Embracing the Journey (Guest Post)

Given that we are in the middle of our summer road trip to the beach, I thought this would be a good time for a guest post!

My family has been taking road trips since before I can remember. Now that I’m in the front seat and have kids of my own, road trips have taken on a whole new meaning. And I love the memories we make as a family when we hit the road!

Pam with Be Healthy Be Happy Wellness has some great tips on turning your next road trip into a memorable journey.

Guest Post by Pam Howard

Now that summer is here, road trips are in full swing. For many families, summer is the best time to vacation, and driving is the least expensive way to get where you want to go.

But what do you do if you hate driving?

At least a few times a year we embark on long road trips. As neither my husband or I particularly like to drive, we had to come up with a way to make them bearable.

I have friends who load up the car and drive all night, but that is not something we can do. The few times we tried it, we wound up exhausted the next day and essentially missed the first day of our trip.

Vacations are already too short to miss any part of them!

Luckily, I’ve found a way to make the trip enjoyable. So much so that my kids would prefer to drive than fly!

How did we do it?

Have the Right Attitude

This is the most important part – by simply reminding ourselves that the journey can be as fun as the destination, we hit the road with the right mindset.

We’ve come to look at a road trip as a chance to relax (versus work), see something new, and have some great conversations. We also try to share the driving responsibilities. That way no one gets too tired and worn out.

Try New Restaurants

It’s a rare trip that we don’t break out Yelp when we start to get hungry and search up local restaurants. Once the kids start snacking on everything in sight, I know it’s time to eat a real meal, so I open the app, switch it to map view and start searching for places twenty minutes ahead or so of our current route.

We’ve discovered awesome dive bars, amazing breweries, old-school drive-ins and everything in-between. The family rule is that it can’t be more than ten minutes off the road we are traveling, and it can’t be a chain. Other than that, anything goes. Yes, it adds time to our trip (we’ve found we usually spend an hour), but we’ve created a fun memory, enjoyed much better food and had some fun while getting to our destination.

This is also a great break in the driving, and we all feel so much better getting out of the car and walking around a bit. Before we take off again, we fill up on gas and make sure everyone takes a restroom break so that we don’t have to stop again for a while.

Plan an Interesting Stop or Two

If the trip is really long, I’ll check ahead of time for things to do along the drive. We rarely drive more than 8 or 9 hours in a day, so adding an hour or two for an interesting attraction is totally doable. Combine that with a restaurant stop and it feels more like a vacation day versus a driving day.

Some of our favorite adventures were taking a dairy factory tour in Tennesee (In Athens, TN if you are interested) complete with scrumptious ice cream cones at the end; visiting the location of the six million paper clip project (which was so powerful we still talk about it); and stopping at the Russell Stover’s Outlet on our way to Orlando to stock up on candy for the vacation.

Be Flexible

Aside from attitude, this is probably the most important part of enjoying the journey. If the weather is awful or you feel too tired to drive, change your plans and stop earlier – you’ll eventually get where you are going.

Get a hotel room, pick up some popcorn at the local theater and watch a movie in bed. Your detour then becomes a fun night.

See an interesting sign alongside the road? Why not stop and check it out?! We have been known to stop to do everything from picking strawberries, visiting a local winery or even checking out the World’s Largest Golf Tee. These types of spontaneous moments are what memories are made of.

What do you think? Do you enjoy road trips? How do you make them fun? Since neither Pam or I will be stopping them anytime soon, we would love to hear your ideas! Comment below.

If you have little ones along for the journey, be sure to check out my article about surviving your next road trips with kids!

And now that you are road trip ready…enjoy the journey!

Wherever the road takes you, make it a joyous journey,
Traveling Tanya

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