...Driving With Rachel...

This is something I wrote when Rachel had just gotten her lisence...tell me what you think...and this is 100% true! lol


One of the many adventures of…

Driving With Rachel
(Yes, this is a true story)

By Clareesa J.


Before I begin my story, let me tell you that every time Rachel tells this story the first thing she says is, “It wasn’t my fault!”…

Wednesday April 16th 2008. 1:16pm:
The day started out when Rachel and I left to go volunteer at Options 360.
On the way we decided to stop at the “little store” ‘cause Rachel wanted to buy some gum. And of course we had to buy our ‘annual’ caramel covered apple lollipops for fifteen cents each.
Then we drove of to the Options 360 building. We stuffed, folded, addressed and sealed envelopes for two and a half hours.
Then the excitement started when Mom called and asked us to get chicken food at the Feed Mill.
And of course Rachel ‘no problem’. Then after she hung up the cell phone she realized she didn’t know where the Feed Mill was. She know the general area…but that was all.
We stopped at a red light and Rachel looked around. “I think we go straight here…or do we turn right?”
“Aren’t we going to wrong direction? Isn’t the Feed Mill past that building with the big picture painted on it going that way?” I asked as I pointed behind us.
“No…well, I don’t think so.” Rachel bit her lip and started at the red light ahead of her. “I guess I’ll turn into the pizza place up there and call mom.”
The light turned green and Rachel drove forward…past the pizza place.
“I thought you said you where going to park at the pizza place?”
“Not with all those cars behind us! That would not have been cool! We can turn into Jo-Ann’s Fabric at this stop light.”
Rachel pulled into the parking lots and called mom and learned that the Feed Mill was just past the big painted building I had referred to (I was half right in my directions).
We pasted the painted building and turned right. We kept our eyes open for the Feed Mill but started to have out doubts as we began passing neighborhoods.
“Were we supposed to turn right again after the painted building?” asked Rachel.
We kept driving for another five minutes, but slowed down when we saw a sign that said “Padden”.
“How did we get here?!?!”
I called mom and told her we were a little lost. She said we could get home taking 99th St.
“Ok,” I replied. “But how do we get to the Feed Mill from here?”
“You haven’t gone to the Feed Mill yet?!” Her voice echoed in the phone.
“That’s why I’m calling you…we need to know how to get there!”
She told us to go back the way we had came and the Feed Mill was just before the big painted building.
I hung up the phone and replayed the message to Rachel.
We spent another ten minutes driving back.
“Be sure to keep your eyes open Clareesa. I don’t want to miss the Feed Mill this time!”
Another few minutes passed when Rachel cried out happily, “I see it!” The Feed Mill we just down the road a few yards and to the left. “We’ll have to drive past it and turn around.”
We drove once again past the big painted building (I call it the BPB). Then Rachel made a very fast turn into the pizza place (and I understood why she hadn’t wanted to turn in there before!).
Rachel turned the car around, then groaned. “I can’t turn here! It’s a one-way street!”
We drove around to the back of the building to see if there was another way out…and of course, there wasn’t.
So Rachel was forced to turn out of the parking lot towards the opposite direction of the Feed Mill and towards the direction of Jo-Ann’s again (she did this really fast too).
We drove back into Jo-Ann’s parking lot. Then we headed in the right direction.
We made it safely (or at least alive) to the Feed Mill.
I was still eating my caramel-apple lollipop (though the stick had broken off and I just had the lollipop part in my mouth) when we walked into the store. I didn’t want to go around we my cheek sticking out so I positioned the candy in the middle of my mouth. Though my cheek wasn’t sticking out…my face was fixed into a frown. And as Rachel said later I was ‘strangely quiet’. I noticed a few people look at me with very strange faces (I just know I looked like a stuck-up teen). It was rather awkward.
The we drove around to get the chicken feed loaded into the car. The guy asked me if I wanted the bag on top of the seat, but I was still eating my lollipop…and it is really hard to talk with something in your mouth! The guy gave me a weird look…I had gotten a lot of those!
After we got the feed Dad called and said we wanted Rachel and I to go to Lowes and pick up something for Baci.
After Rachel hung up the phone she turned to me. “We have to go to Lowes and get a map for Baci.”
