Road Trippin’

When I was little I pined for a simulated wood paneled station wagon, the kind with the rear facing seat in the very back. I was certain that dream mobile would have made our hellish family road trips more bearable. I looked enviously at all the wood paneled station wagons that drove past us on the highway. I was sure the snot nosed children waving their roll of Lifesavers at me from the rear seat were taunting me. I might have stuck my tongue out at those people just once or twice…or more.

We’ve just returned from a road trip.

Raleigh-Richmond-Annapolis-Philadelphia

The boys are good travelers. Truth be told, they are better than I am. More than two hours in a car does me in. We have road trips down to an art form, however, so the car time is more bearable…dare I say…fun, even. We load up on books on CD at the library (old school, right?). My car has a giant DVD screen, but we rarely use it. Bird and Deal prefer books, and so do I. I suppose one never outgrows the joy of being read to. I love seeing the boys in the rearview mirror, riveted, keenly listening, and not fighting (!). We have been known to drive around town or just sit in the driveway to hear the end of a book. Some favorite titles have been Moon Over Manifest, Found, Middleworld, and You’ll Like It Here (Everybody Does). On this particular trip we listened to some Avi and Sharon Creech (a favorite), as well as Magyk. The boys wanted to drive to the next town over just so we could finish the last CD of Magyk (after six hours in the car already!).

Since this road trip was longer than most we take, we just had to play the license plate game. I mean, really, you can practically see the whole world whizz by on I-95! We spotted 40 states, including Alaska! That was a giant score, and we whooped and hollered about it. Who knew there were so many different plates for each states? Remember when each state had a boring, state issued license plate? That was back when I never saw a vanity plate until I went to Los Angeles and was positively obsessed with having one one day (I still don’t.). You can see why Bumper Stumpers was my favorite game show. I’d like to add that we also saw Quebec and Nova Scotia. This is the extra credit geek in me peeking her head out.

Stuck in the door of the passenger seat of my car are a couple boards of car bingo that I bought at Cracker Barrel ages ago. I’m talking about the square board with the little red windows you slide over items you find. Are you with me? When the boys were younger they tired of car bingo easily and got frustrated when they didn’t find anything. I ended up playing by myself while Mac Daddy drove. It’s a surefire tactic to be the winner. I tried to break out the car bingo again, but after about 17 miles we realized that the drive from Raleigh to Washington, D.C. is boring as hell. Then again, it’s as boring as the drive to Charlotte, the beach, and my hometown, Charlottesville. Must all roads that lead from Raleigh be so woefully bland? I swear, I almost stuck toothpicks in my eyes to stay awake. Car bingo would be a fine game if the items included things like pine trees, blown truck tires, tree stumps, telephone lines, clouds, dirt, litter, electrical lines, and Tea Party and/or NRA bumper stickers.

Lastly, the one thing that gets us all through road trips are the snacks. I pack a big canvas tote bag full of treats to indulge my own inner child as well as the children inside my vehicle. Sour Patch Kids, Twizzlers (NOT Red Vines!), cheese popcorn, Pop Chips, fizzy water. Hey, I never claimed our car treats were healthy…or tidy. We have our share of nuts and squeezable apple sauce too, but nothing, and I mean nothing, beats the tasty tart lick of Lik-M-Aid on a road trip. I admittedly eat too much candy on these trips and end up with those little bumps on the tip of my tongue that hurt like a mofo from eating too much sugar. I also indulge in way too much coffee (hot or iced, but always black).

We still have a few books on CD that we didn’t listen to. Where should we venture next? What entertains you and your crew on road trips? Do tell.