Road Trips, Family, Roller Coasters, and Cracker Barrels

You know a road trip is going to be interesting when it starts with a child who must travel with his own pillow, blanket, and milk. Just because he must.

We traveled from Florida to Ohio to visit family. Within the first hour of our drive, I had answered the same questions about what we were doing and where we were staying each day at least 20 times. I finally got a piece of paper and wrote out the schedule,which took care of that. Good thing, because now we had time for "Where are we now?" every 5 minutes.

A few hours into the trip, though accompanied by a bag of electronic devices, my son said, "You know, you're right, it is fun to just look at things." And look at things we did. Do you have any idea how many places there are with funny names? We are going to have the camera prepared for the Butt County sign this time. We're still debating if there are more Cracker Barrels or Harley Davidson dealers along I-75, and there is a $5 prize for the first person to spot both at the same exit.

After arriving at our destination and hanging out with family we don't get to see often, we found it quite interesting to learn what kind of things are obviously hereditary. Things like dipping fries in mustard, getting mysterious rashes on your legs at amusement parks, the desire to ride every roller coaster and water slide in the world when you are a kid but having too bad of a back to do so when you are an adult, and the propensity to be a smartass.

We're now on the tail end of our trip, heading back home. Almost a trip with one less person as Aiden had devised an elaborate plan on how he could live undetected at the water park resort we stayed at. Luckily, we were able to drag him to the car, but I know how he feels. Not about his attachment to the water coaster he tricked me into riding, but about the sadness of leaving people we rarely get to see.

And that's why they have wine. Or,since I'm writing this in Kentucky, bourbon.