Memory Monday...on Monday(!)

Happy Go Pukey.

Remember last week when I told you about my family of 9 getting a ride home from my Uncle Dave in a little hatchback car? It would turn out that that would not be the only time our family would fit into a tiny little car like sardines. The 2nd time we did it, it was planned and it was just as big of a disaster, only if a different light.

Once upon a time our family only had 1 car because the other one was dead. The car we had was a ford EXP. Never heard of that before? Here's a picture. (not of our car but one I found on the internet.)

Here are few facts about the EXP.

• There are two seat belts.
• There are two doors.
• It's a hatchback
• The car we had was a stick shift.

Here's the story.

When we were younger, my mom made candy and made us (her children) sell it door to door - business to business - to make money to pay for things like Christmas, school clothes, part of Ryan's mission, a 13 foot camper and a whole slew of other causes that shall remain unmentioned. We traveled far and wide to perform these sales. All over Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and after I was married Mom even took the kids down to Califormia. 

Mom and Dad planned a selling trip for us to take on Spring Break when I was in 8th grade. I was 14 years old. Since the beast (a big green boat of a car) was dead, we had to go in the EXP for this selling trip since canceling was out of the question. So do you remember that the car picture about had 2 seat belts and no trunk? Here is what we had to fit in the 'back seat' of this car.

• 5 children
• 6 apple and banana boxes full of candy plus 3 more apple boxes for us to use when we went door to door.
• Blankets and pillows to make the 'back seat' more comfortable.
• Food/Snacks

Believe it or not, we fit it all in. A bunch of sardines stuffed into a little tin can with a manual transmission.

Here's how to the trip went down.

• There was 7 people in the car. Mom, Dad, Me (14), Garen (11), Adam (9), Gina (6) and Kyle (3). (these ages are guesses, give or take a year.)
• We traveled south on highway 101 along the Washington coast from about Raymond all the way to the turn off to go to Astoria, Oregon.
• Those roads are full of curves and switch back type turns - very conducive to motion sickness.
• Before we had a chance to get car sick, many of the passengers in our little car came down with the stomach flu.
• Mom puked
• Kyle puked
• One of the big boys puked
• I think Gina puked
• Diarrhea crashed the party
• puke
• poop
• puke
• poop
• poop
• puke.
• I don't remember if Dad got sick.
• I did not get sick
• One of the boys got sick
• People threw up in grocery bags.
• On bedding
• On me
• In the car when Dad couldn't stop fast enough.
• Outside when he could stop fast enough.
• Kyle pooped on me.
• Others pooped on themselves.

It. Was. HORRIBLE.

So all of this - opposite of total awesomeness -  was going on when we hit the windy curvy roads. The best way to describe was happened next is to say...rinse and repeat all the bullets above.

More grossness.

I can't remember why we named that road the 'Happy Go Pukey' road. But here are some more facts about that trip.

• We sold a lot of candy.
• We didn't fight.
• No one got mad for being puked or pooped on.
• I remember we had to eat the grapes that didn't have a bag anymore because Kyle puked in it. (The grapes were not puked on.)
• Three words...Happy Go Pukey will bring many memories to 7 people, 6 now, until their dying day.

NOTE: My little sister, Gina is blogging this memory Monday also. My memory is from a 14 year old perspective. Her's if from a 6 year old. Read and compare them. We are both clicking publish at the same time.