The night was tough for the group. Mosquitoes somehow stumbled inside their tent and they decided to sleep in the extra bedroom of the RV. The kids soon woke up once they heard Betty scream out. Pumpkin had gotten out and nearly chewed up all the furniture.
"Oh, no, Phil!" Courtney gasped once she saw her boyfriend's backpack was also a victim from the cute, teething puppy.
"My collection!" Phil yelled out, then tried to get his backpack back from the dog. "Give it here, you flea-bitten mutt!"
Kira had a firm look on her face as if she knew her daughter had something to do with this. Kimi smiled and chuckled nervously.
"We're not keeping him." Kira told Kimi.
"You guys can't just abandon him though, he's been through enough." Junior pouted.
Pumpkin then whined and walked up to Junior and panted happily to him.
"Oh, Junior, I think it likes you." Angelica commented.
"You like me, boy?" Junior smiled.
Pumpkin barked and panted.
"Maybe you should keep him." Mike said.
"Well, I have always wanted a pet..." Junior admitted. "I just could never find the right one."
"That's how I feel about Courage, I'd take him, but I already have a pet," Mike said. "Ling-Ling."
"Well, it's decided, Pumpkin should stay with Junior, it is tres adorable." Rhonda agreed.
"Well, Junior, that sounds like a good idea to me, as long as you keep him under control." Charlotte warned her daughter's boyfriend.
"Yes, of course, ma'am, I'll be the best owner ever." Junior promised as he took his hat off and put it over the puppy's head.
Pumpkin barked and licked Junior's face with a smile.
Later on, everyone got dressed and they were now back on the road. Junior wanted to give Pumpkin a different name, but since the puppy didn't answer to anything else, he would just have to grin and bear it.
"So after this morning's little dog mishap, we're a little behind schedule, so I made a map of the World's Most Amazing Wonders you'll ever see." Didi said as she gave a map to the kids as they sat at the table while Betty drove.
"You'll have exactly six minutes at each site or we're takin' off without ya!" Betty called back to the kids.
Pumpkin was mostly kept under control for the most part, mostly if Junior was around. They took pictures in front of the Hoover Dam, some canyons, a Petrified Ground, a cavern, a donut shop, a giant fire hydrant which Pumpkin enjoyed, and they took another stop.
"Well, this trip just got a little bit more exciting..." Belinda said as she stood next to Tommy as he filmed. "What made you interested in cameras, Tommy?"
"I'm not sure, but in one of my early movies, I filmed my cousin Angelica when she was three and I was a baby..." Tommy shrugged. "Seems like only yesterday she kept calling me and the others 'dumb babies'."
"Kinda reminds me of Prudence." Belinda commented.
Tommy then remembered that name. "Oh, yeah... The Junk Food Kid... Whatever happened to her?"
"I actually don't know..." Belinda admitted. "I just knew that I saw you in my dreams when I was getting older and I had to see you again. Your name always stuck with me 'Thomas Pickles'."
SPLASH!
The others gasped and rushed over as Chuckie had fallen into the water.
"What is your deal, Chuckie?" Rhonda asked.
Chuckie sighed. "Sorry, Rhonda."
"Man, could this trip get any worse?" Tommy asked.
"Look at what we found at the gift shop!" Betty called as she and Charlotte wore hats and they soon put the same hats on their kids. "Matching hats!"
"Doesn't this just scream tourist in a kind of tacky, yet trendy kind of way?" Charlotte smiled as she also wore one.
"Oh, yeah," Chuckie groaned. "This'll really help me win Rhonda Wellington-Lloyd's heart."
There was a picture taken there, then there were matching hats for chairs, they took a picture underneath a giant hat, there was even upside down horse shoes and Dil was bored that he made a funny face into the camera, and they were now among the Grand Canyon.
"Ah, the Grand Canyon," Didi smiled at the sight. "You know, Tommy, it takes four billion years for Mother Nature to make a rock tower like that."
"And you're gonna stand here and make me watch her, are ya?" Tommy asked dryly.
"No, Pumpkin!" Junior tried to hold back the dog as he was itching to go for Phil's backpack again as he collected rocks with Courtney.
Pumpkin didn't listen to him that time as he got loose from the rope and then tackled Phil down to the ground which made Courtney gasp.
