Well it’s time to roll again and this weekend I’m off to NE Kansas.  Leaving is always a process and the process generally starts with the cleaning of the car.  So join me, if you will, as I go to work on my little Sonata, better known as “The Gig Rig”.  This could be interesting because with the family tagging along lately we haven’t driven this member of our “fleet” for quite some time.

Let’s start by pulling the floor mats out and checking under the seats.  

Ah yes, here’s a Happy Meal toy, Skittles, Gob Stoppers, remnants of Pork Rinds, two broken crayons, a half-of-a roll of toilet paper, a loose (and very scratched up) “Corb Lund ” CD, two melted Junior Mints and an un-chewed piece of gum still in its wrapper tucked between the seat and the console.

What have we here? I recognize those little pellets! Looks like Mr. Mouse has been feasting here since our last trip!

The back seat is littered with kids’ drawings, a dirty sock (looks like it might fit our 5 year old), and several sheets of paper covered in a 5th grader’s handwriting and wadded up as if the frustrations of the math problems they held were taken out on them. There’s a church bulletin, three guitar pics, assorted change that adds up to $.35, a funeral service program, a CD case full of music and a couple of 22 bullets. 

Here’s my missing reading glasses on the dash along with the directions to the last gig this rig went to, and under that is an envelope stuffed full of gasoline, McDonald’s, Cracker Barrel and hotel receipts that I’m betting Lisa has been looking for.

I’m almost afraid to open the trunk, but it’s not too bad. An old barn coat, a pair of winter gloves, a pair of kid’s cowboy boots that no longer fit the boy they belonged to, and a folding stadium chair seat bearing a “Baylor Bears” logo which I didn’t even know we owned.

So my trash sack is full and there is a new stack of stuff on the kitchen counter, but I have a place to sit and Calvin can stretch his legs out in the passenger seat next to me as we head to Kansas.  Funny thing is, by the time our circle is through Sunday night, you’ll never know I had ever cleaned the car at all!

What is the strangest thing you’ve found cleaning out your car?