Road trip (in a minivan).

I’ve finally been on my first road trip!
I know, I know, how exciting. I’ve certainly ridden interminable distances with my family – to Disneyworld when I was two, to Mackinac Island when I was 12, to West Virginia when I was 16. But with only another teenager in the car? Nope.
On Sunday morning, my friend Kaylie and I climbed into my mom’s Toyota Sienna (great gas mileage, not so great cool factor) and set off for Lebanon, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis. Our friend Kelsey goes there every summer and some holidays to stay at her dad and stepmom’s house, and this summer she invited us to come for a few days. Well, I was all for it – until June turned out to be a monster. Kaylie and I couldn’t find three or four days free of work, holidays or 4-H. Finally, finally, we settled on July 8th through the 11th.
The actual driving part of this road trip wasn’t all that exciting. I drove halfway through Illinois, and then we stopped for nourishment (for the stomach and for the closet) at a Tanger Outlets mall, wherein I introduced Kaylie to the wonders of Pizza Hut cinnamon breadsticks and Coach outlet stores. Kaylie then drove the rest of the way to Kelsey’s house. We didn’t do much on the drive besides listen to Switchfoot and chat, although I couldn’t help myself and had to read some more of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
When we finally got to Kelsey’s house at 3 pm Illinois time, it was excruciating humid, so we immediately jumped in her pool. Later we went to her friend’s graduation party (yes, in July), but sadly all the graduation cake was gone by the time we got there. So, yes, after the graduation party, we went to Schnuck’s grocery store and bought cake mix. And we made a cake. It was awesome. We then proceeded to eat very large pieces of said cake while watching High School Musical on DVD. It was a typical girls night.
On Monday, we got up bright and early and set out for Six Flags St. Louis. Kelsey took us just past downtown St. Louis so I could snap dozens of the pictures of the Arch. We got to Six Flags and ate our Lunchables and Swedish Fish while waiting for Katie, Kelsey’s future roommate at Purdue. Katie is basically Kelsey’s long lost twin sister – she is also from St. Louis, has blonde hair, is tall, is going to study engineering, and has most of the same mannerisms and expressions as Kelsey – it’s a little creepy, actually, especially when they were randomly assigned as roommates.
The four of us had a great time at Six Flags, dragging Kaylie onto the Batman and Mr. Freeze rides and making sure she enjoyed them. It was disgusting hot, so late in the afternoon we went to the water park and got thoroughly wet and cold before a storm rolled in and we decided to bail. We said goodbye to Katie and went back to Kelsey’s to eat some more funfetti cake and watch The Devil Wears Prada and (cough) Ghost Rider.
And even with all of St. Louis’ many attractions – the Arch, the zoo, etc – the next day we just hit up a suburban mall in typical girl fashion. Nothing like buying jeans on sale to reinforce your friendship! We came home Tuesday night to meet Kelsey’s dad and stepmom, who just returned from a business trip. We had some of Kaylie’s Indiana sweet corn and Kelsey’s dad’s hamburgers for dinner, and then the three of us settled down for one final movie, Aquamarine, only the most deliciously cheesy preteen chick flick ever.
Wednesday morning Kaylie and I had to take off so I could make my Queen Contest meeting. Everything went smoothly, as far as packing up the minivan was concerned, until I asked Kelsey’s stepmom Ellen to take a picture of us. As if my entire monetary life came to a dreadful halting stop, I felt the wrist strap on my camera catch on my class ring, saw the beautiful little black box jerk away from Ellen’s outstretched hand, and heard it fall to the concrete garage floor with a sickening metallic bouncing sound. It was the only bad thing to happen the entire trip, and of course it happened at the very end.
Okay, so having my newborn camera severely injured and unable to focus or flash really sucked, but its not really that important because, hello, what a great three days! Its so awesome that I can finally travel on my own, feel confident about it, and be all spontaneous and make funfetti cake whenever I darn well please! Okay, so maybe that last part isn’t that spectacular, but, man, is funfetti cake good.

Posted by Jordan at 7/14/2007 09:37:00 PM