Why aren't we flying? Because getting there is half the fun. You know that.

Our big family vacation is coming up, and from the sounds of it, it will be a Griswold-esque extravaganza. Let me fill you in on some of the back story.



I come from a very Catholic family, meaning I'm the youngest of 6 kids. There are 11 years between my sister Cathy (the next youngest) and I, and there are 20 years difference between the oldest, my brother Chis, and I. There are 3 boys, 3 girls. There are 2 C's (Chris and Cathy), 2 A's (Art and Amanda), and 2 K's (Kevin and Karyn) in the family, something my MOM claims to have had no idea she did. Any family adventure to take place before I was born is categorized as B.A. (before Amanda). All trips about to be discussed are B.A. and I firmly believe are the basis for many of the Vacation movies. Just sayin'....

Whenever my family went on vacation they all piled into whatever vehicle they had at the time. From my recollection of the story (since it is B.A. after all) the vehicle was a family truckster station wagon. Can you imagine, 5 kids and 2 adults in a station wagon driving to Florida? I wonder if my parents drank the whole way down to keep their sanity. I would have. Anyway, my one brother read all the signs, like every single one. The cooler was packed with sandwiches, pop, and Twinkies (in that order, meaning the sandwiches were flat). According to legend, they stopped over at a Howard Johnsons and upon backing out of the parking space, my brother was telling my Dad he was about to hit a pole, and I'm sure after hearing this same brother read every single sign up to that point, my Dad told him to be quiet (I'm sure not that nicely) and then proceeded to hit said pole. The fact my Dad didn't have a coronary at that moment is surprise number one, surprise number two is that the ride was quiet from then on.

I told you that to tell you this. Last night my sister Cathy mentioned that Vacation was on and that Mom and Dad should rent an RV and swing by and pick all of us up and we can all travel together. I was hoping to be exempted from this since the last time it happened it was B.A., Cathy said they could always pick me up. I can hear my Dad now, "Don't those kids have anything better to do? Don't they work?" Sigh...

I guess this means I need to start stocking up on Twinkies?

*Revision per my sister Cathy: "Small clarification, the Twinkies were not in the cooler, they were in the cubby hole by the window in the "way back" of the station wagon, sitting in the sun, staying nice and warm. :)"*