Road Trip Essentials

Sorry I've not posted in a while. Right now, it's Friday after Thanksgiving and I'm at my parents' house in VA. I've been road tripping the holidays since I was in college, and though I do get tired of the driving sometimes, I think I've come close to perfecting the art of the road trip. There are certain things I always do when preparing for a road trip (which I probably get from my dad).

First, it's always a good idea to start a road trip with a clean vehicle. I didn't wash the van, but we did clean EVERYTHING out and vacuum it really well. We also vacuumed the car while we were at it.

Second, you have to be sure to pack all the right things. Aside from clothes, toiletries, etc., we have to be sure pack food, snacks, and different forms of entertainment for the boys. We like to limit the amount of TV the boys watch everyday, but when it comes to road trips, we're a little more lenient. After all, it's nice to be able to drive at lease 3 hours at a time before stopping.

Here's a picture of Isaiah, seemingly in a trance from watching a couple of hours worth of Winnie the Pooh.

Third, when driving with small children the food may get eaten, the videos may get old, and the trip is not over yet so other forms of entertainment must be discovered in order to survive the last leg of trip. The other day, Ezra decided to nap 20 minutes before our scheduled stop, so we kept on driving. Corrie was driving, so I moved to the back of the van to prepare our lunch, but also to help keep Isaiah occupied. This is where I recommend having an iPhone. Isaiah and I watched some videos of our recent trip to the zoo, looked at pictures of silly things we had done at home, and also took a couple of silly pictures ourselves.

Finally, no road trip is complete without a flat tire. This happens to be my first flat tire in all the miles I've driven over the years, and thankfully, the tire went flat in the driveway overnight after we arrived.

And there we have my quick guide to road trip essentials. Happy Thanksgiving!

JESUS07

This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I'm a big fan of vanity plates, especially deciphering the messages they are supposed to be communicating. But I am completely stumped by this one.


Here are a few possibilities:

• The driver is hispanic, and their name is Jesus (pronounced HEH-soos). They graduated high school in 2007.
• The driver is hispanic and owns six (06) other cars. The other cars have plates that read, "Jesus 01", "Jesus 02", etc.
• Someone named Jesus ran for office sometime in 2007; the driver was a faithful supporter.
• The driver is a devout Christian who was caught up in the early stages of the 2008 presidential election, but wanted to make a social and theological statement about their beliefs. VOTE Jesus 07!
• The driver is a devout Christian who likes to study the end times (eschatology). A thorough interpretation of Revelation and an observant look at the world revealed to this person that Jesus was coming back in 2007. (In which case, I assume they were pretty disappointed New Year's Day 2008.)
• Upon further examination, the driver now realizes he/she was off by 1000 years (Revelation is so tricky), and therefore kept the plate because now Jesus is returning in 3007.

What do you think?

There, and back again

Last week we took a road trip to Georgia and back. We wanted to visit Macon one more time before moving there, and we wanted to go to the wedding of our dear friend Shelby, which was in Atlanta.


Road trips are not as easy as they used to be. I used to drive home from college in only one stop and that was to get gas and food. Now, we're lucky to make it 3 hours without stopping. But if nothing else, there are always stories to tell at the end of the day.


So over the next few days, I'm going to share some stories from the road. Adventures, conversations, and other tidbits that happened on our way there, and back again.