My Corner of Satisfaction: on the road

Our visit to Washington is worth every hour we spent in the van. The CD player/radio doesn't currently work in our van and neither does the cigarette lighter, so we were unable to use our converter to plug in a dvd player. So it was a pretty old school road trip. Nothing to entertain us but each other. We left at about 9 am after feeding to boys, made sandwiches on the road, stopped only for gas, and somehow made it up to Washington by 8:30 pm. Marlee rode with us and so we took turns keeping the boys happy hour after hour. No one threw up or really flipped out, so that was good. At about hour 4 I realized how little I planned for the drive. I didn't bring any new toys, coloring books, or many fun snacks. But still, the boys were wonderful and the day seemed to pass in a blur. We did bring carpi suns, so that's always exciting. Kevin was a champ, driving the whole time, as always.

We took many a great road trip as children. Our longest was the journey from Georgia to Washington when we moved in 1999. I was 15 and it took 3 days of almost non-stop driving. My parents had just recently purchased a white, 15-passenger van and it was the first time I can remember when we weren't cramped in the back of our red suburban for a trip. The one benefit of that suburban, though, was that it did have tinted windows. I was surprised at how people stared at us as we cruised along in our new van. We went through state after state of curious drivers who seemed to be counting us as they passed on the freeway. As I teenager I thought that was pretty fun. so fun.

I've wondered what we will do when we outgrow the mini van. There aren't really many options. It's just hard to look hip in a 15-passenger van. Maybe by that point I won't care about that anymore. Or maybe we'll be loaded and can justify plunking down 50 grand for one of these: