Road Trip, Part 1

That's how Conor feels about road trips. His feeling is "This is no good. This is taking so long! I hate this game." But the good news is that he slept for about twenty peaceful minutes of our twelve hours in the car.

The kids settled right into the license plate game when we got on the road. I have to say that California is probably the best place to play the License Plate game, and your best bet to see Alaska and Hawaii too. It was great fun. And the prizes were delicious.

After several hours we stopped for some lunch at a little grassy patch next to a gas station. It had bathrooms, and it also had a fruit stand where we bought eight pounds of navel oranges for $3 to eat in the car. We had packed a picnic lunch of chicken salad sandwiches on croissants and grapes.

Once back on the road, we didn't stop again till we got to San Carlos, where we were staying with my friend Jennifer and her family.

Mostly, there was happiness in the car. Incessant talking from Conor, but mostly happiness from the rest. My problem is that after so long, I get sooooo sleepy while driving. When my kids were small, I used to pull off the road and ask them to be quiet for a few minutes so I could take a quick nap, and 10 or 15 minutes would do the trick. This time, I popped some gum in my mouth, my earphones in my ears, and started to sing. This was probably unbearable for my children because only I could hear the music. (The van doesn't have a CD player.) All they could hear was me. Singing. Loudly. Lyndsay moved to the back seat.

But I stayed awake.


Extra points for you if you can guess what song I happened to be singing when Dylan grabbed my camera and started filming.

Sorry for the A) horrific and raucous gum chewing; B) ridiculous dance moves; C) Conor's unbuckled harness (shame!)

And you're welcome that there's no sound. You're probably better off that way.