Dad...Are we there yet?

Instead of calling this year's road trip experience, "Roadtrippin' Vol II", I thought I give it a title that better suits this year's version...."Dad, Are we there yet?"

HAH!!! I know you know what's next...For me, images of 1960's Volkswagen Bus', trips down and up Route 95 searching for the perfect Civil War Battleground to explore. Maybe another whirl through Gettysburg? Williamsburg? Richmond? or for fun... let's go to Antietam for a real taste of battle gore! No sign of "The Mouse" for this girl... or Hershey Park, or even Busch Gardens, (truly don't think it was around in the 60's and 70's anyway!)

Roadtrippin' today...though... even still with a destination of sunny Florida STILL shapes up no differently than it did 40 years ago! That is when one travels in modern day roadtrippin' style!

My trip as a 40-something on the Great super highway of 95 contained many of the same variables as days gone by! All the factors present on the checklist of traveling 1000 miles with children, in the ride that is!!!! Let me recount to you my childhood, jettisoned to now, on a road trip from the very north to the very south... the only real difference... 1 child extra, a ride-a-long school teacher, video and computer technology, "Carla.. the GPS, not-so-know-it-all", medication to prevent car motion sickness (for me!) and 3 very patient adult pilots! Ok.. it WASN'T the same really!!! ALthough, I found myself in the Steve Carrel position of the van at times from Little Miss Sunshine!

Our trip begins the Friday eve of April School vacation. For me traditionally, it was always Washington, DC. Our annual pilgrimage was to go and witness the bed where Lincoln died in mid-April, see the Cherry blossoms and perhaps a day trip to Appomattox courthouse.. maybe Mt. Vernon just for the fun of it! This April vacation I am happy to say that my dearest friends the Perry's and their 4 kids were heading to vacation mecca for their annual pilgrimage during April vacation week.. "Disney World" !!!! (Nana & Pop too!) Seeing I commute to Florida now on a regular basis they were gracious enough to ask me to road trip along and roll me out onto a grassy knoll somewhere in Jacksonville on their way to the promised land! As any budget- abiding gal would do she took the offer... and to no surprise, found myself in the middle of a roadtrippin' adventure I hadn't experienced in some time!!!!

Here, we are all packed. I land at Casa Perry exactly on schedule for a Friday night departure. I arrive to 6 neatly packed and stowed color-coded suitcases. (Not even my organized mother was this good!!) I lay my roll-away and carry-on neatly on top, grab my pillow and x-large Diet Pepsi and in minutes we are all buckled, received safety and exiting instructing, and are now the viewers of tonight's featured film!!! (That is something the Volkswagen did not have- (had that been invented, my father would have taken us to California watching "How the West was Won!") The cabin is a buzz with Super Mario jumps, crashing Pac Man, (honestly I'm too old to know better so I am embellishing), and every other game known to the "DS" system... (again one more piece of technology that is new to the journey....) I did get to bring Lite Bright sometimes on my trips!!)

Three adults worked that day. Two worked with children, and the other with "older children.." , we were all "ready" for the road. As we approached the RI-CT border I began to hear familiar noises around the cabin. " Dad, are we there yet?" from a young 4-year old.... I totally smiled and thought "Kid, if you only knew!" Again, after a long hard day at preschool you would be asking that most important, quintessential question at 4 just under an hour into the trip too! Hell, I work in that same place and wondered it a bit myself.. lol!

The phrase however, did set the tone!

The sky began to darken and cries of hunger then emerged... "Hey , when are we stopping at McDonald's?" Ah... this was the road trip I remembered.. except, I was a passenger in my 40's buckled into a luxury van watching Peter Pan! Once when my Uncle David, on one of his adventures with us in the Bus, was sitting in his " lazy boy" that he and my dad threw into the back of the bus, one of those fate-filled Washington adventures he surely must have known the pleasure of this adventure too... right before HE had kids!!

And then the fights began!!!!!

Capt Hook cannot hold a candle to Capt Ronald McDonald... nor do the Mario Bros trump bathroom pit stops! (By the adults BTW!) Super-sized caffineated sodas and long road trips do not equal easy on and off pee breaks at rest stops! Hell the kids got to use what we did in the old-fashioned days of carriaging down 95.... today if adults did it it would be known as abuse!!! SO- the adults stopped and ran in when they could and resumed the rules of the road! The kids at times got to stay and "use" the comforts of the head on board-

I suppose the McDee's stop would've been just like the old days.. although back then the Happy Meal was only "happy" to my parents who paid under a $1 for a cheeseburger and fries- no toys, nothing to fight over for us- yet still made us happy! Today.. I had no idea that McDonald's took Jaime Oliver's course!!! There was more to choose from then I could possibly imagine. I got something heart-healthy without the put-together dragon... or my evening scotch...and put 4 other dragons together however ... suffice I didn't need that to feel the happiness I was feeling reliving my childhood again!

As the fighting and laughter faded in the back I turned and saw 4 angelic creatures nodded off in PJ's surrounded by animal character airplane neck support pillows, blankies and stuffed dogs...I was wondering why I had forgotten this part of my childhood road trip experience? Ah.. how comfortable.. the knowledge that you could fall asleep and know that 3 pilots would be sailing on through and wake up in sunny F-L-A is enough to put any mind to a sound sleep... until you wake up and find yourself still in Baltimore! Okay.. the adults had needed more Big Gulps and fewer naps...

My 4am shift was greeted with no lav or coffee at 5am as McDonald's promises.. and took us into a cloudy dawn through Washington. (Funny that this was my stop). The remainder of the day was the same, switch hitting the wheel through the god-fearing boredom of the Carolina's...stops to the BK Lounge and more noise from the back over technology I knew nothing of since the early 80's, parents trying to catnap, gossip over events of late, and answering that end-all question.. "Dad, are we there yet???"

I knew at one fuel station we were close, I felt the sweat beading on my brow, the film across my teeth and the memories of college 'all-nighters" swimming in my head.... not to mention the increasing feel of humidity... aaah Georgia was on my mind! The kids were finally saying, "Dad, we must be close I see palm trees!" And suddenly the spirit lifted. Chatter of what might be happening at Cinderella's castle in the air and my good friends praying that Grandma would swoop in and lovingly take their grandchildren to bed, bath and beyond.. (and I'm not speaking of the chain store!) And yes, I knew my trip was closing in on me too! 56 miles to Jacksonville! Those are signs we LOVE to see on the highway of life!

My trip felt like my childhood relived again.. except I guess, that no one vomited, I didn't get to stop in Richmond and see Lee and Grant's whatever....(although Chris really wanted too!) I did get to see Disney flicks on film instead of waiting for them 1x a year on TV, right there in the van, I didn't pee in a pan.. (not saying anyone else did for the protection of the innocent), there was little adult arguing and child discipline, I wore a seat belt the whole time, I traded "I spy" for a Nintendo DS, oh.. and I got to make it to sunny FLA for R&R... so although, the American Family Road Trip has not changed... it was still better than having to walk 5 miles in the snow to school every morning!

I sadly waived good bye to my traveling buddies and jumped into the arms of Jax and was secretly jealous of their next destination, and said "Let's do it all again next week!"

Thanks Perrys!
Love, Miss Dawn