At the time, Hubby was driving a little Match Box type car - a 2000 Toyota Celica. It's a two door (well, technically 3...It was a hatchback) and he'd dropped it down to about 6 inches from the ground. It was like you had to squat down to get into it. We are both rather large individuals...That car was NOT made for us. And then we decided to take it on a camping trip for five or six days. So we packed in our tent, sleeping bags, air mattress, pillows, a week's worth of clothing and I'm sure a lot more junk that we didn't need. It was quite the cramped car.
So, we left on a Friday night, right after Hubby got off work (at midnight). It was pouring rain and incredibly windy. Being that he'd just worked 8 hours, Hubby was getting a little groggy, so he asked me to drive. We pulled off on the side of the road and I got in the driver's seat. It was so windy and the rain was coming down so hard, I could barely control the car. After driving for a while, I pulled off at a rest stop and we both took a little nap. After a couple hours, we got back on the road, Hubby driving again, and started making our way toward South Dakota. The idea was to see Mount Rushmore and camp for a couple days. And then head back.
We pretty much drove all day Saturday, and as we got farther west, the rain turned to snow... By the time we arrived at the campground, there was probably a good two inches of snow on the ground. And it was coming down like crazy. Seriously...We were in a blizzard. Definitely not ideal
for camping in a tent...And being that it was May, neither of us had appropriate clothing for snow. Luckily, the campground also had cabins, and they kindly offered one to us for a discounted rate.Now, when I say cabin, I hope you're not picturing some fancy 2-story place with a kitchen and a bathroom. Because if you are, you're so very wrong...It's a one room cabin. It has two sets of bunk beds, the bottom bunk on one is a double. It has a heater (which obviously doesn't run when no one's camping there, so it was FREEZING in this place when we got there). The bath house is at least 100 yards away. Luckily, that's clean. But when you first 
wake up in the morning, you've gotta pee and you have to traipse through 7inches of snow across a football field...Yeah, that's so not fun. It was a beautiful morning, though. The sun was shining brightly, the snow had stopped falling. And the snow had been wet - the kind that sticks to everything. The mountains and the trees were just gorgeous. What was not gorgeous was the car...It was totally buried. We didn't even have a snow brush. We had to use a dust pan that was in the cabin to scoop all the snow off the windshield. 
And when Hubby tried to get the car out to the road, he totally got stuck. The folks from the office offered to tow us out to the road, but Hubby managed to get out of the snow and out to the road. The streets were all quite slick still, so we slid around a bit, but we ended up making it out of there alright.
wake up in the morning, you've gotta pee and you have to traipse through 7inches of snow across a football field...Yeah, that's so not fun. It was a beautiful morning, though. The sun was shining brightly, the snow had stopped falling. And the snow had been wet - the kind that sticks to everything. The mountains and the trees were just gorgeous. What was not gorgeous was the car...It was totally buried. We didn't even have a snow brush. We had to use a dust pan that was in the cabin to scoop all the snow off the windshield. 
And when Hubby tried to get the car out to the road, he totally got stuck. The folks from the office offered to tow us out to the road, but Hubby managed to get out of the snow and out to the road. The streets were all quite slick still, so we slid around a bit, but we ended up making it out of there alright.We went to Mickey D's for breakfast and I determined that the eggs on the Egg McMuffin taste COMPLETELY different out there than they do in Illinois. It was quite bizarre. As we had our breakfast, we decided that we didn't want to stay in South Dakota and that we'd just get on the road and start driving south. I was really hung up on going swimming (and getting a sunburn, apparently), so we wanted to head for a warmer climate.
After a filling breakfast, we headed to Mount Rushmore, since that was the reason for going to SD in the first place. You have to drive up and up and up to get the the viewing area.
Round lots of turns and bends in the road. Like I said, the scenery was just amazing. Every picture I took was like something out of a magazine. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. I'd never been through the Rocky Mountains before, so this was a new experience for me. So, we get to the entrance to the viewing area, and there's a forest ranger type dude that tells us we'll have to wait at least an hour, as they haven't cleaned all the snow off, yet. We didn't want to wait another hour to get on the road, so we started coming down the mountain and noticed some folks parked on the side of the road, taking photos from there. Seemed like a bright idea, so we followed suit. We took some photos of Mount Rushmore from where we were, and then noticed another car pu
lling up behind us. Strangely enough, they were also from Illinois. We chatted with them for a moment, asked them to take a photo of us and then we were on our way. We drove around in the mountains a while longer, and then started heading out of South Dakota.
Round lots of turns and bends in the road. Like I said, the scenery was just amazing. Every picture I took was like something out of a magazine. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. I'd never been through the Rocky Mountains before, so this was a new experience for me. So, we get to the entrance to the viewing area, and there's a forest ranger type dude that tells us we'll have to wait at least an hour, as they haven't cleaned all the snow off, yet. We didn't want to wait another hour to get on the road, so we started coming down the mountain and noticed some folks parked on the side of the road, taking photos from there. Seemed like a bright idea, so we followed suit. We took some photos of Mount Rushmore from where we were, and then noticed another car pu
lling up behind us. Strangely enough, they were also from Illinois. We chatted with them for a moment, asked them to take a photo of us and then we were on our way. We drove around in the mountains a while longer, and then started heading out of South Dakota.We kinda looped around through Wyoming and much of the snow there had already melted. It was probably pushing 50 already. Turned out to be a great day. The thing that I love the most about being in the mountains is how clean everything feels. The air is so fresh and the s
ky is bluer than anything I've ever seen here. We continued south through Colorado and then on into Kansas. Boy, was Kansas a bad day...
