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Road Trips |Pad Patter 8.15

weaselwatchr

weaselwatchr

Viva, Las Vegas!
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Summer time means vacation. And sometimes those vacations include a road trip. Our preferred mode of travel is usually flying but on occasion we have been on a road trip or two. Generally road trips are more or less reserved to travel to weddings or funerals. Generally when it would be too expensive to fly due to a last minute situation.
Our last "official" road trip was back in 2014 when we decided to fly to Denver, pick up my BIL and then drive to California. The destinations were great. We went to a few national parks, stopped in Vegas, saw Herst Castle, drove the Pacific highway and saw whales from the rest area and went to the wine country and stopped in San Francisco. That was the good. But my nickname for this trip has also been the Road Trip from hell, lol. We got a chip in the windshield of the rental which turned into a crack across the entire windshield of the car. We also had to avoid forest fires as well as torrential storms which led to flooding and road closures which added 15 hours to our drive. We also had a clearance issue in the parking garage so there was even more damage to the rental. I also learned that my BIL is not the best travel companion and has a problem falling asleep while driving so poor hubby had to drive most of it.
Do you like road trips? Have you had a favorite one? Have you had one where things went wrong? Let us know!
 
15 extra hours of drive time?! Yikes!

DH doesn’t like to fly so we always drive. On one of our road trips our air conditioning stopped working on the way home so we roasted driving across the desert. On another road trip we drove all night and our navigation stopped working as we arrived in our destination city so we didn’t know where to go until it decided to start working again. Good times! :-/
 
umyesh said:
15 extra hours of drive time?! Yikes!

DH doesn’t like to fly so we always drive. On one of our road trips our air conditioning stopped working on the way home so we roasted driving across the desert. On another road trip we drove all night and our navigation stopped working as we arrived in our destination city so we didn’t know where to go until it decided to start working again. Good times! :-/
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This reminds me of what happened to my sister last month. She and her boyfriend did a Canada road trip from Chicago and while there on the second day their air conditioner went out. Good times indeed.

I also think they got a flat tire somewhere in Ireland too. That was fun. Lol
 
One of my dreams is to just get in my car and drive, stopping whenever I feel like it. I actually don't mind driving.

In 2013 I took my first ever 2 weeks vacation. I drove from Ohio to NC and stayed with my dad for a week. Then I left there and drove to Orlando and stayed with a cousin for a week then drove home. I loved every single minute of it. On the way from NC to FL, I had read about a place in SC that I thought was interesting. It was just a few miles off of I-95 and so I found it. It was a very old, burned out church from the 1600's. Saw a couple having engagement photos being taken while I was there. It was gorgeous and well worth the time spent there.

I never used to mind flying but these days, it doesn't thrill me at all. Even before the pandemic, I wasn't feeling it. I'd much rather pack a car than try to deal with luggage on an airplane.
 
We love road trips! We've taken a big summer road trip every year for at least 5 or 6 years.

My most favorite was a big loop through Canada (Lake Louise/Moraine Lake, Banff, Calgary & Waterton Lakes) & then Glacier National Park. Not only did we see just the most spectacular places, but it was our first in our electric vehicle. It was a bit different planning around charging & a bit more time in the planning stages, but really no more time charging than if we had taken our guzzling SUV. In fact, a few times we scored PRIME parking due to driving the EV (Fairmont Château Lake Louise, Fairmont Banff Springs & Calgary Marriott- across the street from the Calgary Tower!) One of the photos I took of Moraine Lake actually won a photo contest too!

Thankfully we've really had good experiences with our summer trips. I'm a PLANNY PLANNERSON so I think that helps- since I have plan B, C & D options usually all ready to go! ;)
 
I am not a good traveler. I don't like to travel by plane, but I will if there is no other option. I'm riddled with anxiety though, so it makes the travel time miserable. I'm also prone to motion sickness. Actually, I get motion sickness very easily. I don't usually ride in the back seat if I can help it, even for short trips of 30 minutes or less.

I grew up taking road trips, hours in the car from Florida to Missouri and then from Florida up the Eastern coast. One of our road trips was actually an Amtrak train trip. We drove to South Carolina where my aunt lives, and boarded the Amtrak train in Columbia, then went up into Canada. We stopped in Delaware (my mom had a work conference there) as well as Washington, D.C. and of course Montreal.
 
I haven't road tripped more than 6 hours in years. My dream road trip though is to drive old Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica ... or at least what's left of 66. Maybe next fall after I retire.
 
We do shorter road trips whenever we go camping. There are so many amazing places to see and visit in Northern Michigan, so we pick a campground and then do day trips to see close-ish places. Sometimes they are lighthouses, sometimes it's a random thing we've seen on the map and don't even know what it is. Sometimes it's a bust, but even then the drive there is always great. We tell anyone in the car with us that if they see something on the way there that they want to see, detours are allowed and encouraged. Our good friends have recently started camping, so we've been teaching them our rambling ways and they love it! :D
 
I do like a good road trip. I think my favorites have been sans kids, probably only because the road trip dynamic with our kids is very different. Having moved a lot as a military family, we would always create a road trip when it was time to move from point A to B. My most favorite non-PCS related road trip was when we went to Yellowstone.
 
We always roadtripped as kids and I'm on one right now as I read this LOL! We are five days from home on a five week adventure that took us from our home in prairie Saskatchewan all the way out to Newfoundland and back. We have 4 kids and it has had highs and lows but has been a fantastic time that the kids will always remember!
 
Growing up, we went on lots of road trips. Usually from Florida to Minnesota and back (where my grandparents lived). We took a couple of trips out west, down to Mexico and up into Canada. It was always fun. Lots of family memories.

We go to Florida every summer to visit family. We've taken some road trips to the coast and Washington DC but never anything REALLY big. We've dreamt of going out west but are not sure how to really make it work with 9 people. I don't mind road trips but as I get older I like driving less and less. The longer I sit the more my body aches!

I don't mind flying. I think I actually prefer that but it's just not as easy as driving. With driving, you can just get in your car and go.
 
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