Lessons from the Road

• A humongous camera and a car trip don’t mix. It never got taken out. Our camera phone, yes, but I have no way of getting to those pictures. So this post is pictureless. Sorry. {I have a feeling I just lost most of you…}

• Holiday Inn & Suites was pretty much in every way superior to Hyatt Place. Go figure.

• Kids get really excited about crossing big rivers – especially when big bridges are involved.

• It is extremely hard to read from our computer screen in the car. Sad, since Alexander was hoping to get some work done when I was driving.

• Nine hours in the car feels remarkably similar to fifteen hours. {Don’t think it’ll be worth splitting the drive into three days on the way home.}

• It takes a relatively small number of texts to keep anxious parents happily informed. That being said, I’ve sent more texts in the past three days than I have in the past three years. I’d say I need a phone with a keyboard, but I imagine that after this trip, my texting will drop back down to next-to-nothing again.

• TV does not prepare children for snow. We encountered our first snow-on-the-ground at our hotel outside Cincinnati and afterward Lij told me he was kind of disappointed. When I asked him why, he said he hadn’t expected snow to be cold. He said on TV people jump around in it and throw it at each other, all while laughing, so he had expected it to be “kinda warmish.”

• It’s more fun to road trip in the Northeast. The states are smaller, so it feels like you’re “getting there” faster.

• Starting to recognize where you are (without the help of GPS or a map) after over a thousand miles is an awesome feeling.

• Driving up to see Grandma’s face grinning at you from the front porch and then watching answering smiles break out on all four of the kid’s faces makes thirty hours in the car worth it. {Dinner waiting on the table was just an awesome bonus.}