The past two weekends, Daniel, Will and I have been doing a lot of traveling. The weekend before last we drove to Denver, Colorado to visit my sister Michelle and her husband Josh; and then over Labor Day weekend we drove to Idaho with Daniel’s brother, Jared, to visit our friends Josh and Calli. I have found that road trips are very educational. And here follows a list of things that I have learned.
1. Cruise control is the best invention since the car itself. When we drove to Colorado, I started the 8 hour drive. After weaving our way through the mountains to get out of Utah I felt my right leg start to cramp up from my ankle to my knee. Holding the same position for that long, pushing down on the gas pedal, my leg was in rebellion. I was looking for a good place to pull over when Daniel asked, “Are you using the cruise control?” “This car has cruise control?” For some reason it never crossed my mind to check, maybe because I thought my car was too old for that sort of thing. So after spending about 10 minutes trying to figure out how the darn thing worked I was set! I could have driven the whole way like that if it wasn’t past 5 pm when we started. I drove a little more than half way though.
2. Short cuts are not always short. So someone in Daniel’s family told us about this short cut from I-80 to I-25 in Wyoming so we decided to take it. It starts in Laramie, WY and takes you to around Fort Collins, CO. Basically keeping you from having to go to Cheyenne, WY. So at first everything was going good, the road we were on was a little slower than the interstate, but it was late at night with no traffic. But at the end of the road we ended up having to weave our way through a bunch of little neighborhoods to get on to I-25. When you’re driving 20mph for 10-15 minutes, it totally negates any time you just saved. Needless to say, we didn’t take the same way going home.
3. Wendy’s doesn’t believe in changing tables, apparently. We stopped at a few Wendy’s on both trips and none of them had a changing table, 0! It was a little bit ridiculous. But, in retrospect, the front seat of my car is probably the cleaner of the two.
4. Formula To-Go is ingenious. Gas stations would make a killing if they sold them.
5. Will loves dogs and dogs love him. I’m sure one of the first things he’s going to ask for as a birthday/Christmas present will be a dog. Michelle and Josh have two dogs and they were very well behaved.
6. There are a lot of cows in northern Utah and Idaho, and where there are cows, there will be flies. Always make sure you have lots of washer fluid and good wind shield wipers, it’s very hard to see through bug guts.
7. Wyoming is quite possibly the most boring state to drive through. There is nothing out there. Just a lot of wind, and scatterings of windmills (which are kind of fun to watch for some odd reason).
8. DON’T FORGET THE STROLLER! Babies are heavy. You should only carry one while walking around a park if you’re trying to get a workout.
9. DON’T FORGET THE DIAPERS! Yes, you can go to the store and buy more, but it’s still a hassle.
10. Tacos are a favorite when you have guest coming over, apparently. That was dinner in both Colorado and Idaho, and both on Sunday night, strange…
11. Be nice to semi’s and they’ll be nice to you. I’ve always had this rule when driving, but it’s always very important to remember while on long road trips. I believe that every time you are nice to a semi you get a couple more points in the Car Karma department and that comes in real handy when you’re milliseconds away from getting in a wreck. Trust me, it works!
And there you have it, the things I’ve learned on our recent road trips.
On a side note, I’m writing this post at work right now, and it’s my birthday. L I hate having to work on my birthday. But I’m 24 today! Yay, I’m old!
