“A lot
of parents pack up their troubles
and
send them off to summer camp.” ~Raymond Duncan
There I sat. The kids were out of school for summer
vacation. It was raining outside. My car wouldn’t start. I was five months pregnant and looked like a
blimp. Jamie sat in front of the TV, so
Tracy pinched her. Then Jamie started
crying and Tracy denied doing anything wrong.
The mailman came… nothing but a credit card bill. The kids were
hungry. Jamie wanted a peanut butter and
honey sandwich. Tracy wanted seafood
paella.
I soon became so desperate for
some adult conversation that I poured my heart out to a telemarketer, and HE
hung up on ME.
Hubby came to the rescue with
a terrific vacation idea. He would take
six weeks off work, pack up the kids and the dog into an RV and we would travel
around the country, from Florida through New Orleans, Texas, New Mexico and
Arizona, then up the California coast, past Oregon, up to Washington, turn
right and go as far as the Dakota’s and then work our way in a southeastern
direction all the way back to Florida.
Jamie squealed with delight while Tracy, now 12 years old going on 16,
folded her arms in front of her and met our eyes with a blank stare. “Seriously, Dad?” she said. “I can’t see my friends for an entire six
weeks? That’s like… ALL summer!”
I had packed the RV’s limited
storage areas to the max with all the necessities we would need for the next
six weeks. Soup, cereal, sandwich meat,
snacks and 12 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon.
When Rick saw me neatly packing the wine bottles between washcloths and
towels so they wouldn’t break if jostled, he commented “12 bottles of
wine?” I looked at the bottles and back
at him and commented, “We are going to be confined in close living arrangements
with a dog and two kids for SIX WEEKS!”
He studied the bottles for a moment and said, “I guess we can buy more
along the way”.
Our first major stop was New
Orleans. Great city… if you’re an adult
traveling without kids. So we popped a
couple of beignet’s in our mouths and headed further west.
“Are we there yet?”
“There is no THERE”, I would
respond. “It’s the journey, the trip,
the adventure!”
Tracy looked at me with that
same blank stare, arms folded across her chest.
“But we’ve been driving for three days in TEXAS! Are we ever going to get out of Texas?”
“We will be in New Mexico
soon, and then we can visit Carlsbad Caverns”, I said hoping for a cheer. Instead, I heard “I’m not walking around in
some old cave with bats, stepping on bat poop everywhere. And speaking of poop, the dog just pooped on
the floor back here.”
We then made our way from
Tombstone, Arizona, through the Petrified Forest to the Grand Canyon. Then
west and up the California coast through the Redwood Forest with its giant
trees and on to Yosemite National Park.
We visited my brother who was living in the state of Washington and
eventually found ourselves in Yellowstone National Park where Jamie managed to
submerge her Mickey Mouse flip flop clad foot into an enormous pile of buffalo
poo. Although I wanted to leave the flip
flop there and just carry her back to the RV to wash her up, this was her very
favorite, most cherished pair of Mickey Mouse flip flops ever. So even after promising I would buy her
another pair when we got back to Florida if I could leave it there, the tears
would not stop running down her cheeks. Needless to say, I dug through the
buffalo plop to retrieve it for her.
By the time we finally made it
back home to Florida, it was near time for school to start again. Yes, we made it through another summer. Next year, they go to summer camp.
EASY
FAKE BEIGNETS (A/K/A PUFFS)
Ingredients:
· Pillsbury Grand Biscuits, uncooked
· Wesson Oil
· Powdered Sugar
· Butter
Procedure:
Open roll of biscuits and cut each one
into fourths. Heat oil in a deep fryer. When the oil is really hot, drop each
piece of biscuit into the oil. When lightly browned on both sides, remove with
a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Serve hot with butter and powdered
sugar.
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