12 Ups and Downs

Chapter 12 Ups and Downs I WILL MEET YOU IN THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK What the heck was that supposed to mean? Pep looked at the words she had written. "I never heard of a house on a rock," she whispered to her brother. "There are probably thousands of houses that are built on rocks," Coke replied. "Maybe it's another secret message that means something completely different." "These Genius Files people are so annoying," Pep complained. "Why don't they just tell us what's going on? Why do they have to make us figure it out?" "The message didn't necessarily come from

them, y'know," Coke said. "It could have come from anybody." Want to follow the McDonalds on their cross- country trip? Get on the internet and go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com), Mapquest (www.mapquest.com), Rand McNally (www.randmcnally.com), or whatever navigation website you like best. Go ahead, I'll wait. Okay, now type in Burlingame, California (where the Museum of Pez Memorabilia is located), and click SEARCH MAPS. Click the little + or sign on the screen to zoom in or out until you get a sense of where the twins are. Now you can follow them on their journey. "Then who are we supposed to meet in the house on the rock?" Pep asked, knowing she wasn't going to get an answer. "And when? This message doesn't tell us anything." "We'll just have to keep our eyes open," Coke said, ending the discussion.

Dr. McDonald hopped on Route 101 North through the city and picked up Interstate 80 East as the RV crossed over the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. They were on their way now. If they wanted to, they could just stay on I-80 all the way across the country. "Just fifteen hundred and forty-seven miles until we get to the largest ball of twine in the world!" Mrs. McDonald said excitedly after punching the data into her laptop. "And twenty- seven hundred and sixty-two miles to Washington." Go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/). Click Get Directions. In the A box, type Burlingame CA. In the B box, type Chico CA.

Click Get Directions. Pep did a quick mental calculation. If they averaged sixty-five miles per hour, it would take them more than forty-two hours to drive to Washington. That would be without stopping, of course. Once you add in sleeping, eating, stopping for gas, and just getting out to stretch their legs, it would be closer to... Oh, she didn't want to think about it. And then, after they got to Washington and went to the wedding, they would have to drive that whole way back home, too. It was going to be a long summer. Pep was already bored, and the trip had just begun. Coke turned on his iPod and got lost in the music as he mindlessly shuffled the deck of playing cards Bones had given them. The McDonalds were cruising along I-80 for a little more than fifty miles when they started to see signs for Leisure Town and Nut Tree Airport. Dr. McDonald pulled onto Interstate 505 North.

"Where are you going, Dad?" Coke asked. "Why did you get off I-80?" "Ask your mother," Dr. McDonald grumbled. "We're going to the National Yo-Yo Museum!" Mrs. McDonald exclaimed. "It's only about two hours from here!" "We're driving two hours out of our way to look at some yo-yos?" Coke asked, slapping himself on the forehead. Not just some yo-yos. Hundreds of yo-yos. Glow-in-the-dark yo-yos. See-through yo-yos. Flintstone yo-yos and Star Wars yo-yos. The National Yo-Yo Museum has everything from antique 1920s yo-yos to today's metal alloy yoyos with a centrifugal clutch transaxle, whatever that is. Mrs. McDonald gasped as the family walked inside The Bird in Hand, an educational toy store in Chico, California, where the National Yo-Yo Museum is located. This was her kind of place. "Feast your eyes, kids," Mrs. McDonald said,

pulling out her camera to document the majesty of it all. "You're standing in front of the world's largest wooden yo-yo!" It was a monster of a thing. 256 pounds. The string, unrolled, was seventy-five feet long. A little plaque on the floor said that "Big-Yo" was only used a few times. Once it was dropped off a crane over San Francisco Bay. "The world's largest Pez dispenser is bigger," Coke said, unimpressed. He knew all about yo-yos, of course, having