Excerpt:

...and then the Taylors really were on the open road.
Two hours later, some of the novelty of the thing had been lost, and the kids were all extremely bored. Mari had, in two hours, listened to every CD she had brought, and Caleb wouldn’t let her borrow his I-pod. She had already drawn tons of pictures of barns and fields, and those were the only things to look at on this stretch of highway. She was one of those people who is physically incapable of reading in the car. Even looking away from the windows for a couple of seconds could make her sick if they were on bumpy roads. And she really did not want to get sick on this car trip. As much as they needed some excitement, that was not the kind of excitement Mari appreciated. She racked her brains for road games they could play. Suddenly she had an idea. She reached over and nudged Caleb, who had his eyes closed listening to music. He took the ear buds out of his ears and looked at her questioningly.
“Hey, Caleb,” She whispered, to not wake Mom up. “Do you remember that car game we used to play? You know, the one with…” She did a junior birdsman, which, for those of you who don’t know, is when you put your thumb and forefinger together, spread the rest of your fingers apart, then put your hands upside down on your face so you can look through the wholes in your fingers.
“Oh, yeah!” Caleb said. “I loved that game. What are the rules again?” They couldn’t agree on what they remembered the rules to be, so they collaborated and made up a new set of rules. Mari wrote them all down as they went.
The Car Game
Each action that you get someone in another car to repeat is worth a certain amount of points. Double the points if it’s the driver that does it.
Smile and wave ~ 5 points
Thumbs up ~ 5 points
Double thumbs up ~ 10 points
The peace sign ~ 10 points
If you can get a truck driver to honk his horn ~ 20 points
Junior birdsman ~ 40 points
“Was that it?” Mari asked.
“Yeah that’s all I can remember. Look, here comes a car next to us.”
As the car pulled up next to them, Caleb waved at the driver and Mari ambitiously did a thumbs up. The man saw them and waved with a confused look on his face. Mari giggled at his expression, but marked down ten points for a triumphant Caleb, because the man had waved and because he was the driver.
They pressed their noses to the glass, straining to look behind them for oncoming cars. Pretty soon Mari spotted one.
“Look, I think it’s a semi! We can get honking points.”
As it pulled up next to them, they both pumped their fists up and down, as if to pull the truck horn. The sleepy looking man in the truck saw them out of the corner of his eye and glanced over. Then he pulled his truck horn, chuckling. It blared so loud, even Mari and Caleb jumped. Mom jerked awake with a startled squeal.
“What was that?” She yelled, before she saw the truck next to them. “What did you do, John?”
“It wasn’t me!” Dad replied.
Mom turned around in her seat and looked sharply at Mari and Caleb who thought it was hilarious, but also felt kind of bad for scaring everyone. The mixture of fear, shame and laughter on their faces told Mom who the culprits were.
“You two were playing that game again weren’t you?” She asked. They both nodded. “Well, don’t do that when people are asleep! You scared me half to death!”
After a whispered consultation, the two kids decided to play a silent version of the game, eliminating the honking option from the rules.
When Caleb finally got a middle aged woman in a kimono to do the junior birdsman while driving, they decided to call him the winner.