Family road trips always sound way more fun than they actually are. We had flown out to Las Vegas from Boston to spend the long weekend with my parents and niece. My parents had driven 9 hours from Albuquerque to meet up with us. Our plan was for the six of us to all drive back from Las Vegas to Albuquerque in my parents’ 2022 Toyota 4Runner. We thought, hey, it can seat 8 people, there shouldn’t be any problem fitting us all in on the drive back. What had we not banked on?
My parents said they would pack “light.” Apparently, packing light meant packing two very large duffle bags; a medium size cooler full of coconut waters, beers, and other items; and extra blankets and pillows just in case the hotel sheets and pillows weren’t up to snuff.
Well, we were all very industrious, weren’t we? If we put our minds to it, we could fit everything in couldn’t we? The answer is, no, no we could not. There was one remaining item that simply would not fit. My dad swore up and down that he could do the entire 9-hour drive with the heavy red cooler on his lap. He said he had it all covered as he wrapped his arms around it, but his left leg was still hanging out of the backseat door. It wasn’t until the cooler started digging into my niece’s leg that we decided something had to stay behind. And no, it wasn’t going to be any of the passengers.
With the saddest look I’ve ever seen, my dad heaved the cooler onto the sidewalk. A hotel valet worker asked if we needed any help, and my dad solemnly said, “sir, you can have the cooler; it’s all yours.” The man opened up the cooler and saw the beers and beamed, “Don't you worry, we'll take care of it for you!”
The entire ride back through stunning desert vistas, we lamented the missing beers and coconut waters. We felt a little less prepared for the drive as we thought of the left-behind cornichons and mustard. My more generous-minded mom pictured the tasty cold-cut sandwiches washed down with refreshing Coronas that the workers were probably enjoying with their cooler windfall.
We all laughed deep belly laughs as we angled our bodies to fit in between the stuffed-in luggage. You know, the kinds of laughter that you only do with your family and closest friends, where you’re wheezing and tears are squeezing from your eyes and you feel as if you can’t breathe.
The 9 hours didn’t exactly fly by, but we reminisced and joked and laughed in between rest stops before we finally saw the twinkling Albuquerque lights as we crested the final hill to our destination.
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