This Saturday my family and I embarked on a six hour car ride down to the beach and while the end result of sunny skies, sandy beaches, and the salty sea where well worth it; the car ride was still pretty miserable. I cannot express how relieved I was to finally get out of the car when we arrived. However, the whole miserable ride was also rather amusing, and I thought I would share this very relatable, awful experience. Here all my thoughts from start to finish during the ride.
So, once the car is finally packed you hop in all ready to go and realize that you have no room to move, breathe, or have any level of comfort whatsoever. With your knees up to your chest and miscellaneous bags surrounding you, you embark on your trip feeling as if you're in a padded prison cell. Once everyone is situated as well as they can be it quickly becomes a battle for the aux cord. Everyone always has different music tastes and, someone is always left miserable as they squish their head into the surrounding luggage to try and drown out the noise.
Eventually, you try to work out a system for passing the aux cord around, but someone always still complains. Meanwhile the poor driver just wants everyone to be quiet so they can try to focus on the road (which by this time is stop and go traffic on the interstate). Then about the time that everything becomes somewhat peaceful somebody has to use the bathroom.
You try to find a gas station that is right off the exit and everyone scrambles out past the luggage looking like they're emerging one by one from a miniature clown car. Once everyone clambers back in you've lost at least fifteen minutes if not more that could have been saved if everyone had just gone to the bathroom before they left.
When you get back on the road traffic begins to clear up and the sun is shining high in the sky. Its about midday and everyone in the car slowly starts to drift off into an afternoon nap. The driver, who obviously cannot go to sleep, is either left relieved at the peace and quiet or straining to stay awake while everyone else is snoozing.
Eventually everyone wakes up and the first thought on their mind is food. You find an exit with decent food and then a life changing decision is made: wether to eat in and stretch your legs or go through the drive through and waste as little time as possible. Either way, food is distributed and you eventually get back on the road. Once again though, someone is always complaining because you can never pick everyones' favorite food.
After, traveling with full stomachs for a while boredom sets in and, you either go back to sleep or attempt lame car ride games. At some point to your surprise you have less than an hour until you get there and if someone has to go to the bathroom you yell at them to hold it. Everyone, is awake in anticipation of arriving at the final destination. Backs are aching and legs are sticking to the seat. You're almost there and everyone is just waiting to jump out. You're almost there and then finally after what seems like forever you arrive. But wait..... here comes the unloading and unpacking.The worst part is actually not over.