Long Car Ride Memories: A Journey to Saginaw

We were in the car on a long 12-hour drive to Saginaw, Michigan to visit my grandparent’s house. My older sister Sydneé as fast asleep as I was in the back watching Land Before Time and Chicken Run movies. It was late at night and it seemed like my mom was driving for hours. Michigan wasn't always my favorite place to go because it felt like it was filled with old people and run down buildings, but I always enjoyed coming up to spend time with my Papa. As I finished up the rest of my movie I decided it was time to go to bed and enjoy the rest of the long car ride up to Michigan. Once we arrived to Saginaw our first stop would always be breakfast at the Texan family restaurant. From there we would head to my Nana and Papa’s house. The house was small but

My papa would always take my sister and I to McDonald’s for cookies and a Mcflurry and later play in the playground. We would ride down in his big blue Chevrolet Chevy van, which my sister and me enjoyed because we could jump from seat to seat. My Papa also loved to grow vegetables in his backyard. He always took pride in his yard and garden. He would go out to cut the grass on his John Deere riding lawn mower that I always wanted to take for a ride. As he would cut the grass he would turn on the sprinklers for me and Sydneé to play in. Papa would always get upset when birds and rabbits would nibble off of his vegetables in the garden. So one day he decided to make a scarecrow to put out in the garden to scare them. But you and I both know it never worked. My Papa was a man of faith and was very active in the church and he was known for his clean-cut look and fancy suits and loved to wear hats. He drove the church bus and sang in the choir. For fun sometimes I would spend hours with him preaching to him to mimic what I saw happen at church. He would laugh and would say, “Listen to this girl,” and “mhmm that’s