Motion. Sickness.

Often when we take off for an extended car ride, it’s not more than 30 minutes before I hear, “I’m queasy.” It usually starts off with our 12-year old and moves up and down the ranks until everyone is ready to get sick. (Except me.) Actually getting sick has only happened a few times in all of the years of driving, but we have had some close calls. I guess. I wasn’t in the bathroom after we stopped for a bathroom break.

When I was a kid, and my brother and sister are probably laughing right now, I used to get sick when we would travel to Florida or any place beyond the Missouri border. The real problem was---I didn’t like to go in what I called, “foreign toilets.” This is a huge problem when you are 700+ miles away from home and you have to go. So, my Dad, being the great guy that he is, would escort me to the bathroom and help place toilet paper on the seat before I would sit down. Thanks Dad, I am much better these days.

The only time I can remember truly experiencing motion sickness was when my Dad, brother and I went to Hannibal, MO by boat. The only thing I remember about it, besides wishing I was dead, was an older man named, “Billy” who owned the boat we were on. The saving grace, it had a bathroom; but you had to stand up when you went and your head popped through the top---my head was popping a lot that trip. Having a good memory at times is not a blessing, but it does help when I write, “Snap.Shot.”

This past weekend, as you may know, was the weekend the carnival came to our town. One of the things that seems to happen as you get older, is for some reason the rides we all loved when we were kids are the ones we will not step near as adults. You have the “Tilt-A-Whirl” that makes me sick just looking at it; the ride, I can’t remember it’s name, that uses centrifugal force to hold you in place as it spins around and the floor drops down; and the ride that moves back and forth until it performs a full rotation. Funny, there were no adults on that ride, wonder why?

The photo above was one I was really glad I took. As it whirled around and around, it left a streak of light that only proved once again why a carnival is for kids. To know there is a human being on board, and looking at it in this whirlig motion, is enough to make me sick.

Thanks for stopping by.