course right when she finished a text message went through with a SWOOSH!

“Eliana!” We all called our sister and found her standing with her face stuck in her phone.

“Sorry! Sorry, sorry! I was planning to leave it but all my friends are texting on the group chat and-”

“I don’t care what the group chat says! Put your phone down and get in the car.”

Every year we sat either in the girls van or the boys van. I was obviously in the girls van with Emily, Eliana, Hannah, Kimberly, Samantha and Savannah. And Mom was driving which meant we had to listen to her old songs from the 80’s which we all hated.

The first couple hours of the road trip were boring. I stared out the window and we all played a family game in the car.

“Mom?” Asked Samantha. 

“Hm?” She asked, keeping her eyes on the road.

“I don’t feel so good. I ate a bag of gummy bears.” She said.

“Oh, goodness. Emily, get your sister a nauseous pill out of the glovebox, please.” Mom motioned to Emily who was sitting shotgun.

“Fine.” Emily said, but by the time she reached into the glovebox and got the pills out, Samantha’s face was turning paler and paler and soon, a deep green.

And then, she vomited straight at me. And, as the gross, yellow, chunky mess came flying at me I closed my eyes.

SPLAT!!

I had my mouth open and it tasted like- actually, I’ll save the horrid taste from your imagination. All you need to know is that you’d never want to try it.

It smelled bad too, and I felt like puking. And that’s just what happened.

I vomited on Eliana, who vomited on Hannah, who vomited on Kimberly, who vomited on Savannah, who shielded her face with her book just in time to save herself from vomiting.

Savannah put her book down, and breathed in the air of the car she better not, and just from the stench, she puked on Mom who swerved to the side of the road and pulled over.

The only one who didn’t get vomited on was Emily because she was listening to music on her iPod. That was the only device we were allowed to have on the trip because it was so old, all you could do was listen to music.

Emily yanked out her earbuds and stopped her music to look at the rest of us.

“What did you guys get yourselves into?” She asked. We all answered with an epic eye roll.

We stopped at a motel in Oklahoma because that was our first stop since home. We lived in Texas.

Everyone needed to shower off before we hit the road again. We couldn’t afford to lose this much time if we wanted to go to all the states.

And what was much, much worse was that Dad and the boys had already got to the hotel in Oklahoma we were supposed to stay at. We had a long drive ahead of us.

“Is everyone showered?” Mom asked as she dried her soaked hair with a towel.

“Yep!” We all replied in unison.

“Ok, get your stuff and let’s get on the road to catch up with Dad!”

We started on the road a little after 7:00 P.M. The sky was changing from orange, to pink, to purple, to a deep, dark sky filled with tiny dancing stars. And as it got later and later we all closed our eyes and leaned against the car doors and fell asleep.

“Everybody up!!” Mom called us after about two hours.

We were in the car, in our old clothes from yesterday and the smaller kids in the back were still sleeping, sprawled out across the seats.

“Did we ever get out of the car last night?” I asked the question that everyone else had on their minds.

“Yes, actually. Dad and I couldn’t seem to wake you up after you fell asleep.” Mom replied.

“AHHHH!” Emily screamed from the front and we all turned to see what was wrong. Apparently, a mouse had somehow gotten into the car last night and was curled up in a ball on the car door.

Emily ran out of the car with her hair a tousled and frizzy mess as I climbed to the front and picked up the little mouse.

He was sweet, but we had to let him go, So, I climbed out of the car and let him down in the grass.

“I can’t believe you picked the gross thing up,” Mom said from behind me. “Go wash your hands and get in the car with Dad and your brothers. Our car is too crazy.”

I rinsed off my hands and hopped into Dad’s car.

I swear, I would scream as loud as Emily did, just from the look and smell of the car.

Trash was everywhere! There were empty Goldfish packages all over the floor of the car, and plastic bottles thrown wherever the boys felt like throwing them. And the car smelled like stinky socks and McDonalds. I found that out because right as I went to sit down between Blake and Jake, I sat right on top of chicken nuggets and french fries. They were soggy and very. . . sticky.

