We have been away from home and on a road trip for the past 8 days visting friends and family all over the Northwest. When you jump on a plane and fly from one city to another it is like climbing abroad some strange time machine - you sense of how far away from home and reference of time is completing thrown out of whack. But when you drive, you realize how far home is. You gain a deeper understanding of the changing landscape, temperature, architecture, and community as you pass through town after town. I love the experience of a road trip.
When I was a child it was torture. Boredom can overwhelm a child in a matter of hours and spending more than a few hours in the car with my parents made them turn into demons when we asked, "Are we almost there?" Even though I hated it, I think I learned to enjoy a long road trip by driving to my dad's house in Colorado, or going skiing in Utah with my mom. Because once I grew up I couldn't wait to spend the summer touring the country in our car, family in tow.
My kids have it easy. Several years ago we bought an inexpensive portable DVD player that hangs across the two seats. They watch movie after movie all day with little awareness of the landscape that changes past their windows. I wrestle with this DVD player on every trip. I know that it lessens the torture of the lengthly car rides, but it also allows them to be obvious to what I want to absorb about the various places we drive by. The road trip is instead a string of movies linked together with bathroom and fastfood pit stops in between.
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