Don't make me pull over"

When I was a child, going on a road trip was one of my all time favorite things to do. And we went on quite a few. I loved the anticipation of counting down the days until it was time to leave. I loved the excitement of packing for the trip. I loved being so excited the night before that we would hardly sleep. I remember begging our parents to let us sleep in the car so we would be ready to go. Of course they wouldn't agree to that but it didn't stop us from sleeping in our clothes , shoes and all. Hey,I didnt want to miss a minute of the trip by sleeping in and having to get dressed. I wanted to be ready!!

My mom started the " fun bag" tradition . We would each get one bag( a back pack, favotite canvas bag, you name it) And we could fill it with all kinds of fun things to do. Mine was always packed with books ( it was a requirement from my daddy... he said it kept me from talking the whole trip), crossword puzzles, markers, paper, a deck of cards, and of course MadLibs. Now rememeber, this was before DVD players in the car, before I-pods,and before handheld game systems. My sisters and I could keep busy for hours with just a few pieces of paper and a pen. We would play tic-tac-toe, hangman, car bingo, the license plate game, the dot/box game( rememeber the game that you put dots all over the paper and took turns trying to turn them into boxes) Loved that one. Well anyways, we loved playing games. And when we got bored with that we would pull out the Cassette tapes ( yes I said cessette) and play our favorite road trip music. We knew all the words to the Alabama Greatest Hits, The Oakridge Boys and even the Statler Brothers.( any other times we hated listnening to my parents "old" music, but there was something about those songs when we were on the road. But our favorites were Daddy's Hands, Fishing in the Dark and Sweet Home Alabama.

Now this may sound like it was always a good time and we all got along great, but you have to remember there were three girls trapped in a car for several hours at a time. Trust me there was fighting. Before we got the minivan the biggest thing we fought over was who would get to sit by the window. Someone had to be in the middle. We also fought over what music to play, how it was not fair when someone won a game, and of course the common " She's touching me". My mom would say to us the usual... stop that, leave your sister alone and when she had HAD ENOUGH ( as she would say) we would hear.... Don;t make me pull over. Which was always just an empty threat...Until one time I guess she had FINALLY REALLY had enough and she pulled the car over.. It was NOT fun.. Let me just say that on future road trips.. She would only have to say " Don't make me pull over one time and we would straighten right up. Trust me it was better to have to be the one to sit in the middle than have my parents pull the car over.

And even though I am all grown up , I have never outgrown my love of road trips. I love playing the same fun games with my boys. ( Actually before we had kids ,I subjected my husband to play them.) And even though he rolls his eyes a week before our planned trip when I pull out my favorite backpack and fill it with all my fun games, I know he loves those games as much as I do. And I am proud to say , so do our boys. We took a trip last summer and we didnt have a DVD player, Ipods, or handhelpd games ( well actually my oldest had his PSP,but he hardly played it) They preferred my old fashioned games. Makes a mama proud. And I have to admit, there was fighting, and whining and complaining, but I was smiling as I shouted out... Don't make me pull over.