"Wednesday's, Wonderings & Wanderings": To Road Trip or Not to Road Trip? That is a question.

I say HECK YES! Long live the road trip. It may be a tough way to travel and very long in comparison to a quick flight that takes you from here to there in hours, instead of days like a car ride, but I will argue it is one of the best ways to take a family vacation and see the sights. So many today choose to forgo the road trip experience for many reasons, and the issue of time isn't the only damper on the road trip option. No, there is the problem with having a sturdy and roomy car to travel in, then there is the mercurial gas prices to contend with (though they seems to be low right now), then of course time availability as road trips can be long, and of course last, but not least, there is the fact that you are literally confined with your family for hours with no escape, which may be THE reason, in and of itself, as to why most choose not to take road trips.

First issue the whole roomy and sturdy car issue, not an issue. Rent a van, rent an SUV, rent an RV, if you're brave enough, the point is there are options out there if your car wouldn't handle a long trip. Second issue the whole mercurial gas prices, well it all depends on where you live and where you are heading. Because living in L.A. our prices are upped just because of the economic supply and demand issue, however when we travel out of the state, BAM! prices drop rather drastically. So I can't promise the gas will be cheap or stay cheap wherever you go, but I can say you'll just have account for the price as an added expense for the trip. Third issue time availability, road trips take time and should take time. Meaning you shouldn't rush to all your places, by all means make sure you plan a schedule, but feel free to change it up if need be, take detours or an extra hour here or there. You'll most likely never make it back to those places you're driving to and should take your time at each place enjoying it and of course documenting the whole experience. 

Four Corners Monument: Utah, Colorado, Naveda, and Arizona.

Last but definitely not the least issue is the fact you are traveling for days in a small area with your family continuously. Now some may say 'Well, that doesn't sound like such a bad thing?', while others go 'Oh, Heck No!' Truly, it really all depends on your family dynamic AND how much you want to bond. Because if there is one thing a road trip pushes you to do, it's bond. My family has gone on about 10 road trips together, since I was kid up until about a week ago, yep we still road trip together, this last one was a week long and we did 5 states, phew it was long, but so fun. Now, living in L.A. I only count trips that take more than 3 hours as a road trip. I say that disclaimer, because my friend from Washington, who came down here for college, would always think an hour was a long drive. She came from a small lake town, so I had to remind her that in L.A we are used to driving everywhere and that we always hit traffic, sooo every fun destination takes about a 30-45 min drive.  

Well all that to say, each road trip we've taken as a family has only made us closer and given us more memories. Sure we've done other trips that used planes as our mode of transportation, but I must say the road trips by far seem to leave the biggest impressions. Sure we have moments of getting surly with each other, due to being tired or being hungry, but once we see a sunset over beautiful landscape or someone cracks a joke, it all just becomes another moment in our journey. And that's the thing about a road trip, it's not just a normal vacation it's truly a journey, your family is literally traveling together to get from Point A to Point Z, but you have all those other places in between to stop and smell the rose at first. Plus traveling out and really seeing how other places are in the flesh is way more impressionable on a person and can expand anyone views on culture, people, and the world they live in rather than just flying over them in a plane. So if you haven't taken a road trip I highly suggest you take one, maybe start out small taking a day trip to a place you haven't seen before in your own area and then the next time venture further from there for a weekend and so on. Just be sure you pack plenty of snacks, games, movies, maybe a book (if you don't get car sick when reading), couple of fun questions to keep everyone talking, and of course, make an awesome playlist, because I swear music makes any long drive a great drive.