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By the second day on the road, the kids were pretty tired of sitting in the car. We were all quite ready to be at our final destination -- Marriott Residence Inn in Phoenix. One of the interesting things about Phoenix is the abundance of Saguaro (suh-wa-ro) cacti. These are those prototypical cacti, you know, the tall skinny cactus with arms. What's interesting about these is that they only grow in this small region of the world. Nowhere else.
So as we were heading down I-17 from northern Arizona I was waiting for us to enter the "Saguaro forest". Previous experience told me that the forest would begin quite abrubptly.
Travelling with little kids requires a lot of work. If you've done it before you know that's an understatement. If've you've not done it before you really don't have any idea what I'm talking about. But trust me.
By around 2pm we were getting close to Phoenix and the kids were restless. This means they were whining. My efforts to keep the sanity in the car pretty much involved trying to engage the kids in games and conversation. You know, ask them simple questions to get their mind onto something interesting.
This is what I was doing with my oldest son (5). But he wasn't really into it.
"So, what's the name of that dinosaur you're holding?"
"Sharptooth", he replied in a moody and barely audio voice.
"Oh, does sharptooth like to chase other dinosaurs?"
"Yeah," another muffled response.
I think at this particular time he was still pouting because he couldn't have any more juice because it was all gone.
"Well, what else does he do?"
"Nothing"
"You mean he doesn't do anything else at all? He just sits there and then chases other dinosaurs?"
"No"
"Well what else does he do?"
"Nothing"
Yes, this is really what a conversation with a 5 year old is like. But I decided on a new approach. My son was still staring blankly out the window.
"But what about your Batman? Does he chase dinosaurs?"
"No Dad. Batman doesn't live with the ..."
About this time we pass through a cut-out ridge in the road and came into a little valley. Here were the first Saguaro cacti. They covered the sides of the valley as far as you could see. My son had never seen these before and his response was great:
"Hey Dad! Look at all those Stack Pokers!"
We all burst out laughing and then spent the rest of the trip into the hotel looking out the window at all the thousands of "stack pokers" scattered across the desertscape. The rest of the time flew by at we were at our destination in no time.
Now only in the mind of a 5 year old does the term "stack poker" mean anything. But it brings a smile to the faces of his parents. Kids are a joy. There's no doubt. And I will never see a Saguaro cactus again without remembering the last bit of our trip and my son's excited and descriptive name for those tall skinny cacti with arms: stack pokers.
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