Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott for June 03, 2024

Why Darryl?

I suspect he’s already sounded out his parents on a visit and they’re off on a cruise or such.

When the grandparents are older, it’s easier to bring the kids to visit them than for them to come to the kids. And for great grandparents. it’s,especially true.

Darryl, you are aware that the kids are going to fill that van with as much of their toys and electronics for an eight hour (more like fifteen hour) drive that they can get away with.

Ooh, that sounds like a horrible idea. As a kid we went to Ocean City MD and my parents would leave early in the morning around 4 in the morning for a 3 hour drive. Half way there we would stop at the Pancake house for breakfast. We still asked our parents “are we there yet?”

My folks had a cottage on a beach, about five hours away. That was our summer holiday for about 20 years.

And let’s not forget how the kids naturally act during long road trips!

Over the river and through the woods,

To grandmother’s house we go;

The GPS knows the way to guide us today,

Through the eight hours we have to go.

Over the river and through the woods,

Oh, how the wind does blow!

It jerks at the wheel terribly so,

As over the highway we go.

Over the river and through the woods,

To have a first-rate play;

Oh, hear the door bell ring, “Ting-a-ling-ling!”

Hurrah we’re here to stay!

Over the river and through the woods,

Drive fast dear old dad!

It’s getting really bad,

Hammie has to pee again!

For this is road trip Day.

Over the river and through the woods,

And straight through the barnyard gate.

We seem to go extremely slow

It is so hard to wait!

Over the river and through the woods,

Now Grandmother’s cap I spy!

Hurrah for the fun! Is the driving done?

Hurrah for the vacation stay.

When I was a kid thought great as we had to travel to visit both sides of grandparents. My mom’s lived in same state my dad’s lived in a different state.

Why not?

Well, it does include 16 potty stops, 54 “Don’t me me have to stop this car” comments from Darryl, 220 “Are we there yet” questions from the kids, and 450 “sighs” adn head slaps from Wanda.

They then could leave the kids with her folks for 2 weeks while they had a vacