I saw a movie trailer for an upcoming movie called Little Miss Sunshine. It looks like a madcap adventure!! It made me think of funny road trips....

I was on a road trip to Winter park with my 2 kids and a friend and her 2 kids. After a week we were a little tired of one another, and somewhat short... just ready to go home. Leaving at 5am it was cold so I said I was going to put my seat warmer on. She said no you're not, enjoy this cool weather because soon it will be 100 degrees. Well, I put it on anyway..on high.
She was pregnant at the time and asked if I'd switch places and drive. I forgot to turn off the seat warmer. She fell asleep, I looked at her and she had streams of sweat rolling off her.. OOps. Well, she was so mad at me, the rest of the trip was a comedy of errors... I will post some of the other mishaps later on.......

Please help me get through this dull day with some laughs!

Okay here's one,

A little background: my Dad can't STAND dealing with customs people. Not surprising but he also can't hide it. He starts running scenarios through his head before we even pull up to the kiosk and generally gets himself in a state before anything even happens.

The rest of us have to coach him: stop scowling, smile, don't forget to turn your radio off, stop scowling, do you have your ID ready, STOP SCOWLING!".

Once coming back to Canada thru the US, he got himself all prepared: receipts, ID, smile, you name it and he told us, "Ok, everyone, don't say anything I'll do the talking".


We were promptly pulled over and car searched.


Sigh. They even looked through our dirty underwear bag.
Such is life I guess.

Years ago when I was in college I used to drive home for winter break from Syracuse to south Florida. this was before cell phones and my dad being ever so overprotective installed a CB RADIO in my car. Remember those? Anyhoo I was driving thru N. Carolina and listening to all these truckers talking about a flying bumble in a white wrapper that was being tailed by a smnokey for the last 10 miles. Oooh, on the radio which was turned low I hear my favorite Springsteen song come on it's Thunder Road , crank it up and sing along. Next song by Styx, turn the radio down and I hear a siren. Look in the rear view mirror, police car motioning me to pull over. Dang, not ANOTHER ticket (bit of a lead foot when I was younger). When I leaned over to get my papers I realized that in my black shorts and yellow tank top in my white convertable rabbit, speeding along that I WAS THE BUMBLE BEE.

Hi annesherrod, hot and bored, I can relate!!

The story that comes to my mind goes back many years ago. Spur of the moment we decided one Saturday morning to drive from N California to S California to take out than 7 year old daughter to DisneyLand.

We took off and drove to the vicinity of DisneyLand. Arrived about 7:00pm and found the hotel we had reservations with. It was more like a motel. Checked in, got the key, went to the room unpacked the car, went into the not really pleasant looking room and within 5 minutes we were smelling a terrible urine smell.

Checked out without any payment due as we explained the horrible odor.

Didn't know where to go. We saw a lovely looking motel, two story wood, with a lovely garden after driving around tired and hungry for 30 minutes or so. Drove in, I checked and yes they had a room. Checked in, got the key, unloaded the luggage again and went to the upstairs room. It was quite nice.

It was now getting late and we hadn't eaten since lunch. Daughter was getting very sleepy. We decided to order pizza. Did so, ate pizza, daughter bathed and went to bed. I showered and went to bed. Husband sat in a chair by the exterior door. No he did not want a shower, no he was not going to bed or to sleep. Why? He hadn't known the room was on the second floor, he had checked everything out while I was in the shower and decided the place was a fire trap and IF there was a fire we would not be able to escape. BTW, he had had a dear friend die in a hotel fire so a good escape route was something he always kept in mind.

OK, woke up daughter, repacked, check out (and of course had to pay for the room). I was steaming mad, daughter was whining and husband wasn't talking.

He found a one story motel (it was now quite late). I refused to go into the office so he did and came out with the room key. Went to the room, luggage out of the car again, walked in and I almost died laughing. The room was completely decorated with purple and red and silver..sort of a spaceship effect..ugliest room I have ever seen. I started to open my mouth to comment and our darling little daughter turned around to us, pointed her finger and said "I don't care what you are doing BUT I am going to bed". And with that she did, lol. Poor baby.

We did find a fire safe and beautiful hotel the next day! But that evening has never been forgotten.

Laartista..I loved your story!!!

Love all the stories so far!

I must preface mine with the comment that I was VERY young... 18 years old and it was the summer before my freshman year in college.

