Summer Road Trip 2010

This year, Mom declares “Summer Road trip 2010,” to be added as our 11^th annual road trip to who knows where. Who are we?  My mom is a single mom and teacher, I’m 18 and just graduated from high school and two sisters, a 15 ½ year old sophomore and a 13 ½ year old 8^th grader from Colorado Springs, CO. 

The van is loaded (to the gills…why do girls pack so much? Duffle bags packed? Clothes, shoes, swim suits, necessities? Cooler with snacks and water? Futon for the girls to sleep in the van??  (What’s that about? I get the front passenger seat!) Air mattresses, Game boys, laptops, cell phones, chargers, books and magazines? Car top carrier loaded and strapped down? Check!  Do we really need the luxuries of home for this trip? If I ask my mom she’d say, “When you take trips of your own, you can decide what to take.  Yes we need it!  (We’ll see how much they actually use.) Girls are in, belted and ready to go.  Mom closes the hatch after the back is filled….what the??? The glass on the rearview window is popped out about 4 inches.  Mom freaks out!!  Now we’ll have to wait till the dealership opens to get it fixed, we’ll be late leaving.  We have no reservation, no time constraints, so what’s the panic?  Mom opens the hatch, pulls the molding off from around the window, together we proceed to pop the window back into place, there we go, it’s fixed, let the road trip begin. 

After we get out of Colorado and into Kansas, the doom sets is.  Why is Kansas so long?  A friend once told my mom she was terrorized as a child because driving through Kansas her mom would say, “Here you hold onto the steering wheel so I can rest my eyes!”  In 8 long hours, we’re out!!! Mom let’s me drive when she gets too tired otherwise, she is a driving maniac! Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, we arrive at Grandma and Grandpa’s after a 26 hour straight through drive. The following 2 weeks are restful with a slow, go at your own rest and relaxing pace, visiting family.  We go to Cedar Point, the roller coaster capital of the world and I can’t decide what’s more fun, riding the great coasters or watching the sweat drip off of everyone’s face, including my own.  Other than going the hottest day of the year, I had a blast. 

Off to Cook Forest, PA.  Canoeing on the river is great fun except when your 15 year old sister leaves you stranded mid-river declaring she’s not going any farther after falling under the canoe!  Have you ever canoed alone on a river that’s not full enough anyway and you nearly have to just get out and drag the boat through the rocks most of the way?  It’s another adventure to add to my life experience.  

We head south to Alabama, destination Dauphin Island.  My aunt, uncle and cousin just moved there where we relax on the island deserted by those afraid of what the oil spill has done to our coastal beaches.  Who can complain, not having to fight crowds on the beach?  Here we fish, bike ride, take a ferry excursion, and visit New Orleans, once with the older cousins and again on our way home.

On the road again, as Willie Nelson once sang… after 25 days, 16 states, and 5500 miles traveled, we are back home in Colorado. I love summer “Road Trips, a tradition I will start with my own family someday!