This week my daughter and I are off on a road trip to visit my sister and my bestie. The venue will include a few days in Birmingham and a few in Marietta. This is the first of two summer vacations. The second will be in another post as the destination is Key West…
My mom and I started the annual road trip (fiasco) when I was in my teens. Every summer we would load up and go on the road for two to three weeks. I have been to Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone and seen the largest ball of string. We stayed at friends homes, relatives and once a motel that we actually put a chair against the door for safety reasons. I think we heard banjos when driving into the town, but I can’t be sure as it was a long time ago. For reasons best unmentioned (way before GPS and cell phones) my mother and I dubbed ourselves “Queens of the U turn” which has stuck with us on every trip.
Once my kids were at an appropriate age for the torture, my mom and I loaded them in the car and began the annual road trips with them. I love these trips but we resemble the National Lampoons Vacation movies more than we do the shiny brochures of the happy family traveling together. A few examples:
- When we check into a hotel – it may be in plastic publix bags…
- My daughter has lost a shoe in a Walmart parking lot
- My son has almost given a bus load of seniors a heart-attack at the Grand Canyon
- He may have dangled a leg over the side of the canyon while screaming “hey mom look no hands”
- Witnessed a 5k run through New Orleans of guys dressed in tutu’s, heels & nothing else
Hey, they have gotten to see life outside of our tiny town. I feel like they are educated and well rounded individuals or I’ve scared them for life. Either way, I’m sure I’ll be paying for counselors for a lot of years to come.
I hope that they will continue this amazing tradition of torturing their own children with trips across the country. All in all there have been some spectacular moments and a lot of fun was had (between the backseat fighting). Although I’m pretty sure I may have threatened to leave everyone on the side of the road once, maybe twice…. Ahhhh Road Trips.
