I’m really glad I took this trip. Besides the experience of doing something I’ve always wanted to do, I learned a lot about how to take a driving trip with children, and now I think Mark and I both are more open to considering other driving trips (albeit not so long) in the future. Here are my thoughts and tips:
1. I learned we could do it. Before doing this, the general thinking was that the kids would go nuts and drive us nuts. In some cases we did, but kids are incredibly adaptable, and once the routines and entertainment gets figured out, they not only handled it, but also enjoyed themselves for the most part.
2. The kids will get pent up energy from being in the car for a long time and they need a lot of breaks, preferably breaks where they can run around. My big mistake was not stopping at enough parks for picnic lunches. I started out that way, but then caught up in tourist attractions and getting to my next destination. On the days I didn’t make time for the kids to run around and be silly, they found ways to do it anyway, usually embarrassing me in public places. Those were the times when we had the most family strife.
3. Plan to get lost so it doesn’t stress you out so much – especially in crowded places like big cities. Allow extra time, and plan for unexpected things like detours, heavy traffic, car problems, kids getting splinters, and other delays.
4. When I’m alone with the kids I don’t drive at night and I have extra AAA coverage. I also had to learn to do the basic mechanical things that I usually rely on Mark for, like checking the oil and tire pressure.
5. With the kids and just me, it’s fairly comfortable to do a 6 hour driving leg in the day. Typically we do it in two three hour chunks with a nice two hour break for an activity in the middle. This is the activity that should include running around. Then, each three hour leg includes at least one quick bathroom break and at least one movie on the car-powered DVD player. The kids also have other fun activities to do in the car, like Nintendo DS, and their favorite toys. Reading only works if they don’t get car sick. If you can work in time with the kids sleeping, you can do an additional two driving hours or so. And with another adult, like Mark in the car, we can do even more – but it’s not as fun if it’s several days in a row.
6. At least my kids like interactive museums and multi-media entertainment. They also need a frame of reference to care about what they see. For example, the reason the meteor crater was interesting to Justin is he knows a meteor had something to do with the extinction of the dinosaurs. But they weren’t interested at all in things that fascinated Mark and I, like the plane that flew at Kitty Hawk for example.
7. Having friends and family to connected with at various points in the journey makes it really fun. But doing one extreme (all friends and family) or the other extreme (all hotels or camping) can get old if it’s too many days in a row. We loved the balance we had. Our kids had other kids to play with, I had other adults to talk with, and the days I spent with family I was able to take time to do a few loads of laundry, wash the car, and get re-organized and re-calibrated.
8. It’s good to keep even a basic travel journal because by the end of the trip, it’s easy to forget things that happened in the beginning. But even this blog was a little much for me to keep up with – as you’ll note I had to catch up on several entries that I missed. For me what worked best was jotting down in a brief log short notes on the things I wanted to remember, and then later elaborating in a journal or blog when I had the time. Or, alternatively, I could learn to be a more concise writer – and make shorter blog entries!
For now, this entry will wrap up my writing, until I have another family adventure to write about. It might not be a trip – it might be the adventure of finding a babysitter, or balancing life being a mom and running a business. So stay tuned, and I’ll tune in again soon!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Day 29 – Home Sweet Home
As promised, I let the kids swim at the pool, which didn’t open up until 8am, so we couldn’t get on the road until 9:30am, but then we just had a six hour drive home, and it seemed like nothing in comparison to what we had been doing.
Driving through Arizona was still pretty amazing – with beautiful rock formations, kind of like in Utah. When we crossed into California, we hit the desert big time. I thought New Mexico and Texas were a lot of driving through nothing, but the eastern part of California was the first time I actually wondered if I’d run out of gas before getting to the next station. California doesn’t have these big travel stops like the other states, but the little gas station and Dairy Queen in Ludlow where we stopped for lunch was still well-visited by people returning from Lake Havasu and “The River”.
