Car Trips - A Love Hate Story

I have just gotten back from a car trip - a long car trip (more on it in a minute) - and it got me thinking about some of the best and worst car trips I have ever had.  Here they are (in no particular order of bestness or badness) within respective categories:

Best Car Trips

1. Driving from Wisconsin to Florida for Spring break my sophomore year of college with my best friend (and her awesome mom) on a whim.  We decided about 2 days in advance to do it - Kim's mom was going down there and suggested we follow her down.  She agreed to pay for our hotel and food because she thought the company would be fun and was just plain cool.  We left at 3 am and made it to Georgia before calling it a night.  So excited we were by the call of the road, that we all decided that come hell or high water, we were going to get to the beach by morning.  We got back up at 3 am again and finished the drive down to Panama City in time for pancakes on the beach.  The trip could have been sponsored by Wilson Phillips and Budweiser because that is all we listened to and drank the entire time (obviously we were not drinking Bud in the car, just to clarify).

2. Driving from Ke'e beach to Polihal'e State beach in Kauai with anybody.  There is basically one main road that follows the coast around the island and it is beautiful!  We normally (by we I mean whoever is with me) stop off at our favorite places along the way and if we see a beach that looks good - we stop!  This drive is best in a convertible, but I have found it almost as enjoyable in a jeep or sedan.

3. The trip from Peterborough to Belfast, which was my first solo journey in the UK.  I had been in the country for about 5 months and had to make my way back to Northern Ireland after dropping Matt off at a course that he was on for a week.  I hit the road with a map, tickets for the midnight ferry and a promise that I would call Matt repeatedly.  I dropped Matt off at 7 am and the first call I made to him was at 7 that night - from our home.  I had made it up to the ferry so early that I caught the one leaving at 4.  I was so proud of myself for navigating not just the motorways of Britain, but the country roads of  Scotland all by my lonesome.  After spending half a year completely dependent on someone for getting me by, it was a nice change to be in control again.

The jury is still out on:

The drive I made with my brother when I moved from Wisconsin to San Diego. It was cramped (bad), we bickered alot (normal), he ended up ditching me in Vegas (bad) and we didn't speak for almost 2 years (the worst). On the other hand, while we were fighting over what music to listen to, my brother and I bonded as adults in a way I don't think you can if you are not trapped in a car with another family member for over 30 hours. (good). I got to see many parts of America that I had only dreamed about (good). I had this sense of independence and freedom that I had never felt before and just KNEW that my life was about to change (the best).

Worst Car Trips:

1. The trip from Florida to Wisconsin with my parents and brother coming back from a Disney Vacation gone awry.  The trip back was awful - it was the coldest winter on record and freak ice and snow storms crippled most of the South.  My father scratched his cornea about 6 hours into the trip and my mother had to do the driving herself - 5 miles per hour through Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee.  At one point I believe our car broke down and we had to get it fixed which took ages.  Oh - and did I mention that I had been throwing up for 4 days and showed no signs of stopping on the journey home?  NICE!  My mother still cannot watch the movie 'Vacation' without gagging a little bit and muttering "never again".

2. The car trip from San Diego to Kansas with an old boyfriend who had a mustang convertible.  Why do you ask would this be a bad trip?  Ummmmm - it was 115 degrees and he had no air conditioning!  To cool off we would roll up all of the windows in the car until we were sweating and about to pass out from heat exhaustion, then we would roll down the windows just to feel the hot air blow the sweat away. I lost about 10 pounds of water weight which I guess was kind of good (I like to look for a silver lining.) Outweighing my water deprived weight loss, however, we were going there to pick up his daughter who had been staying with his parents for a few weeks.  On the ride home she asked if she could call me mom.  I was 25, had heat poisoning, hadn't peed for a week and decided that I was not ready for such a romance.  We broke up not long after we got back.

3. The trip across Lincoln to get from my gym to the Staples store (and Starbucks if I'm being honest).  It is 3 miles and takes about 45 minutes.  They say there is a fine line between love and hate, but on this one friends I can tell you that I don't ever cross the line - it is a hate, hate, hate thing!

4. The drive I made yesterday with my neighbor, her two kids and Maddie, from Bardney to North Yorkshire.  In. A. Blizzard.  In fairness to the kiddies - they were pretty awesome, considering that we created a 10 hour journey out of what should have been about 5 1/2.  I don't know which was the worst:

• Getting stuck off the main road and spending an hour fish-tailing through the fog on a road the size of a hair, hoping we weren't going to die
• Trying to reverse my car up a steep gradient to avoid getting stuck at the bottom with the other 2 stuck cars and blowing out my transmission.   
• It could have been the part where poor Lucy threw up pink milk in the back seat while the other 2 kids were groaning "eeewwwww what's that smell?"
• But then it also could have been the part where we finally had a game plan to get out of where we were stuck, which involved several terrifying freefall-type slides down 25% gradient hills only to realize we had to get back up the other side and repeat the process 3 times.
• It also might have been the jerk on the road who decided that - even though the road conditions were hazardous - he would talk on his cell phone and tail me for about 30 minutes. 

(this is not actually my car, but the picture pretty much represents what we were dealing with minus the steep hill)

Yesterdays journey reminded of a couple of things:

1. I love to drive
2. I am pretty awesome in a lot of situations and pretty crappy in others
3. It is not just the journey but who you are with
4. Don't EVER reverse your car in packed snow up a steep hill
5. Long trips (good or bad) have the potential to be messy - bring lots of baby wipes and a towel!