11

Dad went down to the front desk to tell them our "pet" had gotten into the minibar and we shouldn't be charged for all the stuff it ate. But the clerk told Dad we were gonna have to pay for the stuff from the minibar, and on top of THAT, there was a fifty-dollar penalty for violating the hotel's "no pet" policy. After the final tally, the pig ended up costing us more than the ROOMS did. Mom was eager to get on the road, so she woke Rodrick up and told him to get in the shower. But I probably should've mentioned to him that the pig was in the bathtub before he stepped in.

When we got in the car, Dad was on the phone with his office. Apparently, there was some sort of emergency, and he was the only one who knew how to take care of it. Mom had planned a big day for us with lots of stops, so she wasn't happy that Dad had to deal with a work situation. But we hit the road anyway, and Dad talked on the phone while he drove.

Our first stop was a place that claimed to have the largest piece of popcorn in the world, which ended up not being that impressive. First of all, it wasn't a real piece of popcorn, it was a wood carving, and second, it wasn't even all that big. When we got out of the car, Dad stayed back on his call. The pig stayed, too, sleeping off the drinks from the minibar. Next we went to a place that's supposedly "world famous" because it has life-size carvings of all the U.S. presidents in butter.

This time Mom made Dad get out of the van and join us, but he stayed on the phone the whole time. When we got back in the car, Mom let Dad know it wasn't OK for him to be missing out on family time." Dad told her he just needed to deal with one more work issue, and after it was taken care of, he'd give us his full attention. Dad said he was about to get a call from one of his international clients and that when he DID, it was really important for everyone to stay quiet so it would seem like Dad was in the office.

It didn't look like that was gonna be a big problem. Manny was already down for his afternoon nap, and the pig was still passed out in the cooler. A few minutes later, Dad's call came in. You could tell by how loud the guy was talking that he was upset. But Dad spoke in a real even tone, and his client seemed to calm down. The rest of us stayed as quiet as we could. But then Rodrick got out one of his packs of bubble gum and put all five pieces in his mouth and started chewing it real loud. Mom snapped her fingers to try and get him to stop making so much noise.

But her finger snapping was actually LOUDER than the gum chewing, which you could tell was irritating Dad. Mom wanted Rodrick to get rid of his gum, so she pressed the button to open the sunroof. But when she DID, the sound of air blowing inside the van was like a jet turbine. Mom realized she had made a mistake, so she pressed the button to CLOSE the sunroof. But before it shut all the way, Rodrick chucked his gum through the opening.