My sister Amie, the summer in question, and the house I was trying to get home to

I began these stories by telling you:  For whatever reason, sometimes we have the opportunity to be thankful in spite of the most horrific circumstances.  And I fully intend to illustrate this by the end of the story, but not at the beginning of the end.

I was so tired of the trip taking forever and being scared of gang wars or driving through Thunderstorms or being hit by other cars and almost running out of gas. I just wanted to be home.  Of course this was the first time I would ever live at this home, as my parents had moved from Ohio to Arizona on the same day as they dropped me off at college, but that didn’t matter.  Not now. I was simply read to be done with this journey.

By the time I woke up from my 3 hour nap, I was a bit refreshed and ready to talk to my fellow travelers, Kim, Jon, and Allison.  We laughed and talked for the rest of the day, starting to forget about the proverbial rain that poured into our trip.  Around 1:00 pm (or late lunch time, as I like to call it), we decided to stop into a Dairy Queen restaurant to eat.  After lunch, we waddled back into our car and drove off into the New Mexico border.  Then it happened – quite suddenly – Jon said, “I’m not feeling very we….(blahhhhhhhhhhhhh)!”  And he spewed all over the seat in front of him.  For those of you who don’t know, spewed is yet another term for vomit or barf or puke or hurl or blowing chunks.  And when I see puke or even hear it actually, I get sick too.

So we drove into a rest area that conveniently was only about a mile away and cleaned up the car thoroughly so we could reenter without wanting to spew ourselves.

Eventually we got back in the car and drove steady into Arizona.  Allison was driving about 4:00 pm when an older couple in a Cadillac decided not to pay attention to our car being on the road next to them.  They just crossed over literally while I was eye to eye with the driver in the passenger seat so I yelled, “Allison you’re gonna have to get over.”  She responded, “I can’t, there’s a ditch over there.”
“Then you have a choice to make” was the last thing heard out of my mouth as Allison drove into the ditch off the side of the road, and the white Cadillac drove off into the sunset, literally.

We just laughed.  No one said a word, but just laughed until we cried.

After we found ourselves about an hour a way from the Tucson suburb where my family lived, I pulled the last drive responsibility before my house.  I drove proudly through the desert, excited to see my new home and be with my family.  Approximately 30 miles from Tucson, the car died.

I don’t mean it sputtered or moved slowly or hacked up a motorized lung, I mean it died.  So my dad and a tow truck came to get us, and eventually Jon and Allison and Kim rented a car and continued to drive west.  One to Phoenix.  One to Mesa.  And one to LA.

I guess you could say that on the trip nothing good was ever accomplished, but eventually good things do happen, though sometimes we don’t expect it.  Because 3 years later or so two people who had never met each other before were married.

Congratulations Jon and Allison!