Episode 5 - April 3 "Epic Family Trips: Part II"

I was planning on starting a new topic for this week's show, but I had too many great family roadtrip storiies for just one show. They ended up spilling over to our Easter weekend show, a program fueled by a gutful of cheap-ass chocolate. Unfortunately, there were some technical issues going on at the station, and the show wasn't recorded. Henceforth, this shall be known as the "lost episode" and won't be heard again until some time in the distant future when it's found recorded over an Olivia Newton John tape in the collection of a long dead and cat eaten corpse of a neurotic shut-in radio taper. Radio tapers of the world... I salute you!

Thanks to Angie and Inga, two of the loveliest ladies I know.

"Best memory ever....probably 1987, road trip to Medicine Hat, and the Rides were in town. So dad drops us off, says you be back here at 4. So we set off, Sister, Brother, cousins and myself, to partake in some cotton candy and puke inducing rides. Close to 4, we're pretty done, ready to leave, so we park it under a tree by the meeting location and wait. And wait and wait. It's probably a half hour past so we decided we should go in search of the 'blue van'.
Well, up come Dad in the blue van, thin lipped and looking red in the face...none to happy. When you see this face, you know your in shit. The ride home was a series of yelling and blaming. Even though it turned out he was in the wrong meeting spot. We still took the brunt of the anger.
Second memory: Road trip with husband and kids, we're on our way home after a week away, on our last few dollars, we fill the gas tank, and decide to dish the last few dollars to going to the Calgary Zoo for the kids. Well, it turns out it's a Holiday on this Monday and EVERYONE also had the same plan. We waited in line for over an hour, sweating and whining ever increasing. We finally make it in, are just digging into seeing all the animals, when Lily decides she wants an ice cream. We tell her she can't (literally as we have money for our meal home and no money left for extras!), and this goes on for about half an hour, where she has a complete melt down and loses it. We have no choice but to leave the zoo. Sweating, frustrated and dissappointment - great way to wrap up a holiday."
- Angie

"When I was 12 my parents loaded up the old mini van with all four kids and drove across the country, from Saskatchewan to Ontario.

My Dad blasted his tunes the whole way which consisted of one tape. It was the Beach Boys, and it's still difficult to hear "Help me Rhonda" without wanting to throw myself out a window.

We tried to get some relief by asking my Dad to at least "put the music in the front" or turn it down...he did the old put your finger on the knob and pretend to turn it trick and alas, we suffered through my Dad's bass voice belting out Barbara Ann for a good week.

Not only did he get his way, but amongst the other treasures of travel with my Dad was the bathroom stop situation. He wouldn't pull over unless you were almost in tears. If you wanted a piece of gum you had to hear "chew the horses's rubber bum" before he split one piece of Trident peppermint between the 4 of us.

Another gem of the trip was when Dad would let one rip and not roll down the window until someone screamed "what's that smell". We never got a confession of the source of the smell, but the embarrased chuckle always gave it away.

I thought we were really cool when we "drove through Chicago" on the way home. This was at the peak of my Micheal Jordan obsession, #23, represent. Sidenote, at this time we lived at 23 O'Neil Crescent in Saskatoon and I always thought this was a sign that MJ and I were somehow connected cosmically.

We were driving in a less than choice area of town in Chicago, as Dad always enjoyed putting his family at risk. We were at a red light when a car pulled up full of gangster looking guys, pumping out some loud hip hop beats.


The music went down and the driver signalled to my Mom to roll the window down. My Dad pressed the automatic window down and I knew that this would go over much better if only the guys could only see my Reebok pumps through the tinted windows in the back seat.


In a mocking tone the guy started saying "hey, we're from Saskatchewan man, where the f^#8 is Saskatchewan man".....my face was heating up and I was mortified. I felt like the ultimate hick. They were all laughing hysterically, then the light turned green and they sped off into the night. My Dad excellerated the old Safari into gear and we rode in silence letting California Girls play us back to our prairie home."
- Ingrid