Soooo, the Hubby and I decided to travel to Boston this coming week to visit with the Hubby’s family. We were gonna fly, but flying is for the lame-o’s* and we ARE SO NOT lame. Therefore, we are driving. 20 hours. Hardcore, eh?
I don’t worry about the kids getting bored. They have enough gadgets and gizmos to keep the occupied- or so I assume. I worry about meeeee! I think in my old age, I have acquired A.D.D. Seriously. I have the attention span of a nat. I need constant changing of things.
But we are gonna do it. Drive 20 hours. And then back 20 hours. That’s like a full work week just in driving. Crazy!
The last time I took a long car trip was when my mom and I rode a train cross-country to California for my 13th (or was it my 14th? Somewhere around there) birthday. Then we moved there and moved back here - all within like six months. She must have acquired A.D.D. as well? But I swore then that my days of long car rides were O-V-E-R. I had seen all of America nearly from cost to cost four times over in a short amount of time and that was good enough for me- for a lifetime.
Fast forward to this weekend and I’m gonna do it again. Granted, it’s not nearly as long as driving to the big C- A but still, it’s a long drive!
But ya know, I think it’s a rite of passage for kids to endure such car rides. I was telling my oldest that when I was her age and I had to endure countless 8 hour trips to see my uncle and all the trips my grandparents took me on and all I had was a walkman. And there was no USB ports or car battery adaptors to recharge non existent iPods. Once I was out of batteries, that was it. There was no buying anymore. I actually had to talk either my mom or my grandparents- whoever had dragged me on some “adventure.” But, truthfully, it was fun. Some of my favorite memories were those long car rides and now I am more than thankful that I have those memories. Yeah, now that I think about it, long car rides can be pretty awesome.
So, what say you? Do you have any memories of long car rides with your family? Was it torture of was it fun? Did you guys play games or what did you do?
A song that I’m sure I listened to a thousand times before the batteries ran out…
*Lame-o’s are actually people who can afford to fly a family of four, which I cannot at this moment in time if I want to stay in a hotel and eat while in Boston. *le sigh*
We recently drove from the Pacific Ocean to Ohio which, I think, was about 40 hours of driving. It was a pretty good trip. The gizmos the kids had, I'm sure, were a big help.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was about 12 we drove to Vermont from Ohio -- it was about 16 hours. No AC... no gizmos... just crayons and coloring books.
My parents decided to tour the good old U.S. of A. in a motor home when I was 12 years old and then again when I was 14 years old. We basically did a big circle of the country. We were traveling for 23 days one summer in a motor home. (my parents were teachers so they had the entire summer off work) Staying at campgrounds, some with running water and electricity and some without, some my dad was too cheap to buy the running water and electricity so we were forced to shower in the communal showers at the campground. The only thing to occupy my time was reading and sleeping between stops and a bicycle once we made it to our campground of choice for that particular night. If I had been younger or older I would have appreciated those trips much more, but to a pre-teen girl it was total boredom!
ReplyDelete