Road Trip Bathroom Story
More often than not many camping stories begin or end with a road trip bathroom story.
We were going camping one fall to our favorite National Park, Grand Teton National Park. We left mid-morning, only because we packed until 3 a.m. (we almost got in the stuffed mini-van to begin driving then, but decided it would be wise to sleep for a couple hours). After a couple hours of sleep we headed off with our four children (ages 1, 2, 4 and 6) in our minivan that nearly dragged on the ground with our camping equipment and food for ten days.
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This story is one of our most told bathroom stories.
After a couple hours down the road we needed to get gas and take a bathroom break. Courage said he had to go khaki (Hebrew word for poop… works great in public as not as many people know it when your child yells that they have to go “Khaki”). I took him in to those great gas station bathrooms that you don’t want your children to touch anything nor read the graffiti scratched into the doors. After a couple minutes he decided it passed and nothing came out. We packed back up in the car and headed further down the road.
A couple of hours later Courage yells out from the far corner of the loaded to capacity mini-van that his khaki has returned. I tell him to hold on and at the next off ramp we turn off and head into the bathroom. He tries as he might but no success. We get back on the free way and get an hour or so down the road and you know what happens next. Yes, you guessed it Courage yells from the back that this time it is coming and better stop. I do the typical foolish parenting thing and question my son whether this is for real or not. After deciding that he seems sincere and “it” is coming “this” time I pull off the next exit and find a fast food restaurant. Again at a low parenting moment going into the bathroom I am saying foolish words like, “You better go khaki because I am not stopping again.” Of course under this kind of pressure who could go? So we pile back in the car and head further down the road.
We stop maybe one or two more times for Courage to go Khaki before finally deciding to look for a place to sleep. You guessed it, he never went. At least after the third time I gave up questioning him. Believe it or not we had made it to Wyoming but it was late and we hadn’t made reservations anywhere. With little sleep and driving all day, I was done. We started looking for hotels only to find there was a rodeo or something in town and the whole town was booked solid. We drove to the next town an hour down the road, and found one hotel that had a room (by now it was 12 a.m.). The room was gigantic and more than we’d pay for the whole week camping, but we paid for a few hours sleep for everyone, especially me.
The room was huge: two queen beds, bunk beds built into the wall and a fold out couch bed. It was around 1 a.m. that we all put our heads down on the pillows. I was so thankful to not be driving and to be able to close my eyes. Everyone had finally calmed down from being so excited to be out of their seatbelt and able to run and jump around. The room was dark and finally quiet… then there was a flash back from driving. Courage from his bed yelled out that he had to go Khaki. He still needed a little help, so I got up and dragged myself into the bathroom with him. Sounds of him trying to get the khaki out filled the once quiet room.
Then…with great joy he said, “Oh that feels so good.” With great joy he did it! Then for what we’ve waited for all day, the look to see the khaki size. The khaki must be huge since we waited most of the day for it! To my shock, what we had pulled off the road numerous times for was the size of a strawberry. I started laughing, he started laughing and then when we came out everyone was awake and we told them and all laughed together. Finally we settled down for the night and went to sleep with a smile on our lips from the laughter at the end of a long journey.
Even though those bathroom stops were a source of frustration on the journey that day, we must remember that each child has their own needs and ways that their bodies react with change and traveling as well. This was a good reminder to me as we must remember the needs of each individual child as we travel. It was also a good reminder how something that can be a source of frustration can also end up being something that we ended the day laughing about, and now fondly remember and still laugh about together as a family.
