“Hey, I love this song! Crank the tunes!” I excitingly hollered. By the time i knew it I was sitting next to my best friend in the back of her dark green mini van driving fast on the highways of good old Michigan. I never expected my mom to get a call two weeks ago asking if I wanted to go on vacation to Florida. It totally shocked me that i said yes, but i’m pretty sure it shocked my friend Lauren more. I was feeling over appreciated because Lauren chose me over every other one of her friends.

As I was sitting on the left side of Lauren, all I was noticing was the sun gleaming off her long, beautiful blonde hair with the feeling of jealousy, and the song playing on the radio rolling through my head. She was staring out the window on her side, I was also looking her way into the distance. Then it finally hit me. I am going on vacation for Spring break with one of my best friends to Florida. At this point I was just happy, plain out happy. I could tell this was exactly what happiness felt like, I guess I haven’t felt this happy in a while. I had that tender feeling in me, and I couldn’t hide the grin on my face.

“Mrs. Steensma, how many more hours?!” I shouted in a joking voice.
“Only twenty one more!” she replied with a smile on her face.
It only been three hours and it already felt like I was in this claustrophobic van for seven months!
Lauren and I continued chit chatting about what we were most excited for, and where we want to go first.
“I so wanna go shopping first, you know how I am with shopping.” I said overly cheesy.”
“I want to swim, its Florida, this is all i’ve been wanting for!” Lauren said in the opposite tone of voice then I did. We both ended up wanting to go to the huge outdoor pool up the street from her grandpa’s condo where we were staying.
We finally were entering the first toll booth to get into Indiana. Mr. Steensma started digging through the glove department for a dollar fifty, he found four quarters and five dimes and handed it to the older looking man working the booth. They thanked each other and the van started moving along the road again. The ride through Indiana seemed short, well three in a half hours doesn’t seem too short but when you’re taking naps on and off and having good conversations with a close friend, everything seems to go by faster, and suddenly everything seemed to get darker as well. I looked at the clock in the front of the van and it said ‘10:17’. Woah, it got late fast, I thought to myself amazed.
Lauren was listening to her small lime green ipod that was half the size of mine and looked like it was made in the 16th Century, I always teased her about it. Then me just sitting indian style on the car seat with my head leaned to the side laid back, headphones in, mouthing the words but with no sound coming out of my mouth. (I only sang along to songs in my car of course). My eyes slowly started shutting then I....
“Ariel! Ariel! Wake up! We are already in Tennessee! We finished Indiana and Kentucky!” Lauren shouted like she just won a million bucks. I can’t believe she did this, she knows this is the worst way of waking up. But i knew i just had to shake it off and act excited. I didn’t really have to act because to be honest right then I was one happy girl.
“Woah..no way..” I said in a sleepy tone.
“Ariel Yes way!”
“Your pretty dang excited aren’t ya.” I said smiling.
“Are you kidding me, yes i’m excited! But i really gotta peeee”
“oh gosh, me too!”
“I kinda gotta go too..” Laurens mom said in a low pitched voice.
“Maybe I should go now!” Mr. Steensma said with excitement. We all had a little giggle.
I sat back in my seat and stared out the window, zooming fast past the trees and turning off to the next exit to stop at a restroom. We drove a ways down and saw a gas station we turned into the entrance. Didn’t look too nice, and Mrs. Steensma gave us a weird look. We jumped out of the back seat and see a tiny place that looked like a house on the other side of the gas station that was labeled “Restrooms” but the ‘S’ was shaded off so it looked like “Retrooms”. Lauren had to pee the worst so she hurried in, me and Mrs. Steensma waited outside the door. I was just standing there wanting to ram the door open. Finally she comes out with a nasty look on her face. I open the door and look inside. All I mostly noticed was the dirt all over the floor, the sink looking like it hasn’t been cleaned and the stained tile on the walls. Just to make everything worse i saw two spiders in the corner above me. (Spiders has always been my worst fear.) That was the first time I have ever peed that fast, i dashed out of that door like something was chasing me. Lauren started cracking up, and we quickly jumped into the van.

We emerged back onto the highway, I saw a sign saying we would be entering Georgia in 13.7 miles. I tapped Lauren on the shoulder “Lauren, look!” I said and pointed to the sign. “ya, ya, ya” She said in a gangster voice. I could tell by her face that she was definitely one of the happiest girls on earth right now.

Driving through Georgia was the best. All the sites were so different and beautiful. Everything seemed warmer and brighter. I loved it a lot. In the middle of Georgia we stopped to subway and got a couple subs because we were all starving. We walked inside picked what toppings we wanted quickly and got back on the road. We wanted to get on the road fast and focus on getting to our destination.

I was listening to Taylor Swift on my ipod like always, and texting my mom. She was always texting me along the ride to see how everything was going. That’s how she always is. A spazz about me being protected and safe. A couple other friends were texting me about how much I was loving the ride, but I was being super short with them because I was too excited to text friends at this point.

The highways all of a sudden got gorgeous. I felt like I was driving up the driveway of Bill gates house, I never seen a highway so decorated and amazing. Palm trees were lined up perfectly and the pink flowers made everything look even better. “We made it!” Mrs. Steensma said with joy and happiness in her voice. Lauren and I started smiling and were watching everything that passed by out our windows. We drove for about a hour if i really think about it until we made it to Maples, Florida. The last hour all I did was stare and watch everything that passed by very closely. Everything was bigger, nicer, and cooler. Expectically cooler. Normal people were riding bikes, walking their dogs, and swimming in pools. I heard that in florida practically everyone has a pool in their backyard, it made sense because its so hot.

We pulled into a neighborhood with tons of little, houses. We drove about two blocks and pulled into the driveway of a super cute yellow house. The feeling of relief came to me. We made it in 24 hours. Now its time to enjoy the hot steaming sun and the cool fresh water.