What I Learned on a 3700 Mile Road-Trip

1. It's always nice to have another adult person on a long trip with you. Thanks Dad for flying from Dallas to NYC and then driving back to Dallas with us (and then repeating the trip).

At a rest stop in Tennessee.

2. It's a shame that states are closing rest stops. There is so much safe, green space that the kids could expend their built up energy at a rest stop. You can't have your kids run, chase, cartwheel and ride their bike in the fast food parking lot.

3. You can drive 8 hours with both kids WIDE awake. Thirty minutes before you arrive at your destination they will BOTH fall asleep and be grouchy because you have to wake them.

4. Staying at hotels can be fun, especially if the hotel has an indoor pool. It also makes for a fun time if the hotel is over-booked and upgrades your standard room to their most expensive room---The Presidential Suite.

The Porter Wagoner Presidential Suite at The Opryland Hotel. We got upgraded, just a little.

After the first night on the road, Oliver refused the pack 'n play and slept in bed with Chloe and I.

5. Its impossible to use cruise control on highways anymore.

6. People have forgotten that the left lane is for passing and not just cruising along.

7. To see anything interesting, you have to take a few detours off the interstate. 

8. Its always fun to take a detour and make a mini-family reunion out of a long trip.

9. The iPad is heaven sent in a long car ride.

10. Having your shoes on for 7 hours in a car and then taking them off and placing your smelly, sweaty feet on the side of your mother's seat STINKS!

 11. You see a few things that make you scratch your head and give you pause.

This was at a rest stop located just over the Alabama border, not too far from the location where three civil rights workers were murdered in the 1960s. Flying above this concrete declaration was the U.S. flag, the state flag as well as a variant of the Confederate flag. I didn't find it welcoming.

12. When the iPad battery dies and you let your upset two year-old play with your iPhone, you end up with 156 photos on your phone similar to this....

13. You decrease the flying insect population. Unfortunately, you have to stop frequently to clean your windshield and it takes some scrubbing to remove the carcases from your front bumper.

14. Kids will happily get in a car for a 90 minute drive after riding three days from NJ to TX if it means they get to go fishing at PaPaw's farm.