Good Old Fashioned Family Road Trip

Years ago I tried to convince a co-worker to drive his family to Florida instead of flying.  I repeatedly told him it was the best drive, so much to do, really entertaining!  Within a year of that conversation, Trent and I drove to Florida ourselves and I realized that it’s the worst drive, endless stretches of pine trees on I-10.  There are barely any towns to drive through, barely anything scenic on the interstate, and the only thing to look at is the signs announcing lodging or food at a specific exit. 

How, when I had driven to Florida almost every year of my childhood and teenage years, had I never realized this?  It took me about five minutes to recognize that my parents made the trip bearable.  My dad was willing to stop for ice cream or snacks constantly and my mom always prepared enough goodies and activities to make the drive an exciting part of the trip.  She would wrap up a box for each of us with stickers, coloring books, a Wooly Willy.  We had prizes – like Smarties- for being the first person to spot a milestone like the Mississippi River bridge in Baton Rouge. 

So when plane tickets were $400 a person and the thought of lugging two car seats and a stroller through an airport seemed unbearable, it became a personal challenge to make Rush and Tate understand that driving on vacation is part of the adventure.  The 2012 ringer is that we intentionally do not have a DVD player in the van.  People get really opinionated about us not travelling with movies, panicking as if we were going to buckle them into the back seat and make them entertain our children.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that a lot of people had opinions about it; even my dental hygienist informed me that I needed to buy a personal DVD player for the trip.  People told us we were crazy and we would regret it.  At times before we left it made me a little nervous, but then I would remember that parents have been dragging their kids on long treks without movies since the dawn of transportation.  It’s doable, and surprisingly, can be fun. 

The drive to Disney World, and the drive home, was a success. I think stopping every two hours played a big part in that.  We’ve had more crying and stress on a short drive to the beach then we experienced in 2000 miles.  The ability of Trent or I to climb into the back seat would usually help stop any tears.  For some reason we became a novelty when we weren’t in the front seat.  Neither boy is a reliable napper in the car, so while most parents try to overlap a car trip with a time when the kids will be sleeping, we do the opposite, knowing that a car ride during a nap or at night will just mean that the boys are getting progressively more tired and cranky as they sit awake in the back seat.  And even though they didn’t sleep very much in the car, it still went well.  Miraculous.

I went to Dollar Tree before we left and spent $10 on what at Disney would have cost at least $100.  The glow necklaces were for the parade (credit to my sister Casey for this idea) but the rest was wrapped individually to be dolled out along the way.  My neighbors have two elementary school aged children and will often bring by a box of outgrown toys.  A few months ago she came by with a box of books, so I immediately hid away the ones I thought the boys would love the most, Winnie the Pooh, trains, fire trucks, some Golden Books, and wrapped those up for the drive too. 

They also both love keys, so my mom, who has a collection of keys, made them each a keychain.  These were also wrapped for the drive. 

I had a scrap of Toy Story fabric just big enough to make two drawstring bags.  Filled with a package of cookies, the bag was the first surprise of the trip, received when we reached Louisiana.

Rush hoarded all his goodies in it throughout the trip.  He would get in the van and yell, “Where’s my purse?!”  We told him a few times that it was a bag, not a purse, but finally it was just call it whatever you want as long as you’re happy.

We packed a roll of painter’s tape and marked a line across the van, drawing our house at one end and Cinderella’s castle at the other.  I originally wanted to make a little van to move along and mark of state lines and cities as landmarks, but I forgot about the whole idea until about ten minutes before we left.  So instead we had a hastily cut-out W, but it served it’s purpose well.  Some things sound like a good idea but fizzle out in reality, but the painter’s tape was a hit. 

On the way there, we stopped exclusively at rest stops.  Florida has wonderfully maintained rest stops with clean bathrooms, picnic tables, and plenty of space to run.  It was much easier to make sandwiches on a picnic blanket than to try to keep the boys sitting at tables in a restaurant.  We also pulled out a soccer ball at most stops so they could really run around, but I think Trent and I got more energy out with the soccer ball then they did. We did get to indulge in a road trip guilty pleasure, eating at the Cracker Barrel.  I had my once every two years serving of chicken fried steak and the boys got to play with the giant checkers set.

Possibly the highlight of the drive for the Rush was the car game.  It was a basic concept, cars and trucks that they might see on the road drawn onto index cards.  We would pass back a card to each boy and while Tate would laugh and hold his for a minute before throwing it down, Rush would watch until he found the car, then pass back the card for another one. 

One day I’ll be an old granny, climbing into a futuristic minivan with my grandkids, clinging to my grubby and beloved 2004 Rand McNally U.S. atlas.  Grown-up Rush or Tate or Baby Arne will roll his eyes and say, “Mom, we just press a button and we’ll be in Kissimmee in ten minutes” but I’ll follow along I-10 with my finger, gauging how long it will take to get from Pensacola to Tallahassee.  It’s not like we even need a map to get there now, 1-10, take I-12 to skip New Orleans, more I-10, south on I-75, then I know the Orlando area well enough to find hotels and restaurants and theme parks.  But I like looking at the map every few minutes to see our progress.  And it makes a good hiding place.

And a good drum as well.

I indulged in an iced caramel frappe from McDonalds every single day of our vacation, knowing that at home it would be back to Folgers decaf and our Mr. Coffee.  Rush took a sip and decided that he loved coffee, and it’s hard to explain that it’s not really coffee, but more of a milkshake that it’s acceptable to drink at 8 AM.  On a long road trip with minimal exciting scenery (excluding the Mobile tunnel), being able to enjoy the little splurges is essential.  It’s probably a good mindset, because next summer we’ll be a family who requires four full priced airline tickets.  It looks like we’re committed to driving for vacation into the foreseeable future.