By the time we hit Barstow, we also started getting more traffic, and after another hour or so – as soon as we crossed the Cajon pass, the endless miles of suburbia that Southern California is known for, began. I just kept watching for how many miles to Riverside, because I knew it would only be an hour from there. We missed most of the Labor Day traffic and were cruising home at a wonderful pace, until we hit the 5 freeway near our house. I had forgotten that the freeway going south to San Diego backs up every Saturday, and we got caught in the car pool lane and couldn’t get over for a good 20 minutes. I realized I have been pretty lucky with traffic on our trip, because I was having an awful time being patient. But maybe it was because we were minutes from home.
The kids insisted on stopping at the school first to see who their teachers are this year, and then we were home. Phew! What a trip!
Driving through Arizona was still pretty amazing – with beautiful rock formations, kind of like in Utah. When we crossed into California, we hit the desert big time. I thought New Mexico and Texas were a lot of driving through nothing, but the eastern part of California was the first time I actually wondered if I’d run out of gas before getting to the next station. California doesn’t have these big travel stops like the other states, but the little gas station and Dairy Queen in Ludlow where we stopped for lunch was still well-visited by people returning from Lake Havasu and “The River”.
By the time we hit Barstow, we also started getting more traffic, and after another hour or so – as soon as we crossed the Cajon pass, the endless miles of suburbia that Southern California is known for, began. I just kept watching for how many miles to Riverside, because I knew it would only be an hour from there. We missed most of the Labor Day traffic and were cruising home at a wonderful pace, until we hit the 5 freeway near our house. I had forgotten that the freeway going south to San Diego backs up every Saturday, and we got caught in the car pool lane and couldn’t get over for a good 20 minutes. I realized I have been pretty lucky with traffic on our trip, because I was having an awful time being patient. But maybe it was because we were minutes from home.
The kids insisted on stopping at the school first to see who their teachers are this year, and then we were home. Phew! What a trip!
Day 28 – Arizona
After a good night’s sleep I decided there is no way I’m missing the Grand Canyon. I’ve never seen it, and this trip needs a grand finale.
Also, as we were driving, we noticed a sign for Meteor Crater, one of the best preserved meteor impact sites in the world. This was something new and exciting to see – and it’s only 6 miles off the main highway. We really enjoyed the hands-on museum. Kaelyn and Justin had fun simulating meteor crashes into various planets by varying the size, density, speed, and angle of impact, although it was quite disturbing to me that Justin enjoyed blowing up our planet. The crater was quite distinct, and it really got us thinking about what would happen if we discovered another big one headed our way. It’s nice to know that people are watching.
With that stop, it took us until afternoon to get to Flagstaff, and I was almost afraid we wouldn’t make it to the Grand Canyon before dusk. But we did and it was worth it. I don’t know what else to say about the Grand Canyon, because you’ve probably seen pictures of it, but the first time you see it live – it is pretty apparent why it’s one of the seven wonders of the world. My first glimpse of the canyon was stunning. I had to re-adjust my eyes and just take it in for awhile. On a clear day you can see the depth in a way that is hard to capture on postcards. I can see how people spend hours camping, hiking, and just enjoying the park for days, but it was actually quite easy to drive in, spend about 20 – 30 minutes looking at the south rim view, and drive back out again. I think this was easy for us because we arrived so late in the afternoon and most people had left for the day.
One thing we did NOT expect was the big fire we saw on the drive in. It looked like there was a fire in the Grand Canyon and maybe we wouldn’t be able to see it. Turns out, they do a lot of controlled burns in that area, and this was one of them. We got to drive by and see the little fires by the road and the firemen monitoring them. I tried to explain the concept of setting fires to prevent fires to the kids, and they seemed to get it because they began to play a game of “bad trees, good trees” as we drove through the park.
I still wanted to get home, so I decided to drive west for awhile. Of course the kids wanted to get to a hotel early enough to swim, but I told them it would be fun to see all the stars in the sky since we were in such a remote area, and I promised if we got to a hotel too late to swim I’d let them swim first thing in the morning. Unfortunately there was a big cloud cover over the sky that night and we couldn’t see any stars. The sunset was absolutely beautiful, but then it was pitch black out, and really hard to take advantage of the higher speed limits. I wanted to stop in a decent sized town, so we went as far as Kingman and found a really nice, clean, motel for our last night.
