The Great American Road Trip

July 29, 2010

What would summer be without a road trip? You know, sitting with your family (or friends, Scout troop, church group, etc.) in a car (or van or bus) for hours and hours of cornfields, wheat fields, cow pastures, and billboards. All to see the wonders of America: The World’s Largest Prairie Dog! The Corn Palace! Wall Drug! The World’s Largest Ball of Bailing Twine! Oh, and maybe some National Parks, theme parks, or *gasp* long-lost relatives. After you meet those relatives, you often realize there was probably a reason they were “lost” in the first place.

And yet, every summer we pile into our Wagon Queen Family Trucksters and head out in search of adventure. We embark on a voyage of recreation and renewal; replenishing the mind, spirit and body. Having just returned from just such a trip, all that replenishment leads me to ponder the following deep questions:

“Are we there yet?”

“Weren’t we supposed to turn back there?”

How many games of Slug-Bug, Count the Cows, or find-all-the-fifty-States’ license plates can you play? When’s the next rest stop? And why did I drink all that soda? Who was the first person to put antlers on a rabbit and call it a “Jackalope?” How could I ever go on living if don’t get to see the “Coat of Many Duck Heads” on display at the Agricultural Museum in Stuttgart, Arkansas?

 I know you, dear readers, have some “treasured” memories from road trips past. Please share them with us in the comments.