No two travel adventures are the same.
That’s what I was thinking last Friday morning as I pulled over on Route 1 in northern Delaware.
The final destination on this particular road trip was New Rochelle, N.Y. to spend the weekend with family. The plan was to drive from Berlin to Wilmington, Del. and catch a train to New York.
Before we were even out of the state on Friday, Beckett complained his stomach was killing him. We stopped so he could use the bathroom and he seemed better. About an hour later, he was vomiting in a cup that held a smoothie his mom had for breakfast. That cup came in handy until I was able to navigate to the shoulder so he could finish the job.
Before I could get over to him on the side of road, I did something foolish and regrettable. I dumped out the smoothie cup’s gross contents onto the road and then stepped right into a pool of it in my flipflops without thinking. It was not my brightest moment and certainly a disgusting one.
As Beckett was throwing up in the grass off Route 1, he noticed my gross feet and flipflops as a result of stepping in and then walking through his earlier discharge. In between hurling he was able to mutter “how nasty” and “memories.” I agreed as I wiped my feet in the grass somewhere north of Dover before a toll booth.
He was right about the memories part because it’s certainly a morning I will not soon forget. By the way it was 8 a.m. A lot had happened to us before most even enjoyed some breakfast.
The good news is he evidently had a case of motion sickness. As soon as he vomited and had something to drink, he was fine and back to himself. His skin color went from green to normal in a matter of minutes. As quickly as he got ill, he had improved.
We spent the remaining part of the trip talking about the various types of vomits and how each one is different. I remarked how road trips with him and his brother are like that as well. He reminded me it could have been worse. He could have vomited all over the inside of the truck. He then gave himself quite a bit of credit for being such a clean puker with a great aim. He stayed on that topic for the remaining part of our driving leg.
Although it was only a two-hour drive, it was one of the longest travel experiences I can remember. We were all excited when we got to the train station in Wilmington to get some space and to get far away from that smoothie-turned-vomit cup.
The two-hour train ride to New York was uneventful and the kids were thrilled the Wi-Fi was working well. Amazingly, despite the earlier bout of motion sickness, Beckett was able to sit at our table and tolerate riding backwards all the way to our stop. This was confusing and relieving at the same time. He even put back the best cheeseburger he had ever had. Considering it was microwaved and I have grilled tons of burgers for him in his life, I ignored that comment and blamed that claim on the vomiting spell.
Once we reached our destination, it was great to see the boys interact with their little niece. Due to our family’s unique makeup, Beckett, 11, and Carson, 9, are uncles to Zoe, who was born in February. As I’ve mentioned in the past, Pam raised her stepson Steven, Zoe’s father, in a previous marriage. Steven and his wife, Trang, recently purchased a new home in New Rochelle, N.Y., so we spent the weekend with them in their new digs, and Pam and I got to spend time with our granddaughter. I’m still in shock over being a grandfather at 43 years old, but it’s a wonderful thing. It’s especially nice to get the experience of watching a baby girl grow up. After a weekend with her, one thing was confirmed – baby girls are a lot different than baby boys.
Both boys were wonderful with Zoe and became comfortable with her, but each were funny with their self-imposed limitations. Both very much wanted to hold her often throughout the weekend, but only for a few seconds at a time because they remain worried they were going to break her or drop her if she squirms in the least bit.
The boys were fascinated by how little everything was on their 5-month-old niece. For boys, who are rough in all aspects of their lives, as evidenced by something gets broken inside or outside our house each week, they were incredibly gentle and loving with Zoe.
At one point, while I was feeding her, Carson pushed Zoe’s bottle up for her in a slightly rough fashion. By Beckett’s reaction, I thought he was going to deck his brother for interfering in a fashion he didn’t agree with. It was sweet to see their caring and protective ways with her.
As the weekend wound down, my thoughts turned to our travels home and hoping the trip south was smoother than the way north. Fortunately, we didn’t have a repeat, and the ride home was much smoother with no troubles at all.