Also, as we were driving, we noticed a sign for Meteor Crater, one of the best preserved meteor impact sites in the world. This was something new and exciting to see – and it’s only 6 miles off the main highway. We really enjoyed the hands-on museum. Kaelyn and Justin had fun simulating meteor crashes into various planets by varying the size, density, speed, and angle of impact, although it was quite disturbing to me that Justin enjoyed blowing up our planet. The crater was quite distinct, and it really got us thinking about what would happen if we discovered another big one headed our way. It’s nice to know that people are watching.
With that stop, it took us until afternoon to get to Flagstaff, and I was almost afraid we wouldn’t make it to the Grand Canyon before dusk. But we did and it was worth it. I don’t know what else to say about the Grand Canyon, because you’ve probably seen pictures of it, but the first time you see it live – it is pretty apparent why it’s one of the seven wonders of the world. My first glimpse of the canyon was stunning. I had to re-adjust my eyes and just take it in for awhile. On a clear day you can see the depth in a way that is hard to capture on postcards. I can see how people spend hours camping, hiking, and just enjoying the park for days, but it was actually quite easy to drive in, spend about 20 – 30 minutes looking at the south rim view, and drive back out again. I think this was easy for us because we arrived so late in the afternoon and most people had left for the day.
One thing we did NOT expect was the big fire we saw on the drive in. It looked like there was a fire in the Grand Canyon and maybe we wouldn’t be able to see it. Turns out, they do a lot of controlled burns in that area, and this was one of them. We got to drive by and see the little fires by the road and the firemen monitoring them. I tried to explain the concept of setting fires to prevent fires to the kids, and they seemed to get it because they began to play a game of “bad trees, good trees” as we drove through the park.
I still wanted to get home, so I decided to drive west for awhile. Of course the kids wanted to get to a hotel early enough to swim, but I told them it would be fun to see all the stars in the sky since we were in such a remote area, and I promised if we got to a hotel too late to swim I’d let them swim first thing in the morning. Unfortunately there was a big cloud cover over the sky that night and we couldn’t see any stars. The sunset was absolutely beautiful, but then it was pitch black out, and really hard to take advantage of the higher speed limits. I wanted to stop in a decent sized town, so we went as far as Kingman and found a really nice, clean, motel for our last night.
Day 27 – Texas and New Mexico
Today I decided I wanted to get home. Driving across the United States with a deadline can get really tiring and now everyone is getting on everyone’s nerves. I decided to see if I could make it to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and we did.
As soon as we hit the Texas border gas prices went up instead of down, but I also think it’s because there is a lot of nothing between service stations. I noticed that in Texas we were no longer in Indian country, but as soon as we hit New Mexico, we were back, except this time it was the Navajo Nation I believe, and several others. And, there were not as many signs as in Oklahoma. It seemed like in Oklahoma the Cherokee Nation was doing a lot to advertise their presence to travelers, but in New Mexico things were much more quiet and we drove for long stretches of nothing but landscape, that was now changing from farmland into more rocky desert. But the rocks were beautiful, and the drive was straight and fast.
Today the kids were getting jumpy, and in New Mexico I saw a sign for a dinosaur museum and thought I’d stop for a diversion. The museum was pretty much deserted – but it was very clean and educational. However, the kids went straight to the kids area, which is a sand dinosaur dig play area, took off their shoes, and soon were running around the museum like maniacs. Lesson learned: when you stop to give the kids a diversion – stop at a place where they can run and play. Also, one dinosaur museum is enough on a trip, unless you have a kid who is passionate about dinosaurs.
In New Mexico, we began to see signs for historic route 66. I told the kids about route 66 and asked them if they remembered it from the Disney movie “Cars”. I was almost tempted to take it for awhile, but put that on the agenda for another trip – because I have no patience for slowness at this point.
Our hotel in Albuquerque was really nice, but the kids got a little nervous swimming in the pool as the wind kicked up. At the Boston science museum they had a lesson on lightening, and I think it made a big impact. At the first sign of thunder they want OUT of the water. Even though I assured them that the sky was clear and this is just a normal gusty desert wind, they got spooked.
