QOTD: Most Memorable Family Road Trip Snafu?

The Labor Day long weekend is nearly upon us and, while your author doesn’t plan to roam more than a couple hours’ distance from home, many of you might already be packing up the [s]car[/s] crossover for one last warm getaway.

Nothing is quite as bittersweet as packing up the fam and hitting the road to your favorite destination, knowing all too well that the best of summer is behind you and that soon things will grow cold and dark. The lowering skies will grow heavy with frozen precipitation, the north wind will kick up, and that refreshing summer beer just won’t cut it anymore. Yup, time for the harder stuff.

But I digress! We all remember family road trips that went awry, so let’s drive into the weekend on a road paved with nostalgia.

Given the automotive theme at play here, let’s avoid stories of family road trip disasters born of unexpected pregnancies, violent death, strange new adolescent feelings, or broken marriages. People are nice, but the car remains the chief focus here.

You author’s past contains numerous road trips, most of which went off without a hitch. Truth be told, during those developing years I can only recall one automotive breakdown while on the road with the family. It was an early memory, to be sure. 1986. We’d just descended from a journey up the Mt. Washington Auto Road in the family’s 1980 Pontiac Phoenix when the overtaxed X-body’s radiator blew. Despite my young age, I can still remember being impressed by how much coolant spewed out of that hatchback.

For the family’s sake, it was a good thing the Phoenix waited until we reached less lofty ground before vomiting up its precious bodily fluids.

Another averted disaster came on a hot day in North Carolina, where my youthful sister began loudly commenting on the decidedly ugly appearance of a pair of bikers who’d just rumbled up next to us at a stoplight. I’ll never forget my dad hissing a sharp rebuke that invoked both the name of the man who died for our sins and the fact that his Fairmont housed only an 88-horsepower four-cylinder. We made it to the beach without further incident.

All of this pales in comparison to a friend’s childhood tale, in which their old wagon broke down in the Everglades and was quickly surrounded by alligators, preventing any attempt at repair. A family dispute then broke out in the cabin of the sweltering vehicle, with the patriarch of the clan deciding to take his chances outside the car. He waited for help on the car’s roof.

What’s your tale of a family road trip that went sideways?

[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]