I have not posted on here in quite some time.  Things have been busy.  Old floors in our house have come out, new ones have gone in, cabinets have been painted, and I have begun my first year of home schooling.  What a ride!  Because we are home schooling, we have the luxury of being able to vacation whenever we darn well please.  And so, this time happens to be just when we darn well please.

We have been on the road for 2 days now.  We made our final arrival in Florida tonight.  Traveling with three young kids (2, 4, and 6) always promises to hold some adventure.  Thankfully our adventure has been kept to a minimum so far.

For some unknown reason, Kevin and I agreed among each other to eat at a Mexican food restaurant last night.  ”So, what’s the big deal?”  you say?  Well, for starters, we were in Mississippi when we made this decision.  Now, MIssissippi is a great place, but what in the HECK were we thinking eating Mexican food outside of Texas??  On our way back through Ole Miss we will not be repeating that experience. 

Today we were on our last leg of the trip to Florida when I hear the all too common cry of “I have to go the bathroom.” coming from the oldest J in the back seat.  And, of course, we were no where near any place that might have a bathroom.  So, we traveled on, praying fervently that a bathroom might magically appear.  Lo and behold, as we came up over the next little hill, there stood a lone gas station.  Kevin looks and me says, “Do you think we should stop there?”  Looking around I am thinking, ” where ELSE would we stop?”

 I get out of the car and take Jack and Jenna with me.  Julia is heartbroken and not so mildly ticked off that she has been passed over for this trip out of the car.  Upon entering the gas station, the smell of something terrible hits me.  Old feet, old pizza, a pretzel or two . . . I am going to have to hold my breath and try very hard to coax two kids to HURRY out of this stinky place.  We enter the bathroom and Jack suddenly has an attack of privacy.  He needs to be in the bathroom all by himself.  He never seems to need privacy at home when I repeatedly remind him that he is NOT allowed downstairs without clothes on.   Yeah, yeah, privacy, whatever. . . . I close the door and give him strict instructions to NOT TOUCH ANYTHING!!  Next up Jenna does not want to be in the bathroom by herself, so we all have to go in.  

This is where the conversation takes a very different turn.  Jenna says “Hey, mom do you have any quarters?”  I answer, with “No, why?”  ”Well, I want to get something out of that machine.  It says you need quarters.”  I turn around to check out “the machine.”  Thank goodness she can only read a little.  It was one of those machines in a truck stop bathroom place.  Lovely, huh?  

When we are finally done with our bathroom/hell hole adventure Kevin and I are back in the car discussing the level of grossness in the bathroom.  He says “that bathroom was SO GROSS!”  At that point he starts laughing and says there was this really gross thing in one of those machines . . . more laughter continues . . . it said . . .  At this point I finish his sentence with “horny goat weed!?”  I am dying laughing at this point.  Seriously!  Could they not have thought up a worse name?  It is supposed to increase male stamina.  Yes, I am sure that anyone who is crazy enough to put their precious three quarters into that little vending machine of sorts will get every cent worth that they paid for that “horny goat weed.”

Yes, there are some things that you just do NOT want to explain to your children.  Us mothers have very good reasons for rushing kids out of nasty, stinky bathrooms.  It isn’t just germs in there, although I am sure there are PLENTY.  But the stench, the dirty floors, and the horny goat weed. I am still laughing about that one, and still REALLY glad Jenna could not read that one.