My mom loves to take vacations with my brother and I.  Several years ago when my mom was still single and I was about six, we packed up the car and headed for Grand Canyon National Park.  The big difference about this trip was that we decided to camp out in the park.  We should have known it was a bad idea from the beginning becuase my mom had never gone camping with just my brother and me.

It's the end of July when we leave Olathe at the crack of dawn, on our way to the Grand Canyon.  It's about ten minutes in, and I have already fallen asleep. It's pretty strange that I always seem to fall asleep in no time whenever we are taking a long road trip or vacation, but any other time I can stay awake forever.  When we finally make our first stop for lunch, it's about one o'clock.  Mom stops at the local McDonads, which every town has:  there's one at every corner.  Whenever we take a long road trip, we almost always eat at McDonalds at least once during our journey.  We fill our stomachs up and leave feeling energized.  Our car stays on the road, pushing the speed limit for a few more hours.  Speeding past cars, hoping not to get a ticket, but trying to get as far as we can the first day, as fast as we can.  The next morning we awake bright and early again and keep heading toward our vacation destination.

The next day starts off similar to the day before, my mom driving, me falling asleep, and a stop for lunch.  This time we have a craving for Wendy's, so we make a quick stop to regenerate and fill our stomachs.  My brother and I both get the kids' meal chicken nuggets because it's our favorite thing.  Once again, we fill up, and hit the road.  At this point we are getting close to our destination, so we are getting more excited every mile we drive.  That next day we FINALLY arrive at the Grand Canyon.  After almost three hard and long days of driving, we get there and have a nice dinner of hot dogs over the fire, and a dessert of s'mores.  Everyone likes the traditional campfire dinner, the peace and quiet, and listening to the different sounds of the animals and birds.  The three of us have a great first day on the camp grounds.  Little did my brother and I know there was a mean, inconsiderate, brutal, and quite frankly just extremely disgusting bacteria flowing through our bodies.

We set up the tent and get ready for bed.  We tell a few ghost stories, and then my mom says "time for bed."  that line right there probably represents one of the worst and most dreaded time of the day for young boys.  At this point, I began to feel a little bit nauseous.  My mom could see in my face that something was wrong so she asked me what was up.  I tell her, "I think it's the smoke from the camp fire that is making me feel a bit queasy.  She tells me to lie down, and try to fall asleep.  So I did.  It worked for a few minutes while I waited for my mother and brother to come in the tent and lie down, but after they get back I can't hold it off for much longer.  Once my mom lay next to me, I let go all the nasty chunky vomit.  The worst part was that it all went on my mom's hair.

My mom was so grossed out and shocked she didn't even know what to do.  About thirty seconds later my brother opened up the side of the tent, and he was throwing up also.  Now my mom had two kids that have thrown up and half of it is on her.  The worst part of it was that my mom makes me strip all of my clothes off becuase some of it got on me.  I have to walk in the dark, in the middle of the night, naked into the GIRL'S bathroom!  Keep in mind, I was only about six years old, so it was still sort of acceptable for me to be in the wamens' bathroom with my mom.  She made me wash off all of my clothes, as she tries to wash her hair out.  After we're both kind of clean she leaves me all alone in the women's restroom naked to go check on my older brother and get me clean clothes.  About thirty seconds later, the door opens, and I obviously think it's my mom returning, but it wasn't! It's another lady coming to use the bathroom.  Of course, since I was young, she acts like she can't see me, but I know that she does.  That was probably the most embarassing thing I have ever done in my entire life.  What's even worse is that after such a terrible night, I'm still sick the next morning.

We finally realize that my brother and I both have food poisoning, or "salmonella" from the Wendy's chicken nuggets.  I can't hold any food or liquid down, and I throw up six more times.  My mom has to call my doctor at home and he calls in some medicine to help me.  The bad part is that we have to drive two hours to get to a town where there is a pharmacy.  It quickly turned into one of the most memorable vacations my family has been on, but one good thing is that it makes for a great and embarrassing story to tell.  Over all it was a pretty strange, confusing, fun, and embarrassing vacation.