In an earlier post I wrote about wanting to drive so I could see sights unseen (i.e. the world’s biggest McDonald’s) from an airplane.

image retrieved from vinita.com

I know it’s cool because there are at least 100 pictures of the place on flickr.  There is even a picture of a guy doing a “oh what a feeling jump” in front of the place. That is what the road trip experience does.  It makes you goofy beyond measure.

One time the family drove to Mt Rainier and a bee got into the car while we were driving on a winding road. Like the fish that never gets caught it gets bigger with each retelling. By now that sucker was as big as one of the boys’ head. Picture an angry dad yelling at the hysterical mom and kids screaming and swatting.  His yell was so effective even the bee piped down. To this day we do not know where the bee went, but we were placated by the absence of the potential altercation with nature. We can’t tell you much about Mt. Rainier but we all three of us can vividly share the bee story.  It was a random moment where we saw something in a different light. Likewise, you know the Big Macs in that McDonald’s must be Mctastier than the Big Macs in all the other stores.

Well for today’s adventure I didn’t have to go too far.  In the mornings I teach summer school.  Teaching 13 and 14 years olds during the school year is interesting. Summer is an entirely different experience.  Their attitude rises with the temperature. Even more interesting is my class is a mixture of kids from two different schools.  The kiddos from my school know I have weaknesses like the love of cookies and laughter and work them to their advantage. The visiting students are still trying to work their “I’m too cool for you game” that just alienates them more than they realize. But that’s a different blog-this one’s about sights never seen before.

So I’m teaching and I tell a joke. This joke was good. That’s when I saw “the sight”. They physically reacted at first and you could see the laughter rise up in their body and go into their face.  They stopped just short of a complete smile. They thought they were being “too cool” to outwardly appreciate the joke. To the observers eye it looked like they had a synchronized gas passing experience. Honestly five of them did this laugh then not laugh thing at the same time.

Of course I’m sensitive enough to a rare phenomenon to respect the moment. I acted like nothing happened, but whenI got into my car and thought back to the moment I bust out laughing. If they knew they looked like they were farting they would be horrified. It is a sight I will never forget and since the laughter happened in the car I think that counts as a road trip adventure.  Now I want some McDonalds