On the Road Again

We went on GREAT road trips when the kids were young. We felt like we invented road trips! Almost every summer (and some winters), we would head out with the five kids and make the big, 3,000 mile loop from our home in Oxnard, California to Amarillo, Texas (to visit Bill's family), then up to Bozeman, Montana (to visit my family), then back home to California. Along the way we saw wonderful things. We visited Smokey the Bear's grave, Billy the Kid's grave and the graves at the Little Bighorn. We saw the Grand Canyon, explored the cliff dwellings at Walnut Canyon and the Indian ruins at Chaco Canyon. We saw the Gunfight at the OK Corral reenacted in Tombstone, Arizona and paid our respects at Boot Hill. We slid down the White Sands of New Mexico on sheets of cardboard, drove through the Petrified Forest and toured Carlsbad Caverns. In Yellowstone National Park we shared a winter fireside and roasted wieners with a handful of hungry elk. We stood on the roof of the Old Faithful Lodge and watched Old Faithful erupt at midnight. We rafted the Yellowstone River and swam in the hot springs. Good times...

We achieved almost professional "travelling with kids" status. I taught countless mini classes on the subject and, to add to my credentials, let me remind you that this was in the days before personal DVD players and Game Boys. We actually had to entertain kids...for miles and miles and miles. Not only that, we did it on a shoestring budget...very few restaurant stops on the road. We shopped at grocery stores along the way and picnicked in city parks. We did our laundry in small town laundromats, and slept in the car by the side of the road. Well, some of us slept. Some of us stayed up most of the night trying to keep the kids quiet so that the driver could sleep.

I know there were times when the back seat fighting nearly drove us insane. But, like childbirth, we have forgotten most of the pain and just remember the good times. Although I DO remember having to divide the back seat once with masking tape borders to keep people from crossing the lines and touching each other.

On Thursday of this week we are leaving for a two week road trip, a repeat of one we did in December of 2007. I guess we're just crazy for travelling with kids because we will be picking up Sarah and her two boys, Ashton and Alvie, in St. George, then driving south and east with them to San Antonio for Abby's baptism. It's a trip of 1,300 miles. I am sure we will make a lot of fine memories. But in every other way this will be much different from the trips of old. Ashton and Alvie will have their DVD player, Bill will have his satellite radio, and we will be sleeping in Hampton Inns.

I plan to take photos of some of the more interesting things we see and I will share (whether you like it or not) when I return.