"Pumpkin!" Junior scolded. "Sorry about that, Phil. I guess he just likes your Bag of Death."
Phil had accidentally knocked down Tommy and then picked up his video camera and looked into the lens. "Whoa, I love this movie!"
"Oh, Phil." Mike face-palmed.
"Movie?" Lucy asked. "Didi, I thought the kids weren't supposed to zone out on this trip."
"Tommy!" Didi called firmly.
"You might as well tell her the truth..." Belinda sighed to Tommy.
"I downloaded a DVD," Tommy then confessed. "I needed to get something on my mind from leaving home."
"And the Grand Canyon wouldn't do it?!" Didi replied, leaving a slight echo.
"Not like Revenge of the Grim Comber V." Phil smiled.
"Not helping..." Courtney nudged his arm.
Kira groaned and ran to the trashcan to once again, lose her lunch.
"Nice work, Betty, from now on; I pick the lunch spots." Charlotte said.
"Oh, look who's getting loaded off, Fancy Girl!" Betty scoffed.
Susie then whistled to ease the tension. "Excuse me? But have you all forgotten what this trip is for?"
"To make you even more insufferably perfect than you already are?" Angelica deadpanned.
"And to promote the good work of America's hardworking cheese producers." Susie then reminded with a smile, letting Angelica's comment slide.
"And it was about us moms getting closer to you guys." Didi added in with a smile.
"Well, I'm sick of getting close!" Tommy glared. "I'm sick of being told what to do! And I'm sick of having a mom!"
"Tommy!" Belinda gasped.
"No, I mean it!" Tommy glared before storming off.
Didi looked broken, but tried not to let that bother her. "Maybe we should get going?"
Belinda walked over to Didi and gently patted her on the back. "I'm so sorry about that..." she whispered softly.
"Oh, it's all right, Belinda, I'm sure Tommy just needs to blow off some steam." Didi said before chucking a pebble behind her back which made the Grand Canyon crumble and fall on their way out.
Later that night, the kids had a campfire and sat by it, still thinking about what Tommy said to Didi.
"Dude, T, that thing you said back to Mom about not needing her, harsh." Dil said.
"It really was..." Mike had to agree.
"Yeah, well, wait 'til you're older..." Tommy scoffed as he stared into the fire. "You'll understand."
"I'll never understand not loving my mom." Mike whispered sharply since she was an orphan.
Butch from Third Street School walked over. "Hey, you guys coming to see the Garden of Tears tonight? I'm trying to catch a ride."
"Garden of Tears?" Kimi replied with a smile. "What's that?"
"Oh, man, you've never heard of it?" Butch replied.
The group then shook their heads at him.
"The story is, this Indian Princess, Soyiani ditched out some bogus dude her dad wanted her to marry," Butch began to explain. "So her tribe left him behind the Star of Death that was red rock, not too far from here."
"Whoa, talk about harsh." Junior cringed as he was gently petting Pumpkin as the puppy fell asleep.
"They say she cried so many tears that a geyser was made on that spot," Butch continued like one of his stories at around recess back home in DisneyVille. "Every year at this night, it blows and the princess rises in the mist. You can hear her screams echoing in the rocks."
The others responded in shock and interest.
"Guys, did you hear that?" Dil smiled in excitement. "An actual Apprecation Site with water feature!"
"Finally, something we wanna do!" Tommy beamed.
"Hold up, there's no way your moms are gonna let you go out in a desert alone on midnight." Rhonda spoke up.
"Oh, yeah, she's right," Phil agreed. "We might 'touch' something."
"So? We can always sneak out after they've gone to sleep." Tommy suggested with a smile.
"Sneak out?" Susie asked as she walked over as she overheard them. "What for?"
"To see a real live dead Indian princess," Kimi smiled. "Out in the desert!"
"Sounds epic, but I dunno if it's such a good idea," Susie replied. "I gotta sing in New York in four days and I don't even have my song down yet!"
"Well, maybe Susie's right..." Tommy sighed. "We don't even know how to get there."
"Kids?" Didi called.
The others looked to see their mothers coming.
"We want to apologize." Lucy said.
"We haven't been listening to what you guys wanna do." Didi added.
"So tonight, we're going to a real southwestern fiesta!" Betty beamed.
The others then smiled and followed their mothers over to where they could go so everyone could have some fun tonight.