We're on the move today, which means long hours in the car. It seems every time a bigger road trip is in the works, we stumble upon this...
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When I was a kid, we didn't go on road trips that were too long or required too much to keep me occupied. I was more than content to look out the window and take it all in. I don't remember asking "are we there yet?" to a degree that would exercise my parents "vacation elbow." I think the only form of entertainment I had was "dancing" to the beat of the raised asphalt lines every few feet on the freeway. I would use the "beat" of the sound of the tires going over them to see if I could tell if they were spaced the same distance apart.
When the Mr was a kid, it was very much like National Lampoon's Vacation. His parents loaded up three kids in the family truckster with their auto bingo and other things to keep them entertained for long, car-centric trips. I've heard many stories about the oldest sib ruining trips and even being sent home by plane so the rest of them could enjoy their vacation. (And they did with them out of the picture. It's ironic this sib now takes their own children to the same places they ruined for the rest of the family and raves about "good times" had there as a kid. Mmm hmm.)
As adults, we plan road trips by seeing if there's anything interesting along the way like movie locations, cheesy tourist attractions or more importantly some kind of wood cut out where you poke your head through the hole. It's "our thing." If there's one of those penny crusher machines that embeds a picture on a flattened penny when we get to our destination...all the better. Oh and yes, I would totally stand over a kid who is just playing with the crank not actually buying anything until they felt uncomfortable enough to leave. Outta my way junior, I have an otter to smash on a penny! I still find myself just looking out the window taking it all in while the Mr drives. We try to keep a road trip no longer than 7-8 hours but 10 is our absolute cut off before we go a little stir crazy and start turning on each other. I don't think we should reach that point today.
Do you like road trips? What is your cut off for the amount of time you'll spend in a car? What did you do as a kid on family road trips?
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Oh yes how well I remember the family truckster trips. Took them all the time as a kid and now I make my family suffer the same as I had to. We will drive from Wisconsin to Oklahoma once a year. If we do that in one day its 14 hours. Otherwise we split it up into two days and that makes us all a bit nicer when we get to grandma's house.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid we did road trips, lots of them. My grandpa (dad's dad) lived 20 hours away (strictly driving time, any stops added to that) and we drove as far as we could one day, slept in the suburban, and drove the rest the 2nd day. After a 2-3 days there we drove 8 hours (again, strictly driving time) to my grandmas' (mom' s mom). After 5-6 days there we went back to grandpa's for a few days, then went home. It was excruciating at the time, but now I wish that I'd tried harder to enjoy the time with my parents in the car, the tourist attractions along the way, and the time with family at either end. Mostly I just slept or read in the car.
ReplyDeletehahaha enjoy ur trip..loved road trips as a child..never needed dvds, had a book or just take in the scenery and chat with mom and dad...never missed not having siblings either...we 3 had fun..we did a lot of road trips but never did this bingo..lol..
ReplyDeleteLove that bingo game!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I play the ABCs game for long trips. The first person to get to Z wins! Essentially you go in order of the ABCs and are looking for the letters, first person to yell it out gets it. For example, you drive by a car that has an "A" in the license plate, whoever sees it first and yells out "A" gets the letter. That person moves on to "B" and all other passengers stay on "A" until they find one. All signs, license plates, bumper stickers, etc. are fair game, the only thing you cannot use are cars that come up from behind you, because in that case, the driver has the advantage! :)
I LOVE a road trip. It's so exciting to see new things and eat at new places. ENJOY!
ReplyDeleteI like road trips, although I would prefer to fly just to speed things up. When I was a child I liked to read and listen to music, and we took some l o n g car trips.
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