We were all tired, but when I looked at the map in the hotel I felt better. With the time change and an extra hour of driving each day, we’ve made enough progress so that it is now possible to get home a day early, on Saturday instead of Sunday, and that sounded good to all of us. Justin has a soccer meeting with his new team Saturday night and liked the idea of making it. We even discussed skipping the Grand Canyon and getting home Friday night – but we’re still 12 hours away from home.
As soon as we hit the Texas border gas prices went up instead of down, but I also think it’s because there is a lot of nothing between service stations. I noticed that in Texas we were no longer in Indian country, but as soon as we hit New Mexico, we were back, except this time it was the Navajo Nation I believe, and several others. And, there were not as many signs as in Oklahoma. It seemed like in Oklahoma the Cherokee Nation was doing a lot to advertise their presence to travelers, but in New Mexico things were much more quiet and we drove for long stretches of nothing but landscape, that was now changing from farmland into more rocky desert. But the rocks were beautiful, and the drive was straight and fast.
Today the kids were getting jumpy, and in New Mexico I saw a sign for a dinosaur museum and thought I’d stop for a diversion. The museum was pretty much deserted – but it was very clean and educational. However, the kids went straight to the kids area, which is a sand dinosaur dig play area, took off their shoes, and soon were running around the museum like maniacs. Lesson learned: when you stop to give the kids a diversion – stop at a place where they can run and play. Also, one dinosaur museum is enough on a trip, unless you have a kid who is passionate about dinosaurs.
In New Mexico, we began to see signs for historic route 66. I told the kids about route 66 and asked them if they remembered it from the Disney movie “Cars”. I was almost tempted to take it for awhile, but put that on the agenda for another trip – because I have no patience for slowness at this point.
Our hotel in Albuquerque was really nice, but the kids got a little nervous swimming in the pool as the wind kicked up. At the Boston science museum they had a lesson on lightening, and I think it made a big impact. At the first sign of thunder they want OUT of the water. Even though I assured them that the sky was clear and this is just a normal gusty desert wind, they got spooked.
We were all tired, but when I looked at the map in the hotel I felt better. With the time change and an extra hour of driving each day, we’ve made enough progress so that it is now possible to get home a day early, on Saturday instead of Sunday, and that sounded good to all of us. Justin has a soccer meeting with his new team Saturday night and liked the idea of making it. We even discussed skipping the Grand Canyon and getting home Friday night – but we’re still 12 hours away from home.
Day 26 – Arkansas and Oklahoma
Today our timing was a little quirky. We got going too late to miss morning rush hour and too early to sit around and wait for the attractions in downtown Memphis to open. So we drove through the city into Arkansas… did you know West Memphis is actually in Arkansas? I didn’t.
The landscape seemed to change with the state line and instead of trees and hills I began to see rolling hills and farmland again. Arkansas is a really pretty state, with plenty of lakes and the Ozark Mountains. I think it’s called “The Natural State” or “The Nature State”. I was really looking forward to seeing the Blanchard Springs Caverns, but I had made a big mistake in that the Caverns themselves were 2 ½ hours northeast of the visitor center address I had in Russleville. (a small town just west of Little Rock). There was no way I was going to take that much of a detour – even to see the beautiful caverns, and the nice lady in the office gave me a few suggestions of other things we could do – like have a picnic by a lake in a beautiful state park just down the way.
It was at that point I realized I had no interest in stopping and neither did the kids really. They were annoyed enough at stopping at the visitor center. They didn’t want to have to interrupt their backseat movie, and they had developed a routine they wanted to repeat at every hotel: play in the pool, take showers, and sit on the bed with popcorn and watch the Disney channel as late as they possibly could before falling asleep. We drove by the lake on the way back to the 40, and the kids looked up for a moment to acknowledge it, and then we got focused and drove all the way to Oklahoma City.
Again, at the border of Arkansas and Oklahoma, I noticed a difference. In Oklahoma we entered the Cherokee Indian Nation. There were signs all along the way to stop and purchase Native American artifacts and souvenirs. We listened to country music from Tulsa on the road, and stayed at a hotel in the center of the city.