It was starting to get late and we needed to find a place to stay for the night. We determined that there was another KOA campground, but they were only in the office until 6. We had about 20 minutes to get there and get checked in before they left. And then all of a sudden, we had police lights behind us. Hubby wasn't actually speeding, we weren't making any goofy lane changes...We really weren't doing anything wrong. There were two cops in the truck - an older gentleman, maybe in his late 50s or early 60s, and a younger one, probably in his early 30s. The older one walked up to Hubby's side and the younger on my side. They told us the reason for pulling us over was that when they ran our plates, they were registered to a SUV or something.
ky is bluer than anything I've ever seen here. We continued south through Colorado and then on into Kansas. Boy, was Kansas a bad day...It was starting to get late and we needed to find a place to stay for the night. We determined that there was another KOA campground, but they were only in the office until 6. We had about 20 minutes to get there and get checked in before they left. And then all of a sudden, we had police lights behind us. Hubby wasn't actually speeding, we weren't making any goofy lane changes...We really weren't doing anything wrong. There were two cops in the truck - an older gentleman, maybe in his late 50s or early 60s, and a younger one, probably in his early 30s. The older one walked up to Hubby's side and the younger on my side. They told us the reason for pulling us over was that when they ran our plates, they were registered to a SUV or something.
So, they ask for Hubby's license and registration and when he opens the glove box to get his registration out, Cop #2 sees the 1/4 ounce of greenery sitting there. (*Pause* If you don't know what I'm talking about here, bless your heart.) My heart immediately begins pounding out of my chest. I knew he saw it. Hubby hadn't realized it was in there.
Both officers come back to the car. Old Man Cop hands Hubby back his license and registration and tells us we're good to go. Just as I was breathing a sigh of relief, he changes his mind and decides that they want to chat with us for a moment. They started asking what do we do and why are we in Kansas. And then they tell us, 'A lot of people that are driving through here will have narcotics and/or weapons in their vehicles. Might you have anything like that in your car?' And so it goes...Hubby confessed, gave him everything that we had. He swore up and down that that's all there was. Then, they ask us to get out of the car, so that they can search it. What? Seriously? Dude, do you see all the crap we have jammed into this little go-kart? Whatever.
So, we get out and they SEND ME OUT INTO THE FIELD! Like 25 yards away from the car, out next to some corn field, facing away from the vehicle, so I can't see what's going on. They have Hubby stand on the side of the road, also turned away from them, while they start to rifle through all our shit. The whole time, Hubby keeps turning around and telling them that we don't have anything else and please let us go. And they keep telling him turn around. And the whole time, I'm freaking out...I'm thinking we're going to jail or at the very least Hubby is cuz he won't just shut the hell up. After about 10-15 minutes of just barely sorting through our things, they call us both back up to the car and tell us that they're going to let us go with a warning. They tell us that if we're ever caught with anything ever again (anywhere), they'll find out about it and we'll be in huge trouble (a scare tactic that worked at the time). All I could think about was OMG...How would we have gotten out of this if it'd gone differently? Old Man Cop told us that he appreciated the honesty, and that's why they were going to let us go. Really? Can they do that? Just confiscate the goods and not even write a ticket or anything? Hubby seemed to think that they were going to go use it for their own recreational use. I dunno about that...But I was thanking my lucky stars (and God, who I'd been begging to help us, as I stared at the corn fields) that it worked out the way it had.
Because of all the commotion, we missed the time to get to the campground, so we ended up staying in a motel that night.
The next day, we got up early and headed down to Louisiana. We ended up in Shreveport, LA. We got there fairly early, so we set up our tent and got all settled in. We drove to the nearby town and found somepla
ce to eat dinner. We spent the rest of the evening battling off mosquitos and then headed to bed. We still had a couple more days for our vacay, so we were going to stay in Louisiana for one more day. We played catch in the pool (this is one of our favorite pool activities....Not sure why...), I got an awesome sunburn and then I was ready for a nap. But Hubby decided he didn't want to stay there for a second night. So we packed up again, stopped for dinner at a fabulous restaurant in downtown Shreveport that his mom had suggested, and then started toward home. As we were coming back, we hit some nasty weather, and ended up staying that night at another motel, this one was in the northern parts of Mississippi.
ce to eat dinner. We spent the rest of the evening battling off mosquitos and then headed to bed. We still had a couple more days for our vacay, so we were going to stay in Louisiana for one more day. We played catch in the pool (this is one of our favorite pool activities....Not sure why...), I got an awesome sunburn and then I was ready for a nap. But Hubby decided he didn't want to stay there for a second night. So we packed up again, stopped for dinner at a fabulous restaurant in downtown Shreveport that his mom had suggested, and then started toward home. As we were coming back, we hit some nasty weather, and ended up staying that night at another motel, this one was in the northern parts of Mississippi. We left Mississippi the next morning and by dinner time, we were back in Illinois, and were unpacking all of our crap into Hubby's mom's garage.
It was quite the adventure. And while it was terrifying at a couple times, it really was a lot of fun. We listened to Harry Potter the whole trip and laughed a lot. It really was a fun trip and I'm hoping that we can do it again sometime. Maybe with a little less drama, though...:-)
I would love to hear of other folks' adventures. Have you gone on a wild road trip? Or maybe a fabulous vacation that you'll never forget? I want to hear about them!
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