Going on a Roadtrip

(It’s gonna be a big one!)

Nothing screams “I’ve just done a cross-country move” like “Let’s jump in the car and drive for two days!” But there are people who are worth it—and let me tell you, my in-laws are 100% worth it.

One. Hundred. Percent.

I have zero doubt in my mind that driving two days with five kids after you’ve just driven a week plus across the country is the act of someone who has crossed the line into insanity. So I will just put it this way: I am crazy about my in-laws. And, for the most part, I wasn’t any crazier than usual by the time I pulled into their driveway in Portland.

Because really, a long road trip with five kids, like most things in life, is what you make of it.

I can focus on the trash left on the car floor or the times I wanted to drift off to nap time while driving or the occasional sniping from the back row or the fact that I had to bully them into an audiobook the second day to keep myself from being bored out of my skull.

I can remember the lack of cell phone service, which meant I couldn’t entertain myself with phone calls while they kept their noses in books and watched Kung Fu Panda for the twenty gazillionth time and ate their way through the snack bag (which, for some reason, included three heads of lettuce this time by Tiny’s request).

I can call to mind the lack of coffee and the fact that my legs were so tight I could barely touch my toes the second morning of the drive, the tiny hotel pillows and the dried out chicken sandwich from Wendy’s, the lack of easily accessible bathrooms in Covid version CA, the ridiculous gas prices and all the things I left undone at the house.

Or:

I can focus on the moment before I’d even gotten the car in park when the kids piled out of the car to hug their uncle and aunt, the evening meal with a high school friend and her precious children, getting to encourage a Subway worker pregnant with her fifth child.

I can remember their rapt attention as we listened to the deliciously gothic Wolves of Willoughby Chase, the beautiful mountain scenery and watching the landscape change as we drove north, my children snuggled up in their grandparent’s arms.

I can call to mind the funny commentary from the back of the car, getting to dog pile with my kids in the hotel room while we were all still waking up, singing along to fun music as Tiny took really bad pictures out the car window, the way it felt to get to wrap my arms around my husband’s twin brother and hear him laugh at my silly children.

Let me tell you: it was a wonderful trip north, not because the good outweighed the challenging (though I truly believe it did), but because the goal of spending time with people who matter to me will always be worth it.

So the story I tell myself will be purposeful because the journey I choose for my mind to take is just as important as the one the car drives. And thankfully, it doesn’t require really expensive gas.