How we went on a road trip every summer before the advent of the portable DVD player is beyond me, but we did it and I look back on those trips pretty fondly, if for no other reason than the fact that I could read for ten straight hours without anyone hassling me to clean my room. Still, I think times have changed for the better; I'm utterly shameless about breaking out a movie if we're driving for more than a couple of hours, and I think I pack better snacks than my mom or my aunt did on our interstate treks.
This Enid, OK Eagle clip about family roadtripping brought back a slew of memories, not the least of them being the dusty leg of the trip to Grandma and Grandpa's that dragged through Oklahoma (but I'm sure Enid is lovely). I remember being stuffed in a car without enough seatbelts to go around, eating bologna sandwiches on soggy bread, and crashing on the floors of distant cousins and at inns best described as "Motel 4". I remember that the McDonald's in Gallup, NM was decorated in pink and blue for reasons I can't begin to understand. I remember doing a lot of Mad Libs. I remember the time we camped out at a family reunion, and more license plate and alphabet finding games than I can count.
Roadtripping with kids nowadays is so much less work, to be honest. They draw on their Magnadoodles, I knit, he drives. They nap, he naps, I drive. They get squirrelly, I throw in a movie, we push through 'till dinnertime. By the time they outgrow the Magnadoodles they'll have grown into roadkill bingo, and that'll probably last us until they're old enough to spend an entire trip entertaining themselves by rolling their eyes and muttering about how lame it is to have to travel with family.