One of the big things that the kids noticed on this trip, is that people smoke. In California, we have banned smoking from almost everywhere – to the point that the children don’t see it, and when they do, it horrifies them to the point where they are intolerant. This evening there were three young kids swimming in the hotel pool, and the oldest one, who must have been about 17 or 18, was sitting on the edge smoking a cigarette. This ruined the kids pool experience, as they didn’t want to be anywhere near it. It’s funny how as a parent, I can never think of perfect, clever responses to the kids questions when they have them. I just hope these strong negative opinions about alcohol, drugs and smoking carry them through their teen-age years unscathed.
The landscape seemed to change with the state line and instead of trees and hills I began to see rolling hills and farmland again. Arkansas is a really pretty state, with plenty of lakes and the Ozark Mountains. I think it’s called “The Natural State” or “The Nature State”. I was really looking forward to seeing the Blanchard Springs Caverns, but I had made a big mistake in that the Caverns themselves were 2 ½ hours northeast of the visitor center address I had in Russleville. (a small town just west of Little Rock). There was no way I was going to take that much of a detour – even to see the beautiful caverns, and the nice lady in the office gave me a few suggestions of other things we could do – like have a picnic by a lake in a beautiful state park just down the way.
It was at that point I realized I had no interest in stopping and neither did the kids really. They were annoyed enough at stopping at the visitor center. They didn’t want to have to interrupt their backseat movie, and they had developed a routine they wanted to repeat at every hotel: play in the pool, take showers, and sit on the bed with popcorn and watch the Disney channel as late as they possibly could before falling asleep. We drove by the lake on the way back to the 40, and the kids looked up for a moment to acknowledge it, and then we got focused and drove all the way to Oklahoma City.
Again, at the border of Arkansas and Oklahoma, I noticed a difference. In Oklahoma we entered the Cherokee Indian Nation. There were signs all along the way to stop and purchase Native American artifacts and souvenirs. We listened to country music from Tulsa on the road, and stayed at a hotel in the center of the city.
One of the big things that the kids noticed on this trip, is that people smoke. In California, we have banned smoking from almost everywhere – to the point that the children don’t see it, and when they do, it horrifies them to the point where they are intolerant. This evening there were three young kids swimming in the hotel pool, and the oldest one, who must have been about 17 or 18, was sitting on the edge smoking a cigarette. This ruined the kids pool experience, as they didn’t want to be anywhere near it. It’s funny how as a parent, I can never think of perfect, clever responses to the kids questions when they have them. I just hope these strong negative opinions about alcohol, drugs and smoking carry them through their teen-age years unscathed.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Day 25 – Traveling through Tennessee
Today we had breakfast in Knoxville, lunch in Nashville, and dinner in Memphis. We listened to country music on the radio and heard lots of deep southern accents. I have never really listened to country music before, but I really enjoyed it today.
All the states are slightly different, and the little nuance that shocked me in Tennessee was witnessing at least two vehicles that did NOT appear to be police or government merge onto our side of the highway from dirt paths in the middle area. It was almost as if they were making a U-turn from the other side. Also, the hotels serve biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and Colonel Sanders is at almost every exit.
The other thing that intrigued me is the number of Civil War Battlegrounds. It brought home full force that a war was fought here in the USA on these grounds and people died over keeping our nation together and the slavery issue. I had been completely enamored at the Lincoln Memorial, seeing and hearing all of Lincoln’s speeches and learning about all the other important demonstrations that were held there in the name of equal rights. I thought it would be good to stop and see an actual Civil War battleground.
But I didn’t stop. As usual, I’m torn finding a balance of stopping to experience the places of interest, and getting a couple of days of solid driving in so we can make it home in time to rest for a day before school starts. Today we made ok time despite a morning filled with constant rain, poor visibility, construction detours, and driving by a couple of accidents. This evening, the kids found a stray kitten hiding under our car to get out of the rain. The manager says someone must have abandoned it here a couple of days ago. The kids are begging me to take it home (can you imagine a kitten in the car for 2000 more miles?), or at least find a shelter for it. These are the things they remember about the trip. I asked them if they wanted to see Graceland, or if they knew who Elvis was, or if they wanted to see downtown Memphis, and they were very noncommittal.
