Car Rides

written July 19, 2011

Car rides have changed since I was l little. My family has never shied away from long car rides. Some examples.....
.I remember driving from PA to NM when I was really little. We drove straight thru with my parents switching off and on driving. (random flag..that trip I had 2 black eyes).
.We made the trip again when I was in elementary or middle school, this time we were living in SC. We were told the trip would take 5 days and we were very surprised when we got there in 3!! (smart idea from my parents)
.After we moved to sc from pa we have visited yearly - all 9 hours.
.We visit Ocean City Maryland - 3 hours from Lancaster
.There have also been multiple trip to Orlando (6 hours) to visit my moms parents and to go Disney world...those trips are too many to count many were just for the weekend.

As I am writing we are currently on the road from SC to PA. We couldn't leave until I got off of work so we are making it in two trips stopping in Fredericksburg VA. As I'm riding, it got me thinking about all our car trips...

I remember when I was little, we would pass the time by playing the alphabet game and the license plate game. You know, whoever finds words starting with all letters of the alphabet (in order) wins, and whoever finds the most license plates from different sates. We had little travel games, and decks of cards that we would play in the back seat. We would try to figure out ways to keep the pieces on the boards, or cards on the seat. I remember when we we borrowed a friends gameboy for one trip, which was high tech for us! Then we got a car with a DVD player in it and thought that was the coolest thing ever! We would watch movies that dad liked to listen to, so the time passed quickly for him too. Now I am riding along listening to music off my iPhone thru the radio and typing this up on my iPad. How car rides have changed!

I'm also reminded of how communication has changed. We never took more than one car, then again it was just the four of us. I remember making several trips with the Gehman family to Busch Gardens Virginia. The first few trips we would use cue cards and would pass each other holding up our signs with either FOOD or P (for bathroom breaks). I remember the trip when we graduated up to cb's and my mom still tells the story of Kevin getting on the radio yelling "evasive maneuver....evasive maneuver", when we were almost in an accident. This trip is quite different. There are 3 cars, Sarah and I in a one, dad in one, mom, mommom, and John in the other. (trust me there is logic behind this) ....side note, Ben isn't able to come and is severely missed. How are we communicating you ask?...thru our iPhones...no cue cards, no cb's...good ole cell phones. It is nice that we can just call one another and chat!!

It's amazing how times have changed...