"Years later," Donald Davis remember of his childhood, "I came to realize that when you come from a long-dammed-up Scots-Irish gene pool it is an okay thing to wish for something, but it is not an okay thing to get it."So it is in See Rock City. It is okay to want a new house. But once the family gets the new house, nothing is to be okay for some time. The long reliable Plymouth gives way. Then, on the first Sunday in the new house, they almost burn it down. With Mother warning, "Trouble always comes in threes!" the family embarks upon an ill-conceived Florida vacation.
With two young boys in the back seat and two adults in the front, all members of the that long-dammed-up Scots-Irish gene pool, the trip is doomed. Only Mother's intuition saves the day. She keeps the rules one step ahead of the back-seat contestants until she offers the ultimate prize for the next sighting of a barn painted "See Rock City."