Road Trip Time!

OK, so last week I was planning to do a more “normal life” blog post, but as it turns out, time got away from me.

Not to mention that normal life is actually pretty boring. So there’s that.

But anyway. This past weekend, my family took a trip to Canada (which Sara blogged about as well). Instead of focusing on what we did over the weekend, I’m going to focus my post on the underappreciated aspect of family vacations … the car ride.

There’s just something special about road trips. Getting up while it’s still dark outside, snuggling under blankets in the cold van, the excited chattering that’s way too loud for 5:00 in the morning.

Then the peacefulness that settles over the van as we all finally go back to sleep again, and the gentle drone of my dad listening to an audiobook to keep himself awake while he drives.

Then the sunrise, followed by the growing chatter as one person after another wakes up again and starts asking for food, the search for a McDonald’s, and the ensuing chaos as everyone tries to get their order communicated to Mom first.

The little McDonald’s bathroom where I stress out about how frizzy my hair is after two hours of sleeping in the van. The strange-smelling hand soap and scratchy paper towels. Then climbing back into the van with deliciously unhealthy fried breakfast foods as we keep driving.

It’s amazing how much personality comes through when a family of ten is stuck in a small space for seven hours straight. Sara alternates between asking if we can please turn on the radio and cracking lame jokes that for some reason never fail to make me laugh. Callie sits with her earbuds in and her eyes closed, in her own little world, but tunes in to the rest of us often enough to pose for a picture or laugh at an inside joke.

Mitchell is begging to play on the tablet, and Gabriel is, of course, being his usual adorable self and trying to get attention with everything from funny comments to random loud noises. Laurie is wondering how soon we’re going to stop for lunch, and Aubrey is asking every half hour how long it will until we get there. Zachary has borrowed my phone and is jamming out to Tenth Avenue North in his headphones.

Lunch is another fast-food place, and after that, everyone is getting tired of driving. Gabriel still wants attention and is starting to get pesty as his sisters are ignoring him. Aubrey is yelling that she has to use the bathroom. Zachary has fallen asleep with his headphones still on, and I steal back my phone. He doesn’t notice.

But after awhile some of the kids start to fall asleep, and now we’re not far away from our destination. We reach the Millers’ house at around 3, and hang out with them for supper. Then at 8, it’s time to head out for the last leg of the trip–two hours to our cousins’ house.

The evening section of the trip goes well since most of the kids sleep. We reach our cousins house after ten. The cousins all stayed up to welcome us, and we climb out of the van into the cool Canada air.

Of course this is just a little picture of what our road trips look like. Every one is different, and some of them are definitely more fun than others.

But the last few times our family has traveled together, I missed it because I was doing something else. So it was a lot of fun to go on another road trip–even with the stressed-out parents, whining siblings, moments of carsickness and our rusty maxi van (which I’m still convinced is going to die for good sometime when we’re eight hours away from home).

It makes me kinda sad to think that the days when we all travel together in the van like this are numbered. But I’ll certainly enjoy them while they last, and this one added a bunch of fun new memories with my siblings.

Some funny quotes from the trip:

Me after noticing an unpleasant smell: “It [smells like] the paper mill again.” Gabriel (age 4): “No, it’s just the fog.” (Well of course. Why didn’t I think of that?)

Gabriel (singing): “Buffalo is a city! Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah!”

Sara (reading a billboard): “Antique and flea market??? Me: “Home of the Antique Fleas.”

[From the trip back]

Gabriel: “I took Buffalo and threw it in the trash can, and now Buffalo’s GONE!”

Also Gabriel: “The volcano interrupted!!”