Mile 0.4 - The Greatest Road Trip... so far
I have taken many trips over the years and most of the time the reliability of the cars was questionable, at best. I believe that adds to the fun and excitement of the trip. An opportunity presented itself for me to take a newer vehicle from Rhode Island to Florida. I casually asked Van (age 8 at the time) if he would be interested in going on his first long road trip. He had a few questions about what a road trip entailed. I responded with tons of snacks and we would listen to the next Harry Potter audio book. To my surprise he said he wanted to go.
sidenote - Family and friends always ask if the kids are into cars or like them as much as I do. At this point in their lives (Van-9 / Monroe-6) they don't really care much for cars. I wasn't when I was their ages either. They will go for rides in some of our old cars but it isn't something that is important to them and I totally understand. I am fortunate that they can (age appropriately) understand my passion and I believe they support it in their own way. If its something they want to do as they get older I will support them and if its something that doesn't interest them I will support them in what they find that does interest them.
The total trip was about 26 hours and we planned to do it over 3 days. Our chariot was a 2021 Buick Envision, a small SUV with about 15K miles. Planning and stress levels for this trip were different having a car that I felt confident wouldn't have any mechanical issues along the way. The route was pretty straight forward and on day 1 we went from Portsmouth RI to a friends house in Shepardstown, West Virginia. We got an early start on day 2 from Shepardstown and headed to visit some family in Atlanta, Georgia. Another early start on day 3 from Atlanta and headed to West Palm Beach Florida. There were no incidents, not much traffic and overall stress-free trip.
Van was dealing with some food anxieties at the time and was uneasy eating in restaurants where he hadn't been, but he did amazing. We had packed all his favorites and I brought supplies to make sandwiches on the road. The few times we did stop for food he overcame his worries enough for us to do what we needed and move on.
The memories for me are countless and I believe Van really enjoyed it as well. He wasn't historically a kid that loved to be in the car for long periods of time and I'm really glad he decided he was up for the adventure. We didn't pressure him and told him he could change his mind up until we left in the morning. I think one of the things he took away from the trip is that he can get out of his comfort zone and things will work out.
Every time we got into a new state I would open the windows and do an air change. This was something Emily has talked about doing in the past and I thought it would be a silly / fun thing to do along the way. It was still a little cold on the trip so I would usually just crack a window or two and yell, "AIR CHANGE". When we got to Florida I just hit all 4 windows to go all the way down. The air rushed in and all the loose paper, wrappers and paper towels we had in the car starting flying around. Van was cracking up and freaking out trying to catch them all. Every time I think of that it makes me smile.
I don't have the next trip planned but Monroe has expressed an interest in doing something similar. I think it would be fun to have the same type of memories with her on a 1-1 trip. There is a part of me that would love to plan a family trip along Rt66 with one of the vintage cars. I feel like renting a camper/van and towing it behind would be the best way for us to experience it, but I'll keep working on what that might look like.