We just returned from an overland trip to Montana and back. The wife, the kids, and I all piled into our 1999 Ford Windstar and hit the road. It was just like I remember it when I was a kid.
Well, not quite. My parents were much more apt to camp. My family was more like Abraham's family when I was young. Travel to a new place, pitch a tent, build and altar. Our tents now come with plumbing, and some nights a fridge. I'm not going to complain about this new development. It's very convenient, and comfortable. The matress at our cabin was better than the one we have at home, and it was one hundred times better than a tree root.
The traveling was not quite the same, either. I could never read in the car, not as a kid, and not now. It makes me sick. So I've seen a lot of countryside and a lot of billboards. I wanted my kids to have the same experience, but it didn't work out like that. Someone thought there should be a DVD player in the van. Instead of enjoying the natural beauty of the Black Hills, my kids watched Boz, for the one hundredth time.
Otherwise, everything went fine. We walked each day until we were exhausted, drove mile after mile, threatened the kids everytime they fought (which was about as often as we passed a green mile marker).
We saw some of man's amazing handywork at Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, some of God's most beautiful creation all throughout the Black Hills, but it was all second rate for the kids. What they look forward to the most is the day they make their pilgrimage to that magical Mecca known as Disney World. I've survived my whole like having never gone there, but I'm having a hard time convincing the kids they'll grow to adulthood if we don't go. The only time we went to Florida when I was a kid was to attend Hobe Sound Bible Camp. Surely they'll appreciate that, won't they?
I thought you were fully devoted to renting cars for road trips. Have you given up that doctrine?
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