“Stick Family! Stick Family, there it is!” My husband blurts this out as he points to a Dodge van in the next lane. I see the crescendo of stick figures on the back windshield. I should have spotted that first. Now he’s tied for the lead. We’re in the middle of a game we like to play on a road trip: Road Trip Scavenger Hunt. I’m not sure how we first came up with it but half the fun is coming up with the list of required items with our teenage boys.
Some items are too easy, and some you think will be difficult are more prevalent than you would guess. For instance, there are more purple cars on the road than I ever realized. What’s a lot more elusive, at least in the section of the country in which we travel, is finding a North Dakota license plate.
“Smoking driver! I see a smoking driver!”
Too bad for my younger son. As we approach, we discover that what he thought was a cigarette turned out to be a toothpick. Now we debate about whether he gets 1/2 point deducted for shouting out an incorrect answer. I’m on his side; I don’t believe in deductions because I called out horse trailer when really it was carrying S
I scan the horizon for a Chinese Buffet billboard. Surely there’s one coming up.
Our boys are used to the great American road trip. We have loaded them up in the car ever since they were little. They have grown up being used to a 9 or 10-hour car ride for a family vacation. When I think back to all the different
On a road trip, the snack bag is critical.
Yes, the cooler and snack bag have to be handy and accessible at all times. As well as beach towels for blankets and to wipe up any messes (or, heaven forbid, in the aid of a carsick kid). My younger son got carsick as a baby and toddler, usually early in the morning when we were just starting out. We’d pass a plastic bag back to his older brother and tell him to hold it in front of him. Poor guy — we didn’t stop for that but we always kept making good time.
When you’re trying to make good time, it’s wise to keep a watch on your gas gauge. Years ago we were on the Florida turnpike and I noticed my husband was tailing an 18-wheeler. We were just feet away from its bumper. “What are you doing?!” I yelled. He was resolute and kept his focus straight ahead as we kept pace with the truck. “We’re low on gas so I’m drafting this truck just like they do in NASCAR.” Good grief. He kept it up for 20 miles or so until we made it to a gas station.
Another thing to plan ahead is the arrangement of your luggage. No, I don’t just mean the way you Tetrus-style pack it in your car. My husband boasted as we pulled out of the driveway last week: “I hate to brag, but I am one of the best car packers not just in America, but in the world.” It’s too bad there will never be a contest for him to check that fact. If you’re making multi-stops, you’ve got to have that smaller bag packed with just the clothes your family needs at that stop, whether it’s a motel or if you’re staying with friends. Consolidation is key so you don’t have to bring in all your suitcases.
Of course, I try to be on top of things like that. One year on our way to North Carolina, we stopped at Dollywood to take the boys to the Dollywood water park. I had meticulously packed a bag with everyone’s swimsuits and changes of clothes, our flip flops, beach towels,
You don’t want to put yourself in the position of having to buy a swimsuit for yourself in the Dollywood Water Park Gift Shop. Not if you can help it.
But hey, lesson learned: double-check the packed items. And triple check your packing list. These days I might text my boys a packing list for them to double-check, to make sure they don’t forget items like certain shoes they will need or a raincoat. The problem with car travel versus airline travel is that we can overpack. And I admit that instead of becoming better at packing as I get older, I create a reverse packing methodology where I think I might, for the first time in a long time, need all kinds of clothes from my closet.
Oh yes, something I never wear at home might be the perfect thing on my trip, I think. What’s worse is the cosmetic overpacking. I somehow think that I will have lots of time on vacation to try out new serums and masks, change nail polish colors, need a rotating aroma of lotions for each day of the week.
Sure, you can call it overpacking, or you can call it being prepared for any scenario. Prepared like a Girl Scout.
But nothing was overpacked like my friend’s childhood family vacation station wagon. She said they would pile in for Panama City with her mom and aunt in the front seat, she and her cousins all in the back. There wasn’t a seat for my friend so she said she had to “lurch like a hobbit” on top of a suitcase in the way, way back, rear-facing the entire time. Her mother smoked so she was always gasping for someone to crack the window for a clean breath of air. And, they didn’t want to stop if they didn’t have to, so they had a portable potty the kids had to use. She adds that the sandwiches they packed were tuna fish (I didn’t believe her at first — really? Tuna?) so the whole trip had the competing smells of smoke, urine, and tuna.
When I talked to friends about their memories of road trips, everyone had some strong visual details from their childhoods. One friend said she traveled with her friend’s family to the Ozarks but the parents had a unique travel rule: they would stop whenever they saw a Holiday Inn or if it was
About thirty minutes later, his younger brother
Maybe people have had one bad road trip too many.
I know we have had our share of bad road trips. A lot of times, a bad road trip comes off a bumpy vacation. One year in South Carolina, we experienced several “bumps” in a row, from a broken refrigerator, to my younger son getting a jellyfish sting near his eye, and
Of course, we hit major traffic coming home so what should have been a 10- hour trip took more like 13 hours. We were almost home and my younger son’s head was in my lap (he still had his seatbelt on but was stretched over). I was stroking his hair when I saw something crawl in it. I investigated further and realized that the lice outbreak some of his friends had a few weeks prior must have finally hit him, too.
It’s hard to deliver bad news to the family close to 10 p.m. when you have been in the car 13 hours or so. “Um, hey guys?” you say…
Cut to a mad rush into Walgreens to buy every Rid product they sell and the family shampooing together as soon as we get home. Yes, that goes down as our worst road trip ever. But it didn’t stop us from taking road trips. Over the years, we come up with different games like “Name That Tune” where one of us will control the I-phone attached to the Aux Cord and play a snippet of a song to see who can blurt it out the fastest. Or even teachable music moments (not that our boys always love this one) where my husband and I play songs we think the boys “ought to know.”
But even when the boys have had their headphones in and watched movies or listened to their own music, it was always a good time for my husband and me to talk at length about all kinds of things. Many times we would plan the family calendar or plan holidays. We like to listen to
“Prisoner Transport! Yes! I got that one!”
I must not be paying close enough attention again. This game is not for daydreamers. Sure enough, I look over and see a van that says Prisoner Transport on the side. My husband is winning even though my older son found
And that’s the beauty of the road trip. Time.
It gives you time to bond like this, play games like this, to slog through getting somewhere together. When else are you spending a solid 9 hours or more together? You may hit traffic jams. There could be car trouble. Someone might get sick, or you might forget your swimsuit. For a successful road trip, the most important thing to pack is your laid-back attitude. Strut on out of that Dollywood Gift Shop Dressing room and rock that water park. There are family memories to be made.
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To play our road trip scavenger hunt, find these items (or create your own list):
- Girl in a bikini top
- Shirtless Driver
- Smoking Driver
Vehicle with 6 or more people in itVehicle with 6 or more stickers on it- Stuffed animal in a car (stuck to
window , or front or back windshield) Elderly woman with glasses- Prisoner Transport
- Purple Car
- Canadian license plate
- North Dakota license plate
- Chinese Buffet Billboard
Little dog in a car (under 20 lbs)- Horse trailer carrying a horse or horses
Exact copy of the car we are driving- Any celebratory writing (like Just Married, Timmy’s Birthday, etc)
Woman driving an RV- Stick Figure Family Sticker
- Nose Picker (my boys say extra point if it’s knuckle-deep)
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If you missed my last post, you can find it here: Listening Better: 7 Tricks To Up Your Game