In the back of my mind I was thinking how weird it was to go to Lowes for a map. I didn’t even know Lowes had maps! But I trusted Dad at knowing things like that.
Rachel passed up the first turn to get to Lowes…but the second one worked just as well. She called Baci to tell him we were there and to ask him what the model number was for the ‘map’.
A man working at Lowes was at the door. Rachel was still talking on the phone with Baci. The man asked me what we were looking for.
“Uh, maps.” I said.
“Maps?” the man repeated.
Rachel (who was still on the phone) called out quickly. “No Clareesa! Mats! “
I could feel my face turn red. “Sorry! I meant mats…”’
The man smiled then directed us to the mats section. I could have died of embarrassment.
While Rachel was talking on the phone with Baci she asked me to write the model number down. She gave me a pen…and all I had to write on was my hand.
We told the man working in the carpet section that we were looking for a mat and had the model number. He asked for the number (duh). But when I looked at my hand to read it…and I started laughing! I felt incredibly dumb reading my hand for a number! I couldn’t stop laughing so Rachel tried to read it. But she couldn’t read my handwriting! Finally I stopped laughing long enough to read the number. The man must have thought we were two weirdos. I could have died of embarrassment a second time.
We got the mat and took it to the check-out stand. And I’m sure the guy there thought we were crazy too! Just as we finished paying, the first man we had met (the one at the door) walked up. “Ohh...I see you got a rug. I just wanted to make sure everything was ok.”
Rachel’s face was as red as mine as we walked out the door. But as soon as we reached the car, we both burst on laughing.
We climbed into the car and Rachel told me that she had to go to Fred Meyers to get her watch battery fixed.
We got to Fred Meyers alive and walked to the Jewelry section. The man working there was busy with something. Rachel walked up and told him that she needed her watch battery fixed.
“Sure,” said the man.
Rachel cleared her throat nervously. “Uhh…so do I do it here?”
“Yep,” replied the man. “Every Tuesday after seven.”
Rachel mouth dropped. Her eyes got big. She gulped.
The man chuckled. “No, I’m kidding. I can do it now.”
I laughed but Rachel just stood there…breathing very hard.
Another embarrassing moment for us! The watch battery was fixed in a couple minutes and Rachel and I left.
“No more. No more embarrassments!” she exclaimed. Though Rachel was thoroughly embarrassed (as was I) she was laughing uncontrollably. She started wiping away tears of laughter from her eyes. “I seriously need to stop acting so silly. Everywhere I go something funny or embarrassing happens!”
Then I had to use my ‘wise-words’ of wisdom and tell Rachel that it wasn’t bad to have fun (thought sometime is can be).
Rachel didn’t really listen to me (do older sisters ever listen to there younger siblings?). But oh well…I will save my wise words for when I am older and people will listen to me.
Rachel said she had to deposit some money in the bank, but needed to go home to get it. I decided to go along just in case any more happen and Rachel needed moral support.
We did not experience any other ‘fun’ moments, other then the goats in our driveway that wouldn’t budge and the six deer on our road that were running like crazy trying to get out of the way of the car!
The day was a mixture of embarrassment (well actually mostly embarrassment), laughter and stress. But if you put it all on paper…it makes a great story!

Hilarious! I've had some days like that too.

yeah, me too. And I love those caramel/apple lolipops!

Haha! Great story, Clareesa. I've driven with Rachel before....but nothing that exciting has happened yet.

LOL...That is funny

Haha sounds like when our family goes out 5 girls and one guy so we are always one hillarious family! But that is probly a good thing! LOL! Good writting clareesa! And you guys souldn't be embarrassed you should be proud to be able to be your self out in public!

Crystal C. wrote:Haha sounds like when our family goes out 5 girls and one guy so we are always one hillarious family! But that is probly a good thing! LOL! Good writting clareesa! And you guys souldn't be embarrassed you should be proud to be able to be your self out in public!

i DON'T know if she should be proud of it....but it was really funny!lol

Well I didn't mean like stuck up meant more like glad happy.

I know! lol

Sounds like you had a fun day!! This story was sooo entertaining!!!

Awsome! Sometimes actually most of the time my days are a crowd of things to do! That is a great story! Those Carmel apple Lollie pops are pretty tasty too! Thats a great story!

Maps And Mats! LOL

Hehe