“You guys seriously need to clean this place up.” I told the boys.

“The car’s fine, Kaitlyn.” Blake says, his face stuck in a Nintendo Switch. 

I snatch it out of his hand. 

“Hey!” He yells.

“You aren’t supposed to have screen time!” I argue.

“Dad let’s us,” He says. “But you can’t tell mom or she’ll kill him. If you promise, I’ll let you have one hour on my Nintendo.” 

“Fine!”

For the first hour of the car ride, I play Nintendo with Blake and Jake and we snack on Pirate’s Booty. It’s a little better in the boys' car. Y’know, without the stench and trash.

“EXIT! DAD EXIT!!” Jake is a backseat driver and he’s always telling Dad to do things. Earlier, Dad had to swerve off the highway because he almost missed one turn that would take a couple minutes to make up.

The car jerked to the right and we all went flying in the backseat. Then, there was lots of honking coming from behind Dad, and much swerving we could see from other cars in his mirror.

And then, something flew off the top of the car.

We didn’t have to say anything because we all knew what it was. It was the cargo that sat on top of the car. And there was no turning around to get it now because, well,  it was the highway.

“Your mother is going to kill me,” Dad said.

Soon, Mom texted Dad to meet her at a restaurant for dinner in Colorado, so Dad took the next exit.

When we first got to the restaurant we watched Mom and Dad fight about the cargo and where to get a new one, as well as more clothes, shoes, and toiletries for the trip. Why did we have to put all the necessities in the cargo?!

Then, we get to go have dinner, and at first I’m really excited. Oysters are my favorite! But the place we go to isn’t very good. The oysters have been sitting for a while, we can tell, and they’re isn’t many of them.

“Can I get you guys dessert?” Asks the waiter. She had a nice smile on her face but it soon turned to a frown as we all replied in unison, “NO!”

“Well, do you at least need a box?” She asks, pointing to all the horrible food we didn’t eat.

Once again, “NO!”

We got on the road after a crazy price Mom and Dad argued about with the waiter. It’s around five, rush hour.

“Ugh!” Liam complains from the front of us.

“Babble babble!” Is all we hear of Lucas, and Oliver is being quiet while he eats trail mix and picks out the M&M’s.

“This is going to take forever!” Dad says, and we can tell he’s frustrated.

Jake mumbled something but we couldn’t hear him all that well over the honking cars.

“What?” We asked him.

“I said, we could go through the woods. It’s a shortcut. See, there on the map!” He points to the map and it does look like there’s a straight path through the woods.

So, Dad texts Mom to follow him, and he magically manages to cut through the line of angry cars and go into the woods.

The woods were dark, like we were just out in the burning hot sunshine, and we drove through a storm. And Dad was driving super slow so it made it even more scary.

And then we stopped and Mom hit the back of our car. I’m sure that’ll make a dent.

Dad gets out of the car, and surprisingly not to make sure his car is okay, but to go to the front of the car where it stopped. And sure enough, to slow this trip down even more, we are stuck in a big puddle of mud.

“Can you get it out, Honey?” Mom calls Dad.

“Maybe I could try going super fast and see if that gets us out.” He suggests.

He steps on the gas and I can feel the engine humming, and just when I think we’re getting out, the car. . . blows up, or at least the hood does.

“Can you fix it?” Mom asks.

“I honestly. . . can’t. Got any duck tape?” We all share a laugh.

We decide we all need to push it, and with all our strength, it starts to roll down the small hill there is. But it picks up speed, and when we try to stop it, we all fall forward and the car drags us by the hands.

I’m smart enough to let go of the car before it rolls out of the woods and goes down the hill, but some others are too scared. I tell them to drop their hold on the car and all of them do. All except Dad.

Dad is dragged down the muddy, grassy, gross hill trying to stop the car. And finally, after painful minutes of watching Dad get hurt and pulled down the hill, he somehow found the energy to run up the hill to us.

“I think it’s safe to say we’re never doing this road trip again.” He said, picking mud clumps off his tunic.

“Yes!” We all agree in unison.