If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you already know that I’ve embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. My 19 year old son Adam and I left home bright and early last Monday (7/7) on a fantastic summer road trip.
The vacation has been several weeks in the making and has several components. Our first seven days were spent traveling across the country. We spent the first five nights in:
- Beaver, Utah
- Boulder, Colorado
- Des Moines, Iowa
- Flint Michigan
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
I’ll have additional posts in the coming days with some of our destinations along the way. For now, I thought I’d share a few early lessons we’ve learned along the way:
- Start your days with prayer. On an extended trip like this, the days can actually begin to run together. Clinging to my daily prayer routines has helped me feel grounded along the road.
- Carry paper maps. Several times along the road we’ve heard the famous words “lost satellite reception” from our GPSs (and yes, we’re using two — my phone and a Garmin for backup). We realized as we pulled into Canada (literally at the border!) that we would not have cell phone service and that our GPS did not have Canadian maps downloaded. Oops! Guardian angels were involved in more than one navigational miracle during our days in Montreal!
- Have a plan, but be flexible. At several points along the first few days, we made unplanned stops. We had ending destinations in mind, but kept our hotel plans fluid for as long as possible. Having the Trip Advisor app made it easy to book hotel rooms at the last minute that were close to the highway and still relatively inexpensive.
Your turn: What was the last road trip your family took? What did you learn along the way?
About Lisa M. Hendey
