Getting there is 16% of the fun

This week ShallowGal and posse were invited to their friend Linda's beach house.

On one hand this offered a free beach vacation, a visit with some of our favorite people and a chance to escape DC in August.

On the other hand, this proposition also involved several things ShallowGal despises, namely driving over the Chesapeake bay bridge and spending long periods in the car with her children.

ShallowGal may move to the beach just to avoid driving home.

Do you remember the episode of Little House on the Prairie when Charles and Mrs Olsen had to get the kids from the blind school across the river and they built a swing using a rope and a horse? ShallowGal considers that more civilized than the bay bridge.

Fine, we'll go. The things I do for these children.

The bridge to hell is paved with good intention. Yes the bridge to hell. That's why ShallowGal hates bridges so much, being convinced she will meet her death plummeting off one.

So ShallowGal set the GPS for beach and shared some math facts with the kids. 150 miles. Estimated travel time 3 hours. And in lieu of DVDs or a Nintendo DS, the kids were amused with travel math questions. (1)

ShallowGal loves her GPS. How else would her posse be able to learn to solve SAT level problems like this:

If ShallowGal and posse are driving at 60 miles per hour and the next exit is in 20 miles, will that rest stop serve coke or Pepsi? Cause if it's Pepsi, we aren't stopping.

And then ShallowGal made the following query to her posse:

According to the GPS we have 2 hours and 30 minutes of our 3 hour trip remaining. What percentage of the trip have we completed?

And before her fifth grade GT student could say 86%, traffic came to a dead stop.

So instead of body surfing, ShallowGal and posse sat in the car and argued about whose feet were stinking up the car. Instead of drinking coronas and gazing at the sunset, they drank Gatorade bought from a man on the side of the Souza bridge with a giant cooler (2) and watched the people in the next car consummate their relationship. Good times.

Meanwhile the GPS taunted them with their negative progress.

For the first half hour, the GPS maintained that they would arrive at the beach in exactly 2 hours and 30 minutes. Then time started moving backwards.

ShallowGal hates her GPS

New math question: If ShallowGal takes a baseball bat to her GPS, will her children sleep past 6 am? (3)



1) Not to say ShallowGal left for a 150 mile road trip with 3 kids totally unprepared. She also had a packet of goldfish crackers, 4 sticks of gum and 2 bottles of water.
2) $3/ bottle. Literally highway robbery.
3) Apparently, no.