The Great American Vacation #1

Once upon a time, long long ago - before the Great Oil Crisis of 2009 - American families used to drive cars. They drove cars everywhere : to work, to buy groceries, to the doctor's office, even to take vacations. What is a vacation, you ask ? Well, it used to be, back in the olden days, that families all got together to go on a trip, they packed their suitcases ( a large bag or container in which you put your clothing and other items needed when not living at home ) to see new places, or to visit one another if they lived far apart. Parents used to think it was healthful for the children to actually go to the ocean, for example, to swim and play in the waves and breath the fresh non-polluted sea air, instead of merely watching videos of the ocean on tv, or simulating swimming on your "wii fit" video game.
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Taking an old-fashioned American style vacation, where dad loaded the family up in the car, and drove across the country , required a great commitment from each member of the family, in terms of time, money, and the inconveniences of a large number of people living in close confines with each other. This was all happily sacrificed in the name of " family togetherness".
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Children had to learn to entertain themselves on the long journey that driving across American by car entails. Traditional past-times for this type of trip included reading, napping, watching movies, listening to music, talking, and playing games.

Here, DK plays his micro-KORG, Monkey eats candy while watching a movie on his personal DVD player, and Stallion dreams of all the girls he will finally get to see, nearly naked, at the beach.

Back in those old-fashioned days, so very long ago, people had to rely on some very primitive technologies to make these journeys. Here, the ship navigator investigates what was called a "Magellan GPS" , for maps of which roads to take. The small device attached to the windshield is a "Sirius satellite radio" , which allows you to listen to music or people talking even in the middle of nowhere, such as driving through the mountains of Appalachia.