This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Sprint
Update: Thanks for everyone's participation and your great stories. The lucky winner is #63 "Miss" Anita! I will be emailing you with the details.
It sounds like something out of The Amazing Race. The mission: Put two harassed adults, two energetic young boys, and one dog in a car packed to the hilt with Christmas presents and vacation necessities. Then - and this is the kicker - send them off on an 18-hour road trip in the middle of winter. When it's put that way, I wonder why our families haven't arranged for straight-jackets and heavy medication. Despite the apparent insanity of the plan, we embark on one of these road trips at least once per year. It's kind of like labor: the pain is forgotten quickly and plans are enthusiastically made to do it all again.
So was the case when we packed the car on a cold December morning and set off from our Salt Lake City home, heading for Victoria, Canada. Not only did the trip involve a decidedly long drive, spanning 1000 miles, several treacherous mountain passes, and a 1 1/2 hour ferry ride, but it was done in a pummeling snowstorm. Snow doesn't make those treacherous mountain passes seem any more benevolent. Some jokester actually named one of them "Dead Man's Pass". Funny. To put the cherry on top of the proverbial sundae, our youngest son, who was 2 years old at the time, started making suspicious heaving sounds just south of Seattle, which lasted all the way to Victoria. I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that the heaving sounds transformed into something far less pleasant.
On the first night of this auspicious road trip, we stopped for the night somewhere in Oregon. The night was thankfully uneventful and we woke up at the crack of dawn to start on the final leg of the trip. As I was getting two bleary-eyed boys dressed for the day, my husband took our dog, a sweet black lab named Tiana, out of the hotel for her morning constitution.
It was a cold, dark winter's morning and the clouds from the passing snowstorm were still laying low to the ground. No one else was outside, except for one man who was bent over into the trunk of his car, diligently packing for his own road trip. Once Tiana had finished her business on the hotel's patch of grass, she enthusiastically bounded into the parking lot. Before my husband could stop her, Tiana ran over to greet the man who was still leaning into his trunk. Since there wasn't a hand available to rub against, Tiana vigorously goosed the unsuspecting man. Apparently, he jumped higher than an Enron executive at the sound of a whistle and let out a yelp that would have made Tarzan proud. My husband managed to hold in his laughter long enough to apologize to the very forgiving gentleman. How we needed that comic relief in the midst of our memorable journey!
And now it's your turn to tell your own funny holiday road trip tale for a chance to win a $200 Visa gift card. To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me your funniest road trip story - or you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below. The contest will begin at Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 9 am and will end Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 5:00 pm. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.
Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
This giveaway is open to US Residents aged 18 and older
Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
Please see the official rules here: Official rules
For more funny road trip stories, and 8 more chances to win, please check out the BlogHer review/giveaway round-up page.
Winners will be chosen using a random number generator.
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