Road Trippin

 

Day 18: A Story From Your Childhood

 

The summer between 3rd & 4th grade, July 1998, my family took a road trip to the Black Hills.  When I say my family I don't mean my mom, dad, brother, & me.  I mean my mom, my dad, my brother, me, my aunt Yvonne, my uncle Randy, my cousin Becky, my cousin Kris, my uncle Dan, my aunt Vicki, my cousin Liz, my cousin Katherine, my cousin Isaac, my uncle Dan, my aunt Theresa, my cousin Jared, my cousin Michael, my cousin-ish Adam, my aunt Eileen, & my uncle Dave.  Go ahead, count how many people.  I'll just save you the time: 20.  Yes, 20 people, 20 family members spent a week together.  Like EVERY waking moment together...together.  10 adults & 10 children ranging in ages from 6-14.  It's a trip that will NEVER be taken again by said participants although now that I'm older & fully understand the ridiculousness of that trip I randomly joke about how we need to go on a reunion trip.  Okay I'm only half joking when I bring it up.  I understand why they don't want to but I also feel knowing now what we didn't know then, we could make some serious improvements to the trip & it could potentially be A LOT of fun.  Plus, I'm a sucker for nostalgia.

 

We are all from Minnesota so the 20 of us met up at a central location & caravanned out to South Dakota.  We got out to the Black Hills in 2 days.  I can't remember off the top of my head the town we stayed at the first night (although if I looked at a map I could figure it out I'm sure).  I also don't remember a ton about the first night.  All I really recall is all of us sitting around hanging out, us cousins (particularly Becky & I thinking we were the shit...which we are).  I remember spending a lot of time coming up with codes so we could "talk" to each other from our campers using flashlights.  *Sidenote: this is why kids were cooler in the 90s than they are now...now they just text each other*  Anyway, I also recall that we passed out & never used said code.

 

On the second day we arrived in the Black Hills.  Even though it was July, we were so far up in the hills that not only did it rain (like EVERY day) it also SNOWED!  We have pictures at Crazy horse of us standing next to a snow pile (so keep that in mind my Minnesotan friends...yes it's May...yes it snowed...but hey there was snow in July in South Dakota back in 1998).  We saw Crazy Horse, we saw Mount Rushmore, we went to some place where the gravity was supposedly off (which that place comes with it's own story but even though hilarious I cannot share it on here).  We climbed mountains, crawled through tight spaces, went down into caverns. 

 

Our parents bought us ridiculous souvenirs (mood lipstick anyone??).  I distinctly remember standing with my face under the dryer in the campground bathroom trying to get my lips to change colors.  One night it rained so much that the tent that Dan/Theresa/Jared/Michael/Adam were staying in collapsed.  They spent the rest of the time sleeping in their jeep...except for Adam who slept in our camper.  I remember Adam trying to tell us girls to shut up at one point but what came out was "Shup" which became a standing joke for quite awhile.  I remember getting so mad at Becky for going off and hanging out with one of our others cousins & leaving me behind.  I remember wanting to write her an I'm pissed off at you letter but when the only person that had a pen & paper for me to use was her mom I felt bad & didn't go through with it.  I remember our parents letting us kids walk & ride bikes around without supervision (another thing I miss about the 90s...how many parents these days are just going to let their kids walk around a national park, in another state, by themselves with no supervision whatsoever...)  I remember eating A LOT of what was it? Chili? Stew?  I also remember having tons of leftovers & it becoming a standing joke between the adults at A LOT of future family functions that we'd be having chili.  I remember us children thinking the adults were so ridiculous thinking they were funny with their chili jokes.  I remember the adults getting so annoyed because we tried to go EVERY single place together...all 20 people together. 

 

I don't remember much about the trip back other than we stopped at a KOA which has sparked a thus far 15 year hatred & mockery of KOA's by Becky & myself.  I don't even recall why we hated it so much other than we had to be quiet by 10pm.  Maybe that was it?  Which at 24 years old I can tell you that 10pm is plenty late...I don't need people running around screaming outside my tent any later than that thank you very much.

 

Perhaps it was that trip that sparked my love of road trips...