The rain storm

It seems like just yesterday my brothers and I were crammed in the back seat of our family car. It was such an ugly car. A 1991 midnight blue dodge dynasty. My older brother, Scott, who was 11 at the time, was sitting on the other side of my little brother Shaun. Shaun, who was 8, always sat in the middle on road trips because he was the smallest. And I got the other window seat. I just had my 9th birthday a few months ago. My brothers and I got along really well because we were so close in age. At least that was my theory. I loved sitting by the window because I loved watching the trees pass by.
We were on our way to Washington, on one of our few family vacations that we take every year. Sometimes it is every other year. This was our first trip out of Oregon though, our home state. We were going to Olympia to see some brewery. My parents are big fans of beer, so this first stop was mainly for them. We were planning on heading north after we saw the brewery to Seattle to see the space needle and to go to the zoo.
It was lunch time so my dad made, what he thought was going to be a quick stop, at McDonalds for lunch. I’m not usually a fan of fast food, especially McDonalds. But this particular restaurant had the largest play area I had ever seen. The slide was so tall and so fun to slide down. We ended up spending more time playing then we did eating. My parents practically had to drag us out of there. My brothers and I have very good imaginations and we always come up with some kind of game to play whenever we are together. My older brother had decided he was going to pretend he was a cop and my little brother and I were the bad guys who just broke out of jail and he was trying to catch us. We were hiding in the balls and climbing up and down the giant slide for what seemed like hours. In reality it was maybe only half an hour before our mom and dad told us we needed to get back on the road. By the time we finally got in the car we had worn each other out and all three of us simultaneously leaned up against one another and fell right asleep.
We hadn’t been napping for too long when we were awaken by the sound of our dad honking the horn and yelling at the semi-truck in front of us. The truck had just cut him off and it was raining really hard. Not your average rain, it was coming down so heavy and so thick you could barely see the lights on the truck in front of us. The windshield wipers were on high speed and we were driving 35 miles and hour in a 55 miles an hour speed zone. My brothers and I slowly snuggled up to one another, arms linked and our eyes wide open watching the rain smothering our car. My mom was in the passenger seat nagging at my dad to slow down and repeatedly asking him to pull the car over. Of course if my dad could see and had a chance to pull over he would have already. Unfortunately, our car was somehow boxed in. We were in the left lane because my dad was trying to pass a semi-truck before the rain started and he got caught behind another one who pulled out from in front of the truck he was trying to pass. So we had one in front of us and one to the right as well. All my dad could do now was try to maintain a safe distance from the truck, which he could barely see in front of him and try to keep our car from hydroplaning. To us in the back seat it seemed as if we were driving under a waterfall. I was sure we were going to crash into one of the trucks or be swept off the road.
To make matters even worse, I had drank way to much soda at lunch and now had to pee really badly. All I could do was cross my legs and pray this rain cleared up because I knew there was no way we were going to be able to stop for a potty brake in this weather. I didn’t even dare mention my current situation to my mom or dad. I didn’t want to distract my dad or make him feel like he needed to rush. I would rather have wet my pants, if it came to that. I glanced over at my big brother for some reassurance. He was playing it cool but I could tell he was kind of scared too. My little brother continued holding my arm and whispered to me, “Sister I’m scared”. I just hugged him and told him everything was going to be alright. “Dad is the best driver in the whole world. We are in good hands”, I told him. My dad looked back at me through the rearview mirror and smiled. He really was a great driver. He always went the speed limit and always made sure we had our seatbelts on. I am pretty sure he has never even had a ticket.
It seemed like we were driving in the rain forever and stuck behind this stupid semi-truck. But after awhile the rain finally started to lighten up and we could actually see the road. The cars on the road started speeding up and the truck in front of us was finally able to get over into the right lane, where it should have been to begin with. We were actually going the speed limit which somewhere had switched from 55 to 65. I saw the first sign in a long time. It said Olympia 35 miles. It was a relief to know we weren’t that far from our destination. My little brother, who had managed to fall asleep during the terrifying roller coaster of a ride, started to wake up. My big brother and I looked at each other. “We are almost there,” he said. I just smiled back. I leaned my head on the window and once again starred at the trees, which I could see for the first time since the rain started. One adventure down, who knows how many more to go.