Vol. 25 Roadtrip to Vegas, Celine Dion & Boredom Drinking
It was my first family road trip to Las Vegas.
Four of us crawled through the Nevada desert in my dad’s faded black Lincoln — no gas stations, no billboards, just sand, scrub, and heat shimmering off the road.
Dad hunched over the wheel, yawning every ten minutes. Mom leaned against the door, half-asleep. I traced shapes in the dust on my window. My baby sister’s head lolled in her car seat, bunny slipping from her hand.
“Let’s wake the car up,” Dad said suddenly.
He slid in a cassette. The first notes of Celine Dion’s The Power of Love filled the air.
Within moments, the energy began to shift — Mom started snapping her fingers, I mouthed the lyrics from the back seat, Dad tapped the wheel with the beat. Even my sister’s legs began to kick along the rhyme.
By the chorus, the Lincoln felt alive again, rolling through the desert like it had somewhere exciting to be.
Here’s the thing:
How often do we turn to alcohol to “wake up the mood” when we’re bored out of our minds? (Though hopefully not on a road trip!)
