I remember it like it was yesterday … the first flight we took as a family of four.
It was a 5 hour flight from the east coast to Utah to visit some family and explore the west. The kids were 4 1/2 yrs and 15 months. I wanted to save money so I didn’t buy a seat for the 15 month old. We booked a late flight and kept him awake all day with the hope that he’d sleep on the plane. Despite every good effort, the child who had just recently weaned and found his legs only wanted to run around and when we couldn’t allow him to do that, he was inconsolable. After that trip I decided that we would not be flying again for a very, very long time.  That combined with a desire to see the world and a lack of funds to travel internationally, fueled the idea of “Road tripping.” And now, we’re obsessed!
To date, we have traveled up and down the east coast, driven from MD to TX and back and explored a good bit of the west. On one of our trips we managed to hit 12 states and on another we explored 4 major national parks. When people hear of our trips and adventures and they learn that we drove it all, they’re usually aghast. “You drove all that way!?” “How long did it take you?” “Don’t the kids drive you crazy?” “Omg! What do you do with all that time in the car?!”
So this post is to answer those questions and share with you ….
10 Reasons why Road Tripping is the thing to do!
- It’s cheaper! Check the gas prices and do the math … if you have more than two people in your traveling party, it’s almost always cheaper to drive your own car. Saving money on plane tickets and car rentals allows more money to go towards other things – like cool excursions.
- My children won’t disrupt anyone else. Can they still be whiney and annoying sometimes? Sure! They’re kids! But they’re mine and I love them unconditionally. If they kick the back of the seat, whine, or are too wiggley … strangers who have no obligation to my children and who paid good money for their seat aren’t bothered. This eliminates a ton of stress on me, as their mother.
- It’s more comfortable. We have it down to a science! The kids pick what movies they want to pack. We have wireless headphones so that they can watch a movie while we listen to our music. There’s a cooler packed in between their seats filled with juice boxes, snacks and sandwiches. They each bring their pillow and pack a “carry-on” which is filled with fun activities for the car – a new activity book, travel-sized games, their toys, ear-buds, tablets, etc. You simply can’t carry all those things on a plane. Nor can you put your seat all the way back or lay down across the seats.
- It allows for more flexibility. You have your own vehicle and your own schedule. You can choose to stick to your pre-determined stops or be spontaneous without the worry of a flight to catch or a shuttle schedule to check.
- It encourages you to explore more places off the beaten path. Airports tend to be the hub of cities and businesses and are full of tourist traps and chain-restaurants. Once you are in the center of those hubs, the motivation to move outside of that area may be lessened because of traffic and time and sheer inconvenience. But if you’re planning a road trip, you simply plan your route based on where you want to go, not just where there’s an airport. We decide how far we want to drive each day and then we look in that vicinity to see where we want to stop and what opportunities there are in that area. Every day we have a new adventure planned. Try it! I promise you’ll find yourself at more parks and cozy little restaurants then you would if your plane dropped you off in the middle of a city. And my experience has proven these places to be our most memorable gems.
- It allows for more family bonding. Spending hours in close quarters affords us the opportunity to know one another more deeply and it forces us to find enjoyment in one another when the tendency may be to retreat and be alone. With no pressures of time or being in public, discussions take place that otherwise wouldn’t. Car games to pass the time encourage team work and shared thoughts. We’re in it together and the trip isn’t enjoyable for anyone if someone is acting up – so there’s a motivation to be pleasant and to be a team player. Do we sometimes get on each other’s nerves? Sure, that’s what the independent activities are for. But when those get old, we come back together again. Kids love playing games with their parents and the time in the car gives us a break from life’s busyness. And with a laptop I can get some work, writing and photo editing done while we travel instead of trying to do it at our destinations or when we get back home.
- It teaches children the virtue of patience. In a world of instant gratification, road-tripping shows them that the sweetest things in life are worth working and waiting for. A 5 hr road trip for my kids is a piece-of-cake because they know what a 17 hr drive is like. And I’m convinced that the work and wait it takes to travel to various places makes them appreciate our destinations even more.
- It reinforces geography and teaches map reading skills. This dying art is alive and well when the Meneses family takes a vacation. Using both digital GPS as well as a simple paper version of the states we are traveling through, we chart our path of adventure; and as a result, learn where these cities and states are in-relation to one another and how long it takes to travel between them. And … it’s another car activity to keep our minds busy!
- It creates cultural awareness. Exploring different locales within the same trip allows us to see first-hand the common threads and the vast differences that lie just a day’s car-ride apart. It’s a 10 hr drive from the moonshine-filled, lush Great Smoky Mountains of the twangy Tennessee countryside to the jazz-filled streets of New Orleans. Another 8 hr drive and you leave this architectural gem, infused with Gullah and French influence, and the swampy wetlands of Louisiana turn into the dry, brown desserts and the cowboy culture of Texas. Be it food, way of speaking, common mode of transportation, placement of modern-day conveniences, homeless population, level of crime, or merely the overall lifestyle of the people who call these places “home”, my children can see that there’s goodness to be found everywhere. Our hometown isn’t superior because it’s familiar and there’s more than one way to live.
- Planning ahead saves time and money and allows for a more stress-free vacation. Road tripping does require more planning than a one-stop vacation … but it saves you more time and stress once your vacation begins. Friends and family love to tease me about my typed itineraries. But when vacation comes, I literally punch the address into the GPS and off we go! I don’t have to worry about where we are going to eat or if  a certain place is open on Sundays. I’ve already done all that. And if we want to cut something out or stay longer, we can! But we’re not wasting time walking in circles or googling “things to do”. Trip Advisor and Map Quest will become your best friends (they’re free). There’s no moping around the hotel room, “What are we going to do today?” nonsense. And as I said before, you get more experiences and have more flexibility by driving your own car.Â
Start out small and give it a try! Your first road trip doesn’t have to be across the country. It doesn’t require a ton of money or a travel agent. The planning can be done a little-at-a- time and the hotels booked and paid for one-by-one, in advance, so that when the vacation comes, your expenses are minimal. And, like anything, the more you do it, the better you will get at it!
My family is half-way to our goal of experiencing all 50 states. I am convinced that there is no better way to explore the vast and varied experiences of this country than hitting the open road. There are so many cultural experiences and adventures right here in the US. The sites you will see, the road-side stands selling local fare-boiled peanuts or fresh produce, and the places you will find just can’t be replicated when you’re in the air. My favorite memories have come from these trips. I have snorkeled amazing reefs in the Florida Keys, rode a mule down into a canyon, floated alongside manatees, jumped from cliffs in Texas, ridden on a train through the West Virginia countryside and danced in the streets of New Orleans with my 9-year-old …. and none of those things would’ve happened if we hadn’t taken a road trip.
Don’t get me wrong …. I want to travel internationally and sometimes a plane ride is only practical … but while the kids are still young, while I have 4 tickets to buy – not just 2 and while there is still so much of this country that we haven’t seen, road tripping has allowed us to check-off bucket list items without going into debt and has shown us the many hidden treasures that can be found when you take the long road.
