Let's Get Ready to Roooaaad Trippp...

If you didnt catch it, the title should be said in that loud obnoxious announcer voice used for wrestling or something, replacing road trip with rumble.
So nothing like starting a post with a tangent but I have been meaning to post this since New Years! We did what most families avoid and that was to drive for 8 hours with three kids to see my parents.
I remember trips to see my grandparents when I was a kid and although the memories themselves were not all amazing they created bonds that I never knew I had until I lost my grandparents in 2008 within two months of each other. I also wanted to show my step daughters just how crazy my mom can get with decorations. Seriously, department store employees should have to do their holiday decorator training through my mom's house.
But a road trip is quite an undertaking. With two eleven year olds and a five year old it can be a trip from hell. Or so I thought.
So I plan. As any decent obsessive compulsive-project manager in a previous life-crippling attention to detail person, will tell you to do.  The more you plan the more you reduce risk. Or do you...
So I plan. I read through a dozen super mom blogs who plan the best road trip Ever. Oh yeah, I plan bingo and not just any bingo but fun and exciting bingo. Holiday bingo, Hanukkah bingo, winter bingo, and valentines bingo. I plan state trivia and border bags, and treats for good behavior.  I put photo props in the bags so we could take hilarious photos and post them to Instagram. I printed pictures to color, mazes to follow and word problems to solve.  I created an art folder for each kid and bought markers galore so no one could fight over Who Has the Blue. I printed crazy madlibs that we could fill out together and laugh hysterically at the wise stories we created. I avoided too much focus on gadgets for previous experience showed that relying on tethering and a hot spot wasnt reliable. I had a plan.
I packed healthy lunches and snacks so we could stop at a rest stop and play outside and have a picnic. WTH was I thinking.

So I am not sure if I have been watching too much Sofia the First where everything always turns out rosy but let me tell you how it all played out. We are 20 minutes into the car ride and the 5 year old is already asking if we are there yet. We hit traffic only 45 minutes in and you can feel the car is starting to unsettle already. I had decided that I should drive first but that leaves husband to manage said Bingo. (Uh project management 101, don't task out without proper training or instructions) He gets carsick easily so no bingo for anyone and I'm too consumed with driving to give instructions on the other activities I have packed. Continued positioning questions from the 5 year old and the 11 year olds bury themselves into their Kindles. I raise the excitement of the car by saying a treat is in store for when we get to Richmond, VA (technically not a border but far enough into the car ride I thought to warrant an activity and an excuse to dole out some Virginia trivia). It doesn't have the settling impact I think and the 5 year old still wants to know when we are going to be there. Not soon enough...
We get to Richmond and the trivia bags are not met with the same excitement as the first time (I did do these on another trip and got high ratings) or even as much as I had hoped. They love the candy but are not impressed by the funny trivia I have pulled and even less about the motrip photo op (moustaches on sticks)  Art folders are handed out with even less fan fair and I am beginning to see that my 11 year olds are just too old and my 5 year old requires greater engagement. Luckily they all like to draw so this does warrant a good 27 minutes of quiet.
We have lunch at a nice rest stop but its too cold to do any skipping or whatever idiotic thing I thought we were going to do and we switch drivers. I try bingo but the 5 year keeps wanting me to help and look at her card that I wind up feeling car sick and have to stop the bingo.
I forgo the next border trivia and after 8.5 hours we finally get there just in time for dinner.
I was, disappointed,  to say the least.  All that planning and it was a typical car ride of Are We there Yet? I realized too, after having a few days to think about the return trip how much of life I was trying to control and how much I was trying to force an experience.
What had gotten into me?
So for the trip home I downloaded 3 movies for the 5 year old and a new art game and the husband also loaded up the Kindles for the 11 year olds.
We stopped at a Panera deli place on the way home. We may have skipped in the parking lot. I split the drive on the way back. Even took a nap. Enjoyed some of the amazing scenery our great country has to offer. When we got home the 5 year old asked when we were going to visit my parents again. She had a great time.
So if this whole trip doesnt scream a lesson in zen then I dont know what does. Planning is okay but there is such a thing as overplanning. Also plan for Your family. Not for the 7 different families you read about on the web. I tried but I went beyond, it's as if I became obsessed with the planning.
But I was able to turn it around. The trip home was way better. I think I will wait though to road trip again. Well at least until this summer.:)