Adventure Family Road Trip

I grew up taking road trips with my family.  My parents and I crossed the country twice--once from Ohio to California, and later from California to upstate New York.  There were also countless long car rides to visit grandparents, sometimes four hours away, sometimes eight, depending on where we lived.

And now, my most frequent road trip, is to visit my dad in Kokomo, Indiana.  And that's what we did just last week.

At an Ohio Rest Stop:
A Chance for Everyone to Get Their Wiggles Out

It's roughly a seventeen hour drive, so we do it in two days (except that one time when I wanted more than anything to get to my Mom--Jon drove us late into the night, hopped up on Monster Energy Drinks.  I couldn't keep my eyes open).

My family has always been good at road trips.  My mother packed great snacks, and we brought books and music players (used to be a walkman that auto-reversed! and now, iPods all around). We sang to the radio.  We cracked jokes.  We looked at the scenery.  We counted cows.  This past trip we started playing a license plate game.


I like road trips, though I'm not as good at them as I once was, primarily because I get sleepy (due, no doubt, to a severe lack of sleep leading up to them).

I loved introducing Abby to my favorite rest stop from my childhood, the Angola Service Area in New York on I-90.

Truth be told, this rest stop is kind of dumpy, but the bridge is still cool.

I got to teach Abby that if you stop mid-bridge and wave at the tractor trailer trucks, they sometimes honk at you.

It totally still works.

And Jon introduced us to DiBella's in Rochester.  Abby is now an avid fan.

Another new tradition for our little Adventure Family is staying at Red Roof Inns, because they always allow dogs and never charge extra for it.  Kevin approves.

I'm fortunate that Abby is great traveler and has been since she was a baby. She's awesome on airplanes and on long car rides.  And Adventure Dog Kevin is an incredible car dog.  We spent most of the ride to Indiana saying over and over and over again that there was simply too much cute in the back seat and we had to look away.

I can't say that every single minute of the seventeen hour trip is awesome.  We're a family, so we still squawk at each other and get into arguments over dumb stuff like where to have dinner, but on the whole, I'd give us high marks for our road trip skills.

Sunrise in Eastern New York, Near Albany

Road trips are full of gems like this sunrise.  And the end result is worth it.  A visit with Grandpa is guaranteed to be a good one.

Still, I don't need to get back in the car again anytime soon.