813 mile car trip

I don’t know when car trips with Jackson first began turning into huge musical deliberations. Probably about the time I lost Caleb as my opposing radio station debater. Jackson doesn’t have 50% say when it comes to music choice like Caleb did, not yet anyway. That doesn’t stop him from adamantly arguing for his pick.

“What are we going to listen to,” he says.

“Um… Keith Urban, I think.”

“How about something else,” he suggests. “Like the Car Trip song?”

“Um… how about you get to listen to your music after we pass Auburn?”

“That’s too far,” he insists. “How about two songs are yours, then two songs are mine?”

“Um… I guess that sounds fair.”

He has impeccable negotiating skills for a four-year-old.

The “Car Trip” song is his most requested. Here are the lyrics:

813 Mile Car Trip

Eight hundred and thirteen mile car trip 

Eight hundred and thirteen mile car trip 

Four hundred and seventeen miles to go 

Three thousand trees 

Fourteen hundred buildings 

One spilt cup of orange juice 

Nineteen pit stops 

One hundred and fifteen pick-up trucks 

Eight hundred and thirteen mile car trip

-They Might Be Giants

So as I’m listening to this song for the eleventh twelfth twentieth time and nearing the last stretch of highway that takes us home, I begin to realize that 19 pit stops during an 813 mile car trip means about 1 pit stop every 42.7 miles. And since our car trip today was only 145 miles, if my math is correct, we should only have made 3 pit stops. But since Jackson has a very small bladder and we actually made 4, I will (for however long it is stuck in my head) be singing the song with my modified lyrics: “twenty-two pit stops!”

Hopefully that one little line will be enough to remind me why I don’t go on 813 mile car trips.

Comments

Karolena said…
haha, that's awesome. At first when I read the title of your post I was worried you were going on a 813 mile car trip! They Might Be Giants is a fun band. I use their song about the sun in science class just about every year - "The sun is hot, the sun is not a place where we can live..."
Katie said…
thaat was awesome. and i cannot even imagine having someone to debate with about road trip music. It is a dictatorship in my car : )
Anonymous said…
you are too funny girl. where did you get your sense of humor? ....haah , you know the answer don't you? 123 Me