My journey started as a young girl on Long Island, New York. As a daughter of a NYC firefighter and a homemaker, extensive travel was not an expense we could afford.
Summers, which were always the season of choice for most excursions, were spent at the local pool, visiting local beaches or fishing with my dad. Winter vacations to warm locales that seem the norm for many families nowadays never even appeared on our radar
Money, however, never stopped my parents from creating what my mom would call “our little car jaunts.” We’d take off in our Chevy station wagon for an hour or full day, exploring local sights or just driving roads for the experience of being out. Beaches, parks, local museums. We would visit them multiple times but the adventured never waned. As a young child, venturing out beyond the borders of my yard or town always peaked my interest. I learned at a very early age that it doesn’t matter how far you travel, it’s the experience and what you make of it.
Then one day, my parents announced that we were taking a summer vacation– a road trip “Goin’ South!” We would be traveling for three weeks from New York to Florida with stops along the way.
Now picture this — a family of 5, the family cat, a pet turtle, luggage, beach supplies and food all being loaded up into a Chevy station wagon (we lovingly named Minerva) at around midnight one steamy summer night.
This late night start would hopefully provide my dad (the lone driver in the group) with hours of driving without traffic. Now realize this trip was pre-internet and GPS devices did not exist. My parents didn’t have Google Maps instructing them when to turn off an exit or what was the better route due to traffic patterns. Planning our route was more tedious and many times, much more aggravating. My parents had to rely on paper maps, trying to decipher the most intricate of highways and back roads along the way.
My most vivid memories of this road trip includes:
-The pure excitement of leaving home and having an adventure,
-The unfortunate demise of my pet turtle who got the dreaded “soft shell.” My father go the honors of burying him in a cigarette box at a Georgia reststop.
-The Southern sheriff who stopped my father for “speeding” on a back road in the Carolinas in the middle of the night. I believe a small payment fixed that problem.
-Learning to love Howard Johnson hotels. I’m sure many of you out there can relate.! They all had pools and kids ate free at their restaurants that had the best ice cream!
-Climbing on models of rockets on the property of NASA. What a difference today!
-Cuban cigar making in St. Augustine, Florida
-Shell collecting in Sanibel Island
These memories and many more are seared into my brain and I will be forever grateful for these experiences.
Fast forward to the summer of 2005. I am now married with two young children. My husband and I make the conscious decision to make travel an important part of our family life, inclusive of our kids ages 4 and 8.
Our first trip — you guessed it — we were Goin’ South to Florida!
My road tripping destiny just came full circle!
Our first family road trip mirrored the one of my youth with a few exceptions. There was no cat or pet turtle as passengers this time around. The old Chevy station wagon was replaced by a Subaru SUV. My kids could be entertained by movies on a car DVD player and we had Google to navigate.
We stopped at budget hotels over the course of our journey to break up the trip on our way to our multiple destinations. Howard Johnson hotels were pretty much long gone. But our accommodation choices always had a pool and always seemed to be located in walking distance from a Cracker Barrel, my kids new favorite eating stop.
Our journey consisted of multiple stops in Florida starting with St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States. We immersed ourselves in the history of this beautiful city, visiting its famous fort and castle, Castillo de San Marcos, Spanish mission and Flagler College.
Off to Fort Meyers and Sanibel Island where we enjoyed the beautiful beaches and shell collecting.
At this point, we reversed our road trip to head up North with…
We then visited Charleston, South Carolina, taking in its culture and history. A visit to Charleston Aquarium, Fort Sumter and the beautiful Harbor area was a highlight for my kids.
And so my family’s travel history started….
Little did I know back in 2005 that this road trip would be the catalyst that would start our family’s journey, how it would truly connect us as a family, provide a potpourri of stories and lessons learned and continue to influence us way into our adult lives.
But for me and my husband, what was truly invaluable was seeing my own childrens’ eyes light up and their happiness of experiencing new places outside of their backyard. I realized that this was only the beginning for us.