Cole and I had such fun at the Indian Dunes yesterday!

We always take snacks on our road trips. Always. A road trip is anytime we are in the car for more than an hour. For short road trips, we usually buy our snacks on the way out of town at the 7-11. Yesterday we decided to try some Funyuns, Lays potatoes chips, M&Ms, two bottles of Starbucks, and two Cokes. We had never had Funyuns before—they were suggested by El Morno friend Teresa. We love Funyuns!

On the way to the Dunes, we stopped at  Garrett popcorn shop to buy Richard (brother-in-law) some caramel corn and cheese corn for his birthday, which had been the day before. It’s the world’s best popcorn so of course we had to buy some for ourselves as well. Soon the bag of Funyuns was empty, so we began to snack on the OMG good popcorn.

Cole found a popcorn person in the bag of carmel corn. We named him Pop. Not exactly Cheesus the Cheeto but not bad.

About half way to the Dunes, there is a McDonald’s Oasis, and Cole asked if we could stop for another Coke because our Cokes were gone, and Starbucks don’t pair well with popcorn. Groaning, I agreed. The Oasis McDonald’s is just awful, and the employees never fail to frustrate me, but, hey, what could go wrong with an order of just two Cokes? First, I missed the speaker for ordering. But we were the only car at the drive thru, so how big a deal could it be? A very big deal. First, the person at the drive thru window looked absolutely shocked to see our car, and then she looked panicked. Cole said that at that point she hit a code red button: “Customer at the drive-thru window who did not pre-order!” When she finally opened her window, I greeted her with a calming smile and apologized for not pre-ordering. She informed me she had no idea how she could take my order from the hand-out window. At that point, I should have just said, “Ok, I will drive around again,” but foolishly I thought we could work together, and my order could be filled. Ten minutes, three employees, and one manager later, we had our two Cokes, and were once again on our way. The best part is when they finally worked out our order, the cashier said, “Would you like anything else with your order?” Nope. I took our Cokes and gunned it. Cole was laughing hysterically.

We arrived at the Dunes without further incident. Richard and Susan (sister-in-law) had homemade pizza in the oven, which we devoured before Richard took Cole out to practice driving his Mercedes which has a manual transmission.  Susan and I stayed behind and drank peppermint tea. It was very fancy tea, in little silk tea bags, and it was delicious. My tummy really appreciated the soothing effect of the tea. When the driver returned, he looked a little frustrated. The teacher looked a little pale, but was certain young grasshopper was improving.

We enjoyed a wonderful lunch of stir fry and several glasses of wine before the second lesson. During the second lesson, Susan cleaned up and I watched. Can I just tell you that she has a Sham Wow I gave her about four years ago. The same Sham Wow! When I mentioned that it was probably the oldest Sham Wow in the history of Sham Wows, she said, “We aren’t hard on things around here.” I believed her.

The second time was the charm! The driver came back smiling broadly, and the teacher came back saying, “By Jove, I think he’s got it!” Not really. I think he said, “Glad that’s over. Let’s have strawberry shortcake and champagne.” So we did. It was so good! Here let me show you a picture of how good it was . . .

We toasted the driver and the teacher for a job well done.  See the popcorn in the crystal glass–That was Susan’s contribution, “Just like the Ritz Carlton does it.”

Cole now feels confident he can test drive the cars he likes when we head out to car shop again this week.

It was time to call it a wonderful day filled with great company, wonderful food, and a successful driving lesson, and head home. I could not believe it when Cole opened a Starbucks 10 minutes into the drive, followed by the M&Ms; but when he asked me if he should open my Starbucks, I had to say yes, and hand me some M&Ms. After all, we were  still on a road trip!

What kind of snacks do you take on your road trips? I would like to highly recommend Funyuns! Odd Loves Company! 

♥