Road Trip Prep

It's T minus 2 days until we leave, and for all the experience we have packing for trips, and all the time I have put into making lists over the past few months, I still feel like I'm forgetting stuff. 

Do not google, "road trip activities for kids" . . . it just stressed me out more with the lists like 40 THINGS TO PACK FOR YOUR KIDS TO KEEP THEM BUSY. I cannot have 40 things rolling around in the car, and no, I'm not letting my kids draw on the windows with markers. (Although if I did give them markers, at least one of them would occupy himself for a very long time trying to figure out how to write fart in reverse so that other drivers could read it.) Markers dry out too fast. Crayons melt if the car gets hot. Colored pencils for life. 

More important than printing road sign bingo cards is setting intention for this trip. We want to spend time together and have fun. We want to see new places and learn about who has been there before us. We want to run on trails and meet up with a few friends and family and try all the regional fast food. 

Trips like these, during which we have to do a certain amount of work and school and vehicle maintenance, are not the same as taking a vacation trip. We have to balance a certain amount of opportunistic sight-seeing, with exercise, sleep, downtime, chores and work. 

The elephant in the room is the pandemic. Traveling with an RV is a pretty easy way to maintain distance from others, but leaving our state after staying home for much of the past year feels weird.