Author's note: Here's another Garfield one-shot I've got in mind. This one-shot takes place before the events of Garfield on a gondola lift.
I don't own Garfield. Jim Davis and Paws Inc. does.
It was a warm sunny day in Muncie, Indiana as Garfield, Jon and Odie got onto their car for a long road trip to Coolsville, Ohio.
"Well boys, I think we're all set for this trip!" Jon exclaimed as he and the boys got onto their car after packing the trunk.
"Yeah, now just get going before we get ourselves held up by the rush hour traffic." Garfield remarked as he and Odie fastened their seatbelts.
As it turned out, Garfield was right on asking Jon to get going, because as soon as they entered the freeway, they were held up by a long, traffic jam.
"Oh, great." Jon moaned as he bumped his head onto the steering wheel, almost honking the car horn in the process. "Now what?"
"I told you that we should get going earlier, Jon." Garfield muttered as Odie crossed his arms in a frustrated mood.
Turning to Odie, Garfield pulled out a video game disk and added, "Well, it's a good thing I've brought along a few of Jon's video games, Odie. Now we can have some fun while waiting for the traffic ahead to clear!"
Odie barked excitedly as he helped Garfield turn on the video game console installed on the car, inserted the disk into the console before grabbing the video game controls.
As the duo set up the video game, Jon said, "Well, at least we've got the radio on. Let's listen to some music, guys."
He then turned on the radio and tuned it to a station that was playing some awful-sounding disco music.
"Oh, bother!" Garfield muttered as he and Odie covered their ears while Jon started nodding his head and imagined himself to be dancing with the music.
"Too bad Lyman couldn't come with us for this road trip due to his flu, boys." Jon continued, unaware that his pets have their ears covered.
(Note: I will be using Lyman, Odie's original owner, in my Garfield stories, as I liked the interaction between him and Jon in the older comics.)
"Well, if he had came with us, then I'm sure that will be double trouble for us, right Odie?" Garfield replied.
Odie nodded, aware of how similar his co-owner is with Jon. Their frustration was halted when the game finished loading and the screen displayed the main menu.
"Ah, good. The game's loaded." Garfield said as he and Odie held onto their controllers. Reaching over to the screen, Garfield purposely turned the volume of the game up to the maximum to counter the awful-sounding disco music Jon is listening to.
"Hey boys, cut the video game out!" Jon said frustratingly. "I can't hear the radio!"
"We'll do it if you changed to a different channel, Jon." Garfield replied as he and Odie selected their characters in the game.
Just as Jon was attempting to reach to the back to force the game volume down, there was a screech and a car horn.
"Woah!" Jon exclaimed as he quickly regained control of the car, narrowing missing a car that was passing them.
"Hey! Watch where you're going, you knucklehead!" The driver of that car yelled angrily after he narrowly avoids colliding with Jon's car.
Fed up with the video game's loud volume, Jon decided to turn the radio volume up to the maximum.
"No fair, Jon!" Garfield exclaimed. "You just made my character die!"
As Jon turned the radio volume up to the maximum, there was a sudden playing of the drums from it, scaring Garfield and causing him to lose concentration on the game, leading his character to die in the game.
Jon grinned as he heard the lose-a-life sound effect, but he soon started to hear weird sounds coming from the radio.
"What the?" Jon muttered as he glanced at the car radio. "What's the matter with the radio?"
"When was the last time you sent the car to a check-up, Jon?" Garfield asked as he watched Odie play. "You should've gotten the radio checked."
Just as Garfield finished, there was a mild explosion at the front row of seats, turning Jon charcoal-grey as a result of the blast.
"Ah, shucks." Jon muttered as smoke came out from the burnt-out radio and his clothes. "The radio just blew up, boys."
"Told you that you should've gotten the radio checked during that last car checkup, Jon." Garfield said frustratingly. Like Jon, he and Odie have turned charcoal-grey and had smoke coming out from their furs as a result of the blast.
Odie was also frowning, but the frown disappeared as he then carried on playing the game.
"Well, at least we don't have to worry about the awful-sounding disco music, Odie." Garfield remarked as he continued to watch Odie playing the game.
Hearing the sound effect of the video game, Jon muttered, "Man, and you guys get to have fun while I have to drive and stop frequently in this traffic!"
After a while, the car was speeding down the interstate highway.
"Well, our radio may be broken, but at least the traffic is cleared up, boys." Jon said excitingly as he drove on. There was still some smoke coming out from the damaged radio.
"Yeah, now just make sure you don't speed, Jon." Garfield raised a finger as he made the remark.
As they drove on, Jon remarked, "Boy, I sure look forward to arriving at Coolsville. Nothing can go wrong, right boys?"
Just as Jon finished, they heard sirens coming from behind, and through the rear view mirror, Jon can see a trooper signalling him to pull over.
"Now what did I do?" Jon wondered as he pulled the car over to the shoulder of the highway while Garfield reminded him that he has the right to remain silent.
The trooper walked over to Jon as he rolled his window down and asked, "Yes, officer?"
"Sir, we're going to need to escort you to the nearest truck inspection station." The trooper replied.
Jon's eyes widened. "But I'm not driving a truck, officer!"
"Ah, but you see, your car seems too heavy to be on the road, sir, if you look at the back of the car." The trooper pointed to the back.
Jon got off and looked, and he can see that the back wheels seemed to be trying hard to hold the weight of the car at the back.
"Uh, very well then, officer." Jon nodded before getting back onto the car.
