In loving memory of Uncle D
Where should we go for a vacation? That was the question one Monday night in May of 2004 as we sat in our family room, brainstorming. Many ideas where tossed around. Zion's National Park, The Grand Canyon, the Digital World, the Kanto region, the Pride lands, Courscant, and even Hyrule. They where all very good ideas, but we could not decide on which one. Thankfully, as it turned out, Uncle D (Dad's younger brother) was going to Knott's Berry Farm with his two daughters (Sarah and Kate, plus their Digimon partners, Lisa the Falcomon and Mindy the Salomon) and his dance group, TLE (as the dance group would preform at Knott's) Dad's other younger brother, Uncle J, decided to go to with his Digimon partner Sam (a Patomon) and three of his daughters and their Digimon partners (Mary (who was partnered with a Biyomon named Savanah,) Suzzie ( with her partner, a Gammamon named Chloe,) and Carmen (who was with a Tapirmon named Emma) so it was decided we (Dad, Goma(Gomamon), Mom, Lucy(Labramon), Me, Trevor(Terriermon), Spencer, Dorma(Dorumon), Littlefoot(yes, that Littlefoot and our younger brother), and Agor(Agumon) would go too to make this a big extended family vacation. Well, Blaze Johnson (one of the Vulpix of the Ninetails/Vuplix family that lived with us) really wanted to go to once our desicion had been made, so begged and pleaded with his parents to let him go. They said he could if he got permision from Mom and Dad, so he ran over to my parents and gave them the biggest puppy dog (or fox cub) eyes he could (plus wagging his six red tails to make himself even more adorable) Turns out there was just enough room in the car, so Mom and Dad said yes. Our dog, Riley, decided to stay home, not wanting to be couped up in the Disneyland kennels.
Monday, June 7, 2004 started out bright and sunny with a few clouds in the sky, and us kids were very excited. But I still manged to mow the lawn despite wanting to leave right away (though dad did have to go get the tickets, so we had time) After mowing the lawn, I showered, dad returned with the tickets, and we loaded up the four year old car with 15 year old suitcases. Thankfully, Digimon, Pokemon, and dinosaurs don't use clothes, so the trunk of our car too everything. Now, you might be wondering how did we get four humans, one dinosaur, one Pokemon, and six Digimon in a 2000 Toyota Camry. Well, the answer is simple, black magic! Just kidding, we used a mix of sci-fi tech and Tetris. The sci-fi tech expanded the inside of the car with out making the outside bigger (thank you Time Lords), though the the device we had was on the fritz, and that is where the Tetris came into play. I, Spencer, and Littlefoot sat on the back seat with Agor, Lucy, Blaze (and his partner, a Coronamon named Flare), and Lucy sitting on the floor. Goma took a spot on the package shelf while Trevor and Dorma sat our our laps (with Dorma haveing to dedigivolve to fit, as Spencer was not having a Dorumon on his lap the whole way to California) Getting all situated Dad started the car and backed the car out of the driveway. We were finally on the road...to the chiropractor. Dad insisted we do so for some reason and we all ended up getting chiropractor adjustments before the trip. It felt nice, sure, but we really wanted to get going.
This was 2004, and smartphones did not exist yet. Cell phones did, but not everyone had one, or in our case, we had a grey Motorola one from 1997 that cost 25 cents a minute and had a huge battery hanging of the back. Plus it did not work out of Utah (we did not have a nationwide plan) so we did not even bring it. And to top it all off, non of our Digivices had a talk feature (though they did have radar.) Because of this, we had not way of contacting Joey's family when we got to the meeting place (the McDonald's across from the mall) and they were not there. We ended up leaving and driving down to Nephi, Utah and stopped at a Chevron, where we could use an AT&T payphone. Dad scrounged around for some coins and called J, who it turned out was still near their house with his family, so we had to wait for forever for them to catch up. I passed the time eating one of mom's zucchini muffins while sitting on the back bumper of the car with Trevor. The frosting though was a little sticky, and Trevor got some on his little black nose. He tired to wipe it off, but this caused him to sneeze and he sneezed with such force he fell off the bumper. The muffin followed, and slammed right down on his face. I started laughing so hard I ended up falling off the bumper too, landing on my back.
Trevor got up with a smirk on his face and lunged at me. Before I could react, he landed on my chest and with his little right paw/hand took some of the muffin of his furry dog/rabbit muzzle and smeared it on my nose.
"Hey, cute that out!" I yelled.
Grinning, Trevor replied "A Digimon and their partner must sacrafice together!" This statement got me laughing again, and soon both of us where shoving muffin at each other and getting dirty.
