2 (sleeping) Girls, 1 Cup

Being a parent makes you do weird things. Case in point, last week I was driving down the interstate when nature decided to call. I found myself considering the options of pulling over at the next exit or going to the bathroom in a plastic cup we had in the car. No, we didn't trick Seabass and the fellas into paying for our lunch, but there were some extreme circumstances that put me in this frame of mind...



"Who's the deadman that hit me with the saltshaker!?"

We were on a family vacation to Folly Beach, SC, and in true Griswald fashion, instead of flying, we made the 12 hour drive. We knew it would be an adventure with 2 little ones under 2 yrs old, but we got more than we bargained for. About 3 hours into the trip we noticed the A/C was blowing air, but it was only slightly cool. After another hour it was blowing warm air. We drove the final two hours of the day in a hot car(it was 94 degrees outside), and when we pulled into Knoxville we were 4 sweaty, cranky and miserable people. Luckily we found a Chipotle for dinner!

After dinner, we decided to stop there for the night and wake up early the following morning.  We wanted to get on the road before it got too hot again. The forecasted high temp was in the mid-nineties.

We piled the girls back into the car early the next morning. It was a cool 80 degrees outside, and it felt pretty good inside the car. We had 6 hours to drive, and things were looking pretty good. Until...

About an hour into the trip, nature started calling.  I really had to go! The girls were sound asleep in the back and the temp in the car was still pretty cool. Since we didn't want to wake them up or lose any travel time during the cool temperature, Maren said "Why don't you go in this cup?"

I'm not sure if she was joking or serious, but at that point it actually sounded like a good idea. I checked the mirrors, and there weren't any cars nearby, so I said to Maren "Grab the wheel, we're doing this!"

I'm not sure how many ounces a 32oz cup holds when it is tilted at a 45 degree angle....but I can tell you that it is less than the amount of water I drank that morning. Without going into great detail(too late), lets just say there was a little overflow before the "mission was aborted".

Despite the early cut-off, I felt relieved. Obviously we were traveling with the girls and had their baby wipes, so I was able to wash my hands, and all was good.  We just prayed that we wouldn't get pulled over.

Tic Tac?

The rest of the trip was smooth sailing, and we made it without any further follies. We got the A/C repaired while we were there, so we didn't have to go through the same thing on the drive home.

The good things that came out of the A/C fiasco were:  1. We found out that crying babies like having the windows down in the car. The sound of the wind must be soothing or something.  2. We came away with a greater appreciation for the things that we usually take for granted on a day to day basis.

I'm actually kind of glad the A/C went out, because instead of simply taking a trip, we experienced an unforgetable adventure.  I'll leave you with one final thought to ponder...after you fill a cup with pee in your car, what do you do with it?