Keelen and I have been on a week long road trip visiting friends and family. Despite the fact that we have been on the move for the last seven days, he has been great, except for the little shoplifting incident.

He’s quite the “Chatty Cathy” when we’re in the car and wants to include me in everything, including the ABC Song, the B-I-N-G-O song, and counting to 100. I think this is all great but you can only sing it so many times before you start to seriously consider driving over a cliff!!! I tried several techniques to distract him while on the road. I turned a normally four hour road trip home into an eight hour road trip by stopping at a Forest Service fish hatchery, a dam, four waterfalls and numerous view points.

Now….let’s talk about peeing! Every time we were near a bathroom I asked him “Do you need to pee?” “No Grandma!” Well, he learned it is much more fun to pee on the side of the road than pee in a public restroom. I tell you there is nothing like standing on the side of a busy interstate with semi’s whizzing (pardon the pun) past at 60 miles an hour while your five year old is peeing pictures in the dirt. “Look Grandma…a smiley face!”

We’re home. I have my well deserved beer. He has had his bath and is watching 30 minutes of cartoons before bed. We both have earned a well deserved break from each other for a few minutes…..or more.

The photo above is at Multnomah Falls, the 2nd highest all year waterfall in the U.S. and the photo below is Herman the Sturgeon at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. He’s 35 years old, 10′ long and 450 lbs. Sturgeon in the Columbia River live to over 100 years, get up to 20′ long and weigh over 1000 lbs. Damn!!!


If anyone knows how to get the B-I-N-G-O song out of my head let me know.

And Ms Sparky was her name-o!!