Nothing bonds a family like traveling in an RV without air-conditioning in 105 degree heat…At least I suppose one could call it bonding the family together when all of us were so sweaty hot that our bodies were literally sticking to the sofa seats of the RV as we made our long drive back from Idaho today where we’d been up visiting my in-laws last week.

When we headed out to Idaho last week with our seven member family (6 adults and one 11 month old grand baby) in our RV to go spend time with my in-laws in Idaho we never considered the possibility that our air-conditioning could go out on us, and yet sure enough, that is exactly what happened.  And lucky for us it decided to go out on the drive up to Idaho, so not only did we get to feel like we were sitting in boiling hot lava the entire drive up there – we also got to turn into melting pools of sweat the entire drive back home again…insert sarcastic “yippee” here…and of course it was only a mere 105 degrees outside today, so that made for a totally pleasant drive home…NOT!!

All we could do driving home is follow the famous advice of Winston Churchill – “If you are going through hell, keep going.”  And keep going we did….

Talk about a true test of a families love for one another – being stuck in a boiling hot vehicle for hours on end really lets you discover how deep your love goes.  As everyone was dripping with sweat about to pass-out from heat stroke in the RV I couldn’t help but worry my kids might start reenacting scenes from The Hunger Games and begin killing each other off…but I was pleasantly surprised that they were quite opposite of that– in fact, my kids thoroughly impressed me with how they handled it…they all had good attitudes despite the miserable heat in that RV.  Instead of snapping at each other they found ways to laugh about it and they managed to have a great time on the drive – okay, “great” might be a bit of an exaggeration as it was still miserably hot, but “good” would be a fair description and the fact they kept their spirits up the entire drive made me really happy. They passed the family loves each other test with flying colors.

I know that this particular road trip to Idaho will be a memory our family will never forget because we all endured that miserably hot drive together as a family. You know it really is the case  – the family vacations where things go wrong end up being the vacations your family will never forget.

~Amy Rees Anderson