Ahhhh, Memorial Day. It’s the time of year when we leave early from work on Friday, load up our favorite recreational vehicle with hot dogs and baked beans, then drive for 14 hours to a place that would take only 3 on any other weekend.
Yes, this is the sacred time of year when we also take Monday completely off of work and take time out of our busy schedules to remember and reflect on the fact that 1.4 billion other families with RVs also take road trips on this weekend… to the exact same campground.
This is why we pledge every year to revise our Memorial Day schedules in hopes of missing the traffic.
Of course, everyone forgets and makes the same travel rituals again next year.
This weekend, my family and I embarked on a day trip to Seattle, completely unaware of the fact that every other human on Earth would be traveling the same highway.
I didn’t intend to become a Memorial Day statistic this year. I typically like to enjoy my Memorial Day by going to Costco and forgetting that it is closed so employees may spend the day remembering why they don’t like to travel on Memorial Day.
Rather than a peaceful 4-hour drive, this trip consisted mostly of idling over a mountain pass with one kid chanting she had to pee and the other making dire warnings about an impending poop.
Of course, the true intent of Memorial Day is to take time to remember and honor those who have passed on to the great freeway in the sky. For some reason, we as a society have decided that the best place to do so is in an outhouse on the side of a backed-up Interstate.
Maybe next year we’ll all remember to stay home and honor our ancestors from the comfort of our living rooms.
Happy Memorial Day! Did you take a road trip this year?
-tgriffith