Wednesday, July 20, 2011

On the Road, Family Style

We took a road trip on Sunday, arriving in El Paso late last night. So of course I didn’t write and now I’m finding all kinds of excuses not to.

The road trip was great—especially for blog material. For example, I discovered that my friend’s husband is my emergency contact in my cell phone. I found out because when the restaurant in Arizona found my purse, that’s who they called. That would have been a great blog post.

Then there’s the concierge that I pelted with mind bullets because he wouldn’t let Chiara use the restroom there. He insisted that we did not have a reservation, even though we called early in the day and got a confirmation number. (He was right, actually, but I’ll save that for the blog post.) In response to his refusal to let Chiara in to the bathroom, I told him, “Then my daughter is going to pee in your parking lot.”

Nothing much happened yesterday on the excruciatingly long drive from Sedona, unless you count the discovery that my tank holds at least 18.9 gallons of gas. A quick Google search today and I see that it’s actually a 21-gallon tank, so I’m glad I didn’t freak out when I saw the empty light blink on when we were in the middle of the desert. At night. With 3 small children and a (nearly) dead cell phone.*

I guess that’s about it unless you count the little tidbits one learns on a 3-day journey. Such as: you can fit two 18-month-old toddlers in the same pack-n-play for the night. And: 4-year-olds sing loud lullabyes. Don’t forget your crayons in the car in the summer desert. Rest Areas: California has beautiful sparkly ones, but 3 out of 4 are closed. Arizona has your run-of-the-mill rest stops that you can smell from the I-40 on-ramps. Not many billboards in Arizona, which is nice, especially when you are driving through Red Rock country. New Mexico has tons of billboards, which is also nice, especially when you are looking for the next gas station.

* Marian drove with us and points out that it was dusk, not the middle of the night and while my cell phone was nearly dead, hers was charged.

1 comment:

  1. Bathroom emergencies can bring out the LaFebe in all of us. Did she actually pee in the parking lot? DT once retaliated on a hotel concierge by changing a very stinky poopy diaper in the middle of the fancy lobby...
    Alos, I'm all for taking some literary license on time of day and charging status of mobile phones.

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