Road trip
This last weekend I experienced freedom of a kind I haven’t felt in years. I went on a road trip with my 2,5-year-old son Elis and my Labrador Jussi. I had been looking forward to this trip and been prepping the whole week. Elis is now old enough that he is no problem at all to travel with. And he loves anything with an engine so long car journeys are pure fun. We would spend the night south of Luleå at my friend’s house. After a quick stop in Skellefteå where we both had a smoothie as a snack something unexpected happened, that made the road trip even more enjoyable. Around 21:30 Elis suddenly decided to replicate Gary´s puke scene from Team America in the front seat of my car.
It’s fascinating how quickly things can change when something unexpected happens. But perhaps unexpected is the wrong word here. As a dad, you should probably expect this and prepare accordingly. I had only half-expected it, because I could only find one half paper roll to save the day. Luckily, I also found a dog towel and a pack of wet napkins that took care of the worst of it. What used to be a child seat had been transformed into a little pool and my poor son was now standing on the parking lot outside the car in the darkness, cars swooshing by at 110 kph, crying and freezing as I cleaned for King and Country. When I got him somewhat dry and with some dry clothes, I prayed to God that the full delivery had been made and put him in the warm backseat while I continued the sanitation of reactor 4 in the front seat. Finally, we were on the road again, with the fans blasting at full speed.
It took another two hours of cleaning when we arrived at my friend’s house. I learned several valuable lessons that night. How to disassemble and reassemble a kid seat for example. And the importance of seat covers. Those things are invaluable. It would have been a nightmare had the toxic waste entered holes in the ventilated seat. Now the car was just fine and not a molecule of vomit that weren’t easily cleaned. We’ve just bought three more of those seat-covers so that every car seat the kids go near is safe. And I’ve prepared with extra paper and towels. The next morning when we left, I got a great song by Tracy Lawrence on my mind.
Our destination was my parents’ house, where we got a mid-day rest together. Both of us were running low on the sleep account and had to replenish the buffer. Then we headed off to visit great grandma, which was the best part of the trip. She lives a couple of hours drive away so we don’t get to see each other that often. And the joy when four generations are gathered, is something very special indeed. Out there, we haven’t even got phone coverage. So, we’ve got full focus on the time we spend together. We found some of my old Lego’s, fired up the wooden stove sauna, hitched a ride in an old truck with my dad and finally we drove the tractor on the fields until Elis fell asleep in my lap. Then it was time to head back indoors. My sister also visited and let out her dog so our dogs could play together. I have never seen Jussi run that fast, over one, two, three meadows… like a rocket. And then we slept for ten hours, all of us. On the way back home the next day, we made another stop at my other sister’s place, where I got a man torso as a gift. It will come in very handy in my wardrobe. The last activity before we got home was to stop at a construction site to inspect the Bulldozer, Digger, Dumper, Grader and the Loader close up. It’s difficult to do that kind of stops when the car is loaded with the whole family. But on a road trip like this, you can stop whenever you feel like it.
This was hands down the best weekend I can remember in a long time. And I am convinced that the Team America scene that was the kickoff of the road trip, only improved and heightened the experience. We probably need a reference point, to truly understand how blessed we are.