"Get me out of here", I thought to myself after about 3 hours in to our family trip to Wisconsin. My father, Jim, had bought this new van just in time for the trip; it was an early birthday present to my mother. Andrea, my mother, had been asking for this mini van for years, it had the automatic doors, rotating bucket seats, and a table we could put up in the back to play cards. Another plus to the van was that it was equipped with a television so we could watch movies if we could bored.
I was happy to be riding in the new van, but it wasn't much of a difference to me since we squeezed 7 people into the 7-person occupancy of the vehicle. This may not seem that bad since there was enough seats for everyone, but squeezing three teenagers in the back seat for 8 hours was torture. My two little sisters had to sit in the bucket seats due to their carseats and my brothers both demanded a window seat, so I got stuck right in the middle.
We purposely left our house at 4:30am so everyone could sleep a majority of the way there, but how am a expected so sleep while being forced to sit up straight? Since we did leave at 4:30 in the morning my brothers had not made time to shower, and I could definitely tell.
I always wondered why I always got stuck being in the most uncomfortable spot, or sleeping on the pull out couch while everyone else got a bed; I guess those are all perks of being the middle child. Up until I was 10 years old I was the baby of the family, I always got to pick first while my brothers came second. Once Korryn and Olyvia came along, I was chosen to be the babysitter. The one and only perk of being in the middle was my free access to anything in the cooler; but that soon became a chore because I had to grab snacks for everyone.
Once everyone fell asleep I was happy to get some piece and quiet. I began to dig through my purse for something to do while I had the free time and I found a pair of head phones. Finding my headphones could not have been a better discovery because I just made a new playlist about a week ago with all my favorite music. I put the headphones in and got a bit of shuteye.
I was just about to fall asleep when I hear my father yelling, "everybody, hold on!" I opened my eyes to see 4 or 5 of the biggest bucks I had ever seen in my life standing right in the middle of the interstate. I was so afraid so I just sat there hoping they would move; Jim tried slowing down as they began running off, but the biggest buck of them all had just barely made it when his head was hit with the right side of our van.
By this time everybody had woken, it would have been impossible not to. My father pulled to the side of the road to look at the damage and saw that the hood was dented in, the light was gone, and something was leaking out. I thought to myself that this could only happen to us.
We had gone too far to turn around now so we drove to the nearest gas station and got a better look. We would have to wait until 9:30 for the car garage to open so we decided to get some breakfast. Although the situation was terrible, I was happy to be stretching my legs. After breakfast, we went to the car garage to get a new headlight and the leak fixed which took a few hours. I asked my mother is there was any rearranging we could do once we were back in the car and she said she could figure something out; this was amazing news.
When we loaded the van back up my mother tried think of ways I would be more comfortable and decided to put my sisters back with me and my brothers in the bucket seats. Since my sisters were both tiny girls, this was the perfect decision so I eagerly jumped back into my spot in the middle. The ride was so much more comfortable, for the first few hours, until everyone got tired again. Once everyone fell asleep, I decided to try that for myself; I was so comfortable and was about t doze off when I woke up to two little heads on my shoulders. Instead of being the middle of a sandwich, my action had turned me into the human pillow. You have to love family vacations.
