My father was born in a small town in the US. He wasn't 1 what he wanted to get from life, but something told him to get out and begin a new adventure(冒险).
He began that adventure traveling to cities in the US,2 going on to Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and the Philippines. He 3 his wife and three daughters with him and went wherever the road took him.
It's easy to feel lonely when you're on the 4. As my mother said repeatedly, "We made lots of new friends on our trip—most of them were mechanics(机修工)", since we often spent hours in 5 shops. But that was better than sitting by the roadside while waiting for the engine(发动机) to cool when it was 40℃ outside.
Getting along well with each other sometimes 6 impossible. There were always a lot of arguments, especially among us backseat passengers about 7 had to sit in the middle.
But 8 it was hard at that time, we did learn a lot about forgiveness(谅解).
When we were traveling in the Philippines, we drove to Quezon City one day. It should have been a one-hour 9 but was nearly three, because of bad roads and worse traffic. "Did you put our suitcases(行李箱)in the car?" my father asked my mother as we arrived in Quezon City. From the back seat, we saw her slowly turn 10 my father. "No," she said. "I thought you did." That was 11 a seven-hour car trip turned into a 16-hour car trip, which was mostly spent in silence.
On occasions like that, we had to learn to 12 our anger because we were stuck(困在)in a rolling box with the same people for the rest of the journey. Even if I sometimes felt like opening the car door and pushing one of my sisters out, I kept my 13 to myself.
This is why road trips were like mobile universities to us. We earned our PHDs(博士学位)in how to 14 with other people just by traveling in that old car.
And if we were somehow given a second 15 at life, we would do it all over again. Only this time, I'd put the suitcases in the car myself.