Soon the others arrived, and we handed them one of our walkie talkies so we could communicate while on the road while Trevor and I went into the Cheveron to clean up. We got back on I-15 south bound and headed toward Las Vegas. Everything was going OK until we noticed something falling off from the underside of Uncle J's silver Audi. Lucy told him over the walkie talkie, and both cars were pulled off onto a ranch exit. Dad, Mom, and Uncle J looked under the car, and it appeared to be the chin spoiler coming off. Goma tried to climb under the Audi to reattach it, but clawed flippers are not very dexterous. Unfortunately we had pulled of on dirt, and Goma's chest was now covered in said dirt. Dad didn't want dirt all over the car, so he picked up his Digimon partner and started wiping the dirt of with his hands.
"Hey, that tickles!" exclaimed Goma as he started to laugh and squirm.
"Hold still will yah!" Dad exclaimed as he continued to brush the dirt off. Suddenly, Goma squirmed to much and Dad lost his grip. Goma fell on to his back in even more dirt.
"Goma!" Dad exclaimed, though he was trying to stiffle a laugh. He reached down and helped his partner flip over.
"Hey, you know I'm ticklish!" said Goma.
"Now what are we going to do?" asked Blaze from the back seat as he had been watching through the open door.
"Dear, do you have a towel I can wrap him in?" Dad asked Mom.
"Yes, but we'll have to take the suitcases out." replied Mom. So she and Spencer opened the trunk and carefully got the large suitcase out. She handed Dad the towel, and he wrapped the white Digi seal in it, then placed him back in his spot in the car.
There was nothing we could do on a ranch exit about the Audi, so we got back in the cars-Mary gave us one of their walkie talkies, as they said their worked better-and within an hour we made it to St. George, Utah.
St. George is a very nice looking place, surrounded by wonderful red colored rocks and cliffs. We pulled off first for dinner at a Chili's. The waiter gave us an odd look when we seemed to order more than we needed, but hey, we have Pokemon, Digimon, and a dinosaur to feed that they can't see. Littlefoot got a salad, but accidentally spilled part of it on the floor. He ate it anyways. Then to Wal-mart where I, Spencer, and Suzie each got a Kodak FunSaver single use camera. I had really wanted my own camera to use on the trip since I love photography, so I was excited. Then we went to Checker Auto to see if they could fix Joey's car. Thankfully, it was a simple fix. Finally, we got gas and washed the windows at a Chevron, while Dad took a water hose and washed off Goma. On to Vegas!
I remember driving though "The Gorge", the part of I-15 that goes through Arizona that was carved through a canyon, the road twisting this way and that. Dad was still listening to the news of the day, and so I and Littlefoot tried passing the time by listening to Mikhail play music over the walkie talkie with her CD player and guessing what she was playing. However, Mary's music tastes were different then mine and Littlefoot's, and we had no idea what she was playing. Besides, it was hard to even hear the music over the yellow walkie talkie. So we gave up on that.
Out on the flat desert of Nevada and Mom was tired of listing to the news, so we popped in a book on tape, Ella Enchanted, which we listened to all the way to Las Vegas. Arriving in Vegas, we stopped at a 7/11 to look up the address to the hotel as this was pre smart phone days. We found the Residence Inn by Marriott was on Flamingo Road, so we got back in the cars and headed over. The hotel was on the west side of I-15, and had a good view of the lights of the Las Vegas Strip. We unpacked the cars and headed up to our rooms on the 3rd floor.
Now, according to Suzie, they always go swimming as soon as they get to a hotel, so Mom, Dad, Spencer, Goma, Trevor, Littlefoot, and I went swimming in a very cool swimming pool with a waterfall flowing into it. Blaze, being a fire type Pokemon, wasn't all that interested in going swimming. Oh sure, he is fine getting in water, but it just does not interest him. Besides, his fur (especially the fur on his six tails) is not very water proof like Goma's, so he just came down to watch us swim.
"Cannonball!" yelled Littlefoot as the Apatosaurus jumped into the pool. He caused a huge wave, and it went straight for Blaze, who had wandered a little to close to the pool. The wave hit the fire fox Pokemon, and just like in episode 7 of the anime when Pikachu got swept into the pool at the Cerulean Gym, so did Blaze.
"Bleack, Littlefoot!" yelled Blaze and he doggy paddled back to the side of the pool.
"Oooops, sorry." said the Dinosaur as I and Spencer laughed.
After our swim, we went back to our hotel room and popped some free popcorn in the microwave. Dad wanted to watch the news on the TV, while Spencer and I wanted to watch cartoons, like Digimon. So dad sent us over to J's room, which was down the hall but still on level three. However, Mary was watching Oprah on the CRT Sony television. Also, Uncle J was not even there! He left to go get himself cheese cake at the Cheesecake factory, and Mom had to come over and watch our cousins till he got back.
End of Day one!
Not a self insert, as I was actually there on this vacation.