I was on my way to my very first job interview, a legal clerk position for the summer. I was all dressed up and noticed a hot guy (mid-20s) in a bright and shiny convertible checking me out. So what do I do? I make eye contact, bestow a dazzling smile, and give a little wave before passing him in traffic. We played this flirtaceous game for several blocks and then I lost him in traffic.

Guess who my very first interview was with?!?! Mr. Convertible of course! His first question... "so are you always so friendly to strangers?".

Yes, I got the job... and no, he never asked me out on a date in that car

Thanks for making me laugh...
LoveItaly - I cannot imagine that evening!!
Texasaggie - I loved that story..what a riot!!

On my road trip back home through a Kansas heatwave, 4 cranky kids all under the age of 10 at the time, we stopped at the raod side for gas and a local market selling Blueberries and sunflowers. The kids wanted the berries, but there was something wrong with them, because about an hour later all 4 kids threw up BLUE in her volvo station wagon! The pregnant friend was sick to look and smell it, so I had to clean it all up!! ( I dont recall ever KS known for blueberries)
At that pitstop, she left her coin purse which had all of her cash, but not credit cards. We realized it at the Hotel that evening. Oh,... pregnant friend was not happy.... more mishaps before we reach STL

I meant to also say to Lucygirl - I bet that is a great family memory! LOL

and,laartista - I loved that CB story. I remeber those when I was in grade school traveling with my best friends family. We would use it and make our voices sound older and talk to the others. We would actually flirt with these guys at age 12 and her parents were OK with it .... weird now that I think back....

HOT <i>and</i> bored???
Please send picture!!!! O

On a pre-kid trip to Martinique, my husband had a great opportunity to practice his conversational skills in French. He, unlike myself, actually paid attention in French class and had the added benefit of spending some time in France when in the Navy. Being of the philosophy, however, that it is just plain good manners to make an attempt to acquire some passable language skills of you host country I broke out the language tapes and phrase books and did my very best.

My husband, Pete, was quite enjoying the fact that his language skills surpassed mine and seized every opportunity to converse, en francais, with anyone who would give him the time of day. One night, we arrived back to our room after a day on the beach to get ready for dinner. Pete went to fill the ice bucket to make us a cocktail and I opened the sliding balcony door to watch the sun set over the beach. This is the life.

As I watched the beautiful sunset I noticed some large birdlike creatures swooping around the palm trees and the pool. All of a sudden there were dozons of them whooshing everywhere, right past me. I realized quickly that they were fruit bats with a wingspan of a couple of feet and more. Cool, yes but a couple of them were playing chicken with my face. I darted inside to close the balcony door, which stuck. Sure enough, the very instant thet the door slammed shut one of those prehistoric specemins swooped into the hotel room and proceeded to do laps around the 12x12 space. What does Wonderwoman do to deal with the crisis? Why dive under the covers of course.

In my defense, I had to think and that seemed like the logical place to go. I know That they are harmless, blah blah blah, but I admit that my heart was pounding. This bat had at least a 2 foot wingspan. Now, we know darn well that Maurice Chevalier is down at the ice machine chatting it up with somebody French and he didn't take a key so he is NOT going to be any help at all. The only thing to do was to reach out to the bedside table for the phone and try to communicate with the front desk, who did not speak a word of English. In my limited French I was able to communicate that there was a &quot;Grande oiseau avec les dent dans ma chambre&quot; Somehow, he understood and sounded rather amused. Within moments, a young man arrived chuckling with a key and let himself in. He pulled off his t shirt and threw it over the bat and cradled it like a baby, unstuck the door then released it out the window all in a matter of 30 seconds.

Afterward, we were told that this happens all of the time, the bats were always flying into rooms, they said, but had never been reported so colorfully.
The moral of the story is to always learn enough of the language that you can ask for help in a jam.

Thank you all for sharing these stories and thank you, annesherrod, for starting the thread. Very nice way to pass a slow afternoon at work!

laartista - I laughed out loud at yours!

laartista:

I went to Syracuse University too; class of 1981.

Tripgirl-GO Orange-class of what should have been 87 but turned out to be 88.(what can say had a little too much fun back then to graduate on time)

Good grief Marcia, one time we had a tiny bat in our bedroom of our house and I screeched and dived under the covers. I couldn't even remember my native language of English..I sure would not have been able to remember any other language, lol.

LOL! I han't a clue what the word for bat was so the loose translation of what I told them was that there was a giant bird with teeth in my bedroom.

Marcia -
I just don't know if the word for &quot;bat&quot; would have been on my list of must-learn phrases - but it is now!

Say hello to &quot;Maurice&quot;! Priceless!