Road Trippin’
Ah the good old road trip. Who doesn’t love a road trip? I’m sure there are people out there but most people I know enjoy a good road trip. With the open roads (well at least within your own province) about to get busy, I thought it was a great time to talk about road trips. Whether you are in a car, motor home, whatever, road trips are a right of passage. It doesn’t have to be a 12 hour drive, a 2 hour drive is a road trip as well. What makes a good road trip you ask. Well here are my thoughts on this subject.
There are two kinds of road trips. First is for the person who likes organization and doesn’t like surprises. You know exactly where you are going, what roads you will take, where you will stop for gas and food and you don’t like to deviate. The second type of road trip is you have X amount of days to get from point A to point B. You know you are leaving at X time and that’s about it.
Option number one can be a fun road trip if you add some pizazz to it. How you ask? Well, what about a music playlist? Our kids were meeting us in the states to go skiing and my sons carmates had a music playlist designated to each person. They knew it was a long drive so each person was given a genre and had to build a playlist that lasted so many hours. They had topics like, middle school dance jams, country, old school, dealers choice. As they planed their trip, each person got to veto one selection. So, maybe no musicals. (Sorry, L, I had to share that one.) It’s a great way to pass the time and learn a little something about each person in the car. It broadened their music spectrum and maybe taught them to have some patience if they hated the music for an hour. What would you choose as your topic? I think mine would be 80’s music, there’s nothing better than glam hair rock and slow ass grabber songs that take you back!
I can totally appreciate option number one for a road trip. There is order and once you are on the road, you don’t have to make any decisions. I feel like always choosing option number one will lead you down a long boring road. Lets talk a bit about the second type of road trip.
The second type of road trip can be so much fun! You see where the wind blows you. You see a sign on the side of the road and think, Yeah, lets stop there and see what its about. You can take back roads that lead you to amazing little eateries and beautiful, off the beaten path, nature spots. Maybe you find some hot springs that not many people know about. The possibilities are endless. I love these kind of road trips. Put the windows down, turn the music up and enjoy the ride. It took me a long time to get to the point of loving these trips. I think as a Mom, I had to plan so much stuff that I forgot what it was like to just show up to something. This is a great way to just show up. Make it more interesting by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors to see if you are going to go one direction or another.
My husband and I had a road trip through Oregon one summer while our kids were at camp there. All we had planned was an overnight fly fishing float trip down the DeSchutes River. We asked a few people we came in contact with, “If you could go anywhere in Oregon, where would you go?” We received some great information that lead us all over the state. We stopped and fished along the rivers when we saw a good spot. We looked for cool places to stay along the way too. We almost ended up at a nudist colony, good thing we noticed all the naked people in the hot tub on the website! Neither one of us wanted to be exhibitionists!
You will find that either type of road trip can still be good or not so good. Sometimes the road trips that seem like a suffer fest, can later bring you some great laughs. We decided one time, well let me clarify, we had to go to a wedding in Winnipeg and I didn’t want to pay for hotels so I decided we were going to go camping along the way. I pulled out our old college camping stuff. I think the boys were 3 and 1 at the time so we had to add in pack and plays and all the stuff that comes along with kids. We had a big tent and a few cots and I thought it was going to be a great adventure. Looking back now, it was, not at the time though.
As we drove, Kevin missed a turn and we ended up on a back road. This was before cell phones that did everything so thank heavens, we had maps. We figured out where we were and were able to navigate our way back to where we wanted to go. It was actually faster on the back roads and less stressful than the highway. Then it started to rain. If you have ever seen a rain storm on the prairies, you know what this means. If you haven’t, let me paint you a picture. It starts to come down slowly, big drops hit your windshield and it sounds like someone has dropped a small water balloon on the ground. Then imagine rain on a metal tin roof that gets louder and louder and faster and faster. Take that image and multiply it by 10. That’s how much water flows from the skies in a very short time in a prairie summer storm. Like and inch and hour or more. It can be beautiful and it is wonderful for the crops, but when you are tent camping with toddlers, it’s not ideal. Forturnatly it stopped raining long enough for us to get our tent up and dig a moat. We cooked dinner and then the rain started again. We ended up sitting in my car watching a movie until it was bed time. It rained so hard, that water was coming through the floor of the tent. I’d like to think it was the amount of water coming down and not my moat building skills that caused this and hey, it’s my story so that’s what I’m going with! Anyway, we ended up with one kid in the pack and play and the other on a cot with his dad. No one really slept, all of our stuff was soaked, and we got to pack it all back up and put it in the car. Smelly wet camping gear, oh yay! When we got to Winnipeg, we had to spread everything out in the hotel room so it would dry. I was still determined to camp our way home! Much to my husbands chagrin.
We did pivot here, we decided to take the back roads of Saskatchewan to our next destination. It was fun. Did you know that almost every small town in Saskatchewan has a giant statue representing something in their town? A huge bunnack bone, a lumber jack, a paper clip. Just a fun fact for you. We made it to our campsite, set up a dry tent and gear and had a lovely night. It was still wet and muddy but we had fun as a family. I don’t think we ever really tent camped again. Well our kids did but Kevin and I graduated to a motorhome and when the kids brought friends, they set up the tent! That Winnipeg road trip felt like a nightmare at the time, but looking back now, it brings a smile to my face.
What we did learn from that road trip is that we like to take back roads. We learned that we could pivot, try and make things a bit more fun. We learned that as you get older, tenting isn’t as fun as you remembered. But any road trip can have its fun moments.
I myself like to add podcasts to my road trips these days. They break it up nicely, and I get to learn cool things as I drive. One of my favourite podcasts that I don’t know if it’s true or not was Winds of Change. It was suggested to me by a great friend. It is about the Scorpions song Winds of Change, and it involves the CIA and all kinds of interesting tales. You should check it out. It’s worth a listen if you have a long road trip. Smartless is another fun one. Anything that can make you laugh is good in my books. What are some of your favourite road trip playlists or podcasts? Drop it into the comments for me. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy a great road trip this spring or summer!
https://podtail.com/no/podcast/smartless/
Here is the link to Smartless!
www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/wind-of-change-cia-propaganda-…
Here is the link to Winds of Change Podcast