Road Trip

We love a good road trip.  It has been a very long time since I have been on one with all three of my offspring, but at one time I was the Queen of Cleverness always managing to pack the car in a way that they didn’t have to ‘touch each other’.  As this trip would entail more time being in the car than being where we were going, we were a tad concerned that those long-legged ‘kids’ would have enough room crammed into the back seat of our now smaller cars.  We decided to rent a mini-van to stuff the Offspring into, but as luck would have it, we got ‘upgraded’ to a Suburban with all the extras and they were happy campers, watching movies through out the night-time drive.

The plan was to zip across Washington, Idaho and into Great Falls, Montana Friday night.  The 11 hour dark, rainy drive was a tad stressful, but we made it to the ‘world’ famous O’Hare Motor Inn around midnight exhausted and fell into bed, after double checking that we’d in fact received our very own Rubber Ducky that comes with every room.  Fancy state of art hotel security has not caught up to the hotel yet, they still use regular keys kept in square mail boxes for each room.  We managed to sleep quite soundly with our bedroom key left firmly…still in the door.  We awoke with the great traveler’s question firmly etched in our itinerary…Where the heck was the nearest Starbucks?…and where is our key?

We’d planned this trek to spend the day with My Other Girl.  My Other Girl and the Unofficial Number Five Son are to be married in August at the St. George LDS Temple.  Mormon weddings are great, if you are Mormon.  If you are not, you do not actually get to see the wedding.  Since we’re not LDS, we wanted to show our love and support for the kids and meet the other family, so we hosted an Engagement Party, in what was a sort of central meeting spot…Great Falls, Montana.We met up with Number Five’s family and it was quickly apparent that the two Dads were cut from the same cloth, chatting away like two old friends over kids, businesses, hunting, cars and…who knows what.  As his Mom met my boys, she said, “So you’re the fire fighter and you’re the Autistic one.”

“No”, I said, “He’s ‘artistic’, not autistic!”

“Oh, that is what I said”

Phew!  “Oh…I thought you said autistic!”

“No…artistic…he’s the high functioning artistic one”…and we laughed.  We spent the day visiting, playing with toddlers, talking about kids, weddings and babies.  Diner for 20 was a hit as the boys of all ages lined up to eat.  It didn’t take long for us to see that My Other Girl was marrying into a loving, warm family, that they loved her and she was happy…perfect.  We said our good byes and went back to the hotel, ready to experience their ‘world’ famous “Sip ‘n Dip” lounge.  The bar has a tiki theme with the back wall made of glass attached to the hotel pool, perfect for the Mermaid show and no, I am not kidding.  Of course a tiki themed bar needs a large drink to go with it.  It is ‘possible’ that my sons had done their homework, as Number Two quickly ordered the “Fish Bowl”.  One of those drinks with more booze than sense, and a reason there are three straws.  I was told I ‘needed’ to help them drink it, which I did cautiously, we had another long drive the next day and I was determined to not travel it with a head-ache.

Unfortunately, the Mermaid show was canceled the night we were there…which left room in the pool for the kid who was too young to be in the bar.  It didn’t take long before My Girl was swimming by entertaining the crowd and making us laugh. Before we knew it, all three ‘kids’ were in the pool together…swimming, playing and planning…throw in a bit of goading, with a dash of daring…and before we knew it ‘someone’s‘ Son might have, maybe, just ever so briefly…mooned the bar…what can I say…

He’s high functioning artistic.