GUIDELINES 

THE TRIP
by Maggie Grinnell

     My mom, my sister, my best friend Carmella and I went to Palm Desert and had our own Thelma and Louise adventure. By the end of the weekend, we would have been stopped by a pig on the freeway, driven on the sidewalk and gotten drunk at a nearby bar. 

     Carmella always packs heavily wherever she goes, so my sister Colleen sought out to tease her by saying that we were going to take the Jeep, meaning, lose the additional suitcases. After an hour, Colleen laughed and told her the truth; that another car was going to be driven. 

     When we were in the Palm Desert city limits, a very stocky pink pig sat in the middle lane of the freeway. My mom just managed to swerve around the animal before getting back on track. We drove around town to find a place to eat for lunch. It must have been the heat because my mom wouldn't act this crazy. She started to drive on the sidewalk. I started to think about the line in "Back to the Future." At the end of the movie, the doctor said to Marty, "Roads? Who needs roads? Where we are going, they don't need roads." My mom took up the sidewalk for three blocks. And no one noticed a mad woman in a station wagon driving on the sidewalk. 

     All four of us went into Fuddruckers. After wolfing down the food, Carmella and I decided to walk off the food. We encountered a man standing in front of a nightclub. He handed us balloons but what we really wanted to do was go inside to check it out. 

     The next day, my mom and my sister went outside to sunbathe. We decided it was too hot so we watched videos. We watched "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake twelve times. Then we decided to go outside to swim. We had fun. While we were making jokes, we noticed a guy, who was previously lying on a lawn chair, jump into the pool and swim toward us. He said he had to meet the comedy team. 

     That night, we ended up at a certain bar because two members, guitarist and drummer, had long hair which we loved. My mom had a Seven & Seven drink and kept it coming all night. I had some kind of fruity drink with sherbet ice cream. Carmella and I each drank at least three. We were all bombed, except Colleen. The band played an 80's song so we got up to dance in front of them. We would have stayed and let the guy drive us home but we were unfamiliar with the area and we were wasted. 

     When we got home, my mom was spread eagle on her bed and Carmella was jumping up and down on hers. The next morning, we drove to a diner. Carmella had to have ice cream even before lunch so we had to wait. We had lunch but not without amusement. A little boy kept running around being very obnoxious. His mom took forever to catch him. After that, we got into the car for the long ride home. Nothing eventful happened but then again, we had our share of events happen already. 

© 2007 Maggie Grinnell