Traveling the Midwestern Way
Our First Family Road Trip:
At five in the morning, the house was alive with chaotic noise.
The sun just started to peek slightly through my bedroom blinds, birds chirped loudly, and my parents shouted at my brother and me to get out of bed. We sluggishly crawled out of bed, rolled our small bodies down the stairs, and stood in the kitchen, waiting to leave.
Outside, our rented minivan had every type of road trip snack you could think of, and all of our bags lined the middle aisle and were wedged between the seats.
We were driving to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
The 2011 air smelled of old forests with evolving stories. The Smokey Mountains stood alive as we ventured through the trails. We enjoyed a peaceful cabin, hiking, go-karting, and live music.
The first, of many, adventures out of my home state.
Exploring the USA by Car:
My love for travel began as a kid. My parents wanted to show my brother and me as much of the country as possible before we reached adulthood (although…they still take us on short trips even now). Thanks to them, I developed a love for excessively long and cramped car rides, exploring new locations, and trying new local foods.
They’re the reason I travel so often now — and why I felt brave enough to study abroad in Austria.
These long travels completely shaped my current lifestyle — something that I am forever thankful for.
During every family road trip throughout the United States, Dad would steer away from the main roads to explore random places. These spontaneous stops always turned into mini side quests.
One being the fantastic Corn Palace in South Dakota. A true gem.
That’s how every family vacation went. We loaded up a minivan, picked a direction, and drove through countless states, aspiring to see everything that we possibly could.
This led us to witness fun attractions such as the Leaning Tower of Britten (a leaning water tower in Texas) and the world’s largest easel in Kansas (which displayed a replica of Van Gogh’s sunflowers).
Packing the Car
We packed one cooler full of water, pop, and juice, and another full of lunch meats and cheeses. We had bread, chips, cookies…you name it! You could find it somewhere in that car. When we ran low on sandwich supplies, we stopped at local grocery stores to restock. Our favorite being a Piggly Wiggly — we don’t have those in our region of Ohio!
Maybe this is where my love for budget traveling also came from…
We always made sure to have plenty of blankets and pillows to make the car comfier. When we were younger, my brother and I had our portable DVD players so we could watch movies.
However, I always loved to stare out the window as I watched the scenery slowly change from flat land to rolling mountains or large bodies of water that could contain species of fish that I’d never even heard of before. I loved to daydream, listen to music, and create as many stories as possible during a several-hour road trip.
Some Loooong Adventures
We traveled like this for the Outer Banks, New Orleans, northern Michigan, Yellowstone, and all the way out to the Four Corners and Las Vegas.
No matter where we decided to head, you could guarantee we had a large enough car to fit all of our supplies to last us anywhere from one to two weeks!
Our craziest driving session we did in one day was the drive to South Dakota. We forgot to factor in the fact that we would be changing time zones…so by the time we arrived at our hotel, we realized that we just drove for seventeen hours — with occasional stops along the way!
Traveling the true Midwestern way.
Do you remember your first road trip?
Some real gems from our 2014 trip:
(Thanks to my mom’s facebook)