During the whole interaction, Garfield heard about the need for them to be escorted to the nearest truck inspection station.
"Uh oh, Odie." Garfield remarked to Odie, who nodded in agreement.
A few minutes later, they entered a truck inspection station, where the attendants inspected Jon's car.
One of the inspectors soon discovered a refrigerator hidden in the trunk.
"What's this refrigerator doing here in the trunk?" The inspector asked.
Figuring that only one person, or in this case, cat, can be responsible for hiding the fridge in the trunk, Jon turned to Garfield as he shouted, "Garfield!"
"What? You told me to bring some snacks for the trip, Jon!" Garfield raised his arms as he tries to explain himself.
A little while later, they were back on the road.
"When I tell you to bring some snacks for the road trip, Garfield, I didn't meant bringing the whole refrigerator with us." Jon lectures Garfield.
"Yeah, and now they've confiscated the fridge, Jon." Garfield muttered frustratingly.
Odie didn't respond. He was still enjoying the scenery that passes by.
However, their mood was lighten up when they drove past a sign that said, "Ohio, The Buckeye State"
"Well boys, it won't be long before we arrive at our destination." Jon said excitingly.
"Yeah, just make sure you roll up your window, Jon." Garfield pointed at the front driver's window. "I don't feel safe driving this fast with the window rolled open."
"The traffic looks clear ahead. Nothing can go wrong now!" Jon continued cheerfully.
Just as Jon finished his remark, a bee somehow flew right into the car through the rolled up window.
"Uh, oh! A killer wasp, Odie!" Garfield panicked as he saw the bee flying around in the car.
"Arf!" Odie barked frighteningly as he and Garfield tried to take cover.
"Oh, can you boys cut it out back there?" Jon shouted, unaware that a bee flew into the car. "I can hear you two buzzing around as if you were..."
The bee flew in front of Jon just as he said "...a bee."
A brief moment went by before Jon realized that a bee was right in front of him.
"Yahhh! A killer wasp!" Jon shouted as he subconsciously pressed down onto the gas pedal while he tried to sway the bee away with his hands, leading the car to speed up suddenly. "Get it out! Get it out!"
Before long, the scene inside the car was chaotic as Jon tries desperately to avoid the bee while jerking the steering wheel left to right, causing the car to go left and right as it speeds down the highway.
Some cars were quick to move out of the way, while there were several car horns going off from Jon cutting in front of a car suddenly without have the signal lights going.
Meanwhile, a brightly-coloured van was driving down the highway with a blonde-haired boy in a white shirt and wearing an orange ascot behind the wheel.
"Well gang, we should be home in..." The boy announced, but before he could finish, Jon's car suddenly appeared out of nowhere and cut right in front of the van, forcing the boy to slam on the breaks as he narrowly avoids colliding the van with Jon's car.
"Jinkies! What's going on?" One of the passengers, a girl with short dark brown hair and wearing an orange sweatshirt and glasses, asked.
"The driver of that red car should watch where he's driving." The driver replied. "He almost crashed into us."
"Zoinks! Whoever that driver was probably shouldn't even ride a bicycle." The other passenger, a boy with dusty-brown shaggy hair and wearing a green shirt, remarked as they watched Jon's car speeding down the highway in a rather crazy fashion.
"You may be right." The third passenger, a girl with long red hair and wearing a purple dress and a green ascot matching the boys green shirt, replied.
(For those of you that know Scooby-Doo, who're the passengers that were speaking? And who's the van that the boy's driving?)
Back in Jon's car, the scene was like a nut house as Jon tries to drive and hide from the bee in the same time.
Hiding under the floor mat, Garfield and Odie peeked out and watched the bee flying around.
"Odie, perhaps it will help if we get the bee out of the car." Garfield said pointing at the bee.
Odie nodded in agreement as Garfield got up and rolled down his window.
The air suction from the high speed of the car caused the bee the flew out of the car, and once that was done, Garfield rolled the window back up.
Hearing no buzzing, Jon calmed down as he looked around. "Is the wasp gone, Garfield?"
"That was a bee, you twerp, and yeah, it's gone." Garfield replied as Odie emerged from his hiding spot.
"Whew! That was close." Jon sighed in relief. "What can go wrong now?"
Just then, a siren can be heard in the background.
Several hours later, the trio arrived at their hotel in downtown Coolsville.
"Man! A speeding ticket!" Jon said frustratingly. "How can I pay for this ticket?"
"Perhaps cutting down on the number of times we eat out should help, Jon." Garfield suggested.
"Oh, well, at least we're here, boys." Jon said as they took out their luggage and made their way to the reception.
"Hello, I've got a reservation for three." Jon said to the clerk.
"Name?" The clerk asked.
"Jon Arbuckle."
The clerk looked through the list and found the reservation booked under Jon's name.
"All right, sir." The clerk nodded before getting down with the transaction with Jon as Garfield and Odie stood by.
"So how will you like to pay for the reservation, sir?" The clerk asked.
"By credit card." Jon replied as he reached into his back pocket, only to find it empty.
"Huh? Now where's my wallet?" Jon wondered as he searched another pocket. Then another. No wallet.
"Now where did I put my wallet?" Jon asked as he opened his luggage and started to search through it.
Watching Jon searching for his wallet, Garfield commented, "This is going to be one long night, Odie, if only Jon remembered that he might have left it in the truck inspection station before we crossed the state line."
Odie nodded in agreement as he and Garfield and the clerk continued to watch Jon opening a suitcase, throwing its contents out as he said, "It's got to be here somewhere."
Please read and review!