Are we there yet?

"Four hours each way??! How did your kids do with that?" asked a friend of mine about the road trip that I had just described. I told her that my kids did just fine. My kids have been trained to deal with such things, and know better than to distract their driver (me) with too many tedious questions like, 'Are we There yet?' They know that its best to save their gripes for important things like, "Dad, I'm hungry, when are we going to eat?" or "Dad, I really have to go to the bathroom right now, and I can't hold it." Luckily, I'm not new to this and think about such things way in advance. Also, I try to take into account the things that I can...well...take into account.

For instance, I know that it is absolutely inevitable that no matter if he has not had a single solitary beverage for the past 4 hours that my son will have to use the bathroom just as soon as we get 10 minutes away from the house. I also know that if he says he went to the bathroom already when we're getting ready to leave, it's best to watch him walk through the bathroom door and close it behind him just to be sure. I also know that both of my kids will call out every McDonald's, Chuck E. Cheese, Carl's Jr., or In-n-Out Burger that they see, and between the two of them could not come to a consensus on just where we should go to save their life, so I decide for them. I also know that my son will fall asleep just about every time we get on the freeway heading anywhere, so I can count on at least a period of time without any bickering coming from the backseat, and can also take the opportunity to wager with my daughter about the exact location (by landmark or city) that said nap will commence. For this trip to Reno from Oakland, I guessed Vallejo, but he didn't even make it to Richmond.

My cousin was also riding with us and she's always good for hours and hours of entertainment with her colorful stories about who said what to whom and clever anecdotal what-had-happened-was's so our selection of CD's would not be the only noise as we drove. We went to Reno for my sister's 40th Birthday. She is the only family member that lives up that way, so we surprised her with a rare visit. My aunt and uncle went ahead of us and had been hanging out with her all day before bringing her to the restaurant at which we had reservations. She had no idea that any of the rest of us were coming and I thought we might have to revive her when we walked in. (Her youngest daughter saw us walk in and had to be "muzzled"). My cousin, who also turned 40 a few weeks ago and was my sister's main road dawg growing up walked up beside her and that started the screaming. They embraced long and loudly while swaying back and forth like contestants doing a tango on Dancing with the Stars, all the while screamin' and hollerin'like Nettie and Sealy at the end of The Color Purple. My kids got to see their little cousin(she's between them in age, but is comparatively very tiny) and commenced to act crazy all through dinner. It's a good thing that we were just about the last people in the place because otherwise somebody might have complained.

We got up this morning and fueled up on some Belgian waffles before hitting the road. It was a faily uneventful trip other than the sudden 3 lane change that I had to make when we spotted In-n-Out in Fairfield. Rental cars are made to be "driven", right?

Despite the cold that I have now officially succumbed to (thanks to the sickly train riders the other day), it was a nice little visit. I flipped on the TV when we got home and told my kids to watch some TV for a bit while I take a nap, because I was wiped out.