None of this stuff opens until 9am tomorrow, so if we do it, that means another slow day without much progress. Tomorrow I want to see the Crystal caves in the Ozarks, so maybe we’ll just do a quick drive downtown in the morning if it’s not still raining.
All the states are slightly different, and the little nuance that shocked me in Tennessee was witnessing at least two vehicles that did NOT appear to be police or government merge onto our side of the highway from dirt paths in the middle area. It was almost as if they were making a U-turn from the other side. Also, the hotels serve biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and Colonel Sanders is at almost every exit.
The other thing that intrigued me is the number of Civil War Battlegrounds. It brought home full force that a war was fought here in the USA on these grounds and people died over keeping our nation together and the slavery issue. I had been completely enamored at the Lincoln Memorial, seeing and hearing all of Lincoln’s speeches and learning about all the other important demonstrations that were held there in the name of equal rights. I thought it would be good to stop and see an actual Civil War battleground.
But I didn’t stop. As usual, I’m torn finding a balance of stopping to experience the places of interest, and getting a couple of days of solid driving in so we can make it home in time to rest for a day before school starts. Today we made ok time despite a morning filled with constant rain, poor visibility, construction detours, and driving by a couple of accidents. This evening, the kids found a stray kitten hiding under our car to get out of the rain. The manager says someone must have abandoned it here a couple of days ago. The kids are begging me to take it home (can you imagine a kitten in the car for 2000 more miles?), or at least find a shelter for it. These are the things they remember about the trip. I asked them if they wanted to see Graceland, or if they knew who Elvis was, or if they wanted to see downtown Memphis, and they were very noncommittal.
None of this stuff opens until 9am tomorrow, so if we do it, that means another slow day without much progress. Tomorrow I want to see the Crystal caves in the Ozarks, so maybe we’ll just do a quick drive downtown in the morning if it’s not still raining.
Day 24 – Leaving North Carolina
Wow- North Carolina is a beautiful – and BIG state!
Today we left my sister’s house very early in the morning, as my nieces caught their busses for the first day of school. I have a friend living in Greensboro who was my roommate for several years in California, so we stopped and visited her. We had always talked about living in the same neighborhood when we were older and having our kids play together while we sat and talked. Today we got to experience it, if only for a few hours.
After lunch we got back on the road, and I guess I thought I’d make it through the state quickly, but it took the rest of the day. The drive was really amazing. We went through the Great Smoky Mountains – and they were gorgeous. We were surrounded with layer upon layer of hills covered with trees, and some of the leaves were already changing color. Even though we were on curvy roads, they were paved well and we could easily drive more than 60 miles per hour.
Many of the locals told us how beautiful the town of Asheville in West North Carolina is, and suggested that if we had time to get out and hike we should. As I drove I thought of all the places we are passing by without experiencing, and estimated that in order to do everything right we would need at least 6 months for this journey. But it’s still pretty amazing to drive and see the different cities and states even when we don’t stop.
Today we left my sister’s house very early in the morning, as my nieces caught their busses for the first day of school. I have a friend living in Greensboro who was my roommate for several years in California, so we stopped and visited her. We had always talked about living in the same neighborhood when we were older and having our kids play together while we sat and talked. Today we got to experience it, if only for a few hours.
After lunch we got back on the road, and I guess I thought I’d make it through the state quickly, but it took the rest of the day. The drive was really amazing. We went through the Great Smoky Mountains – and they were gorgeous. We were surrounded with layer upon layer of hills covered with trees, and some of the leaves were already changing color. Even though we were on curvy roads, they were paved well and we could easily drive more than 60 miles per hour.
Many of the locals told us how beautiful the town of Asheville in West North Carolina is, and suggested that if we had time to get out and hike we should. As I drove I thought of all the places we are passing by without experiencing, and estimated that in order to do everything right we would need at least 6 months for this journey. But it’s still pretty amazing to drive and see the different cities and states even when we don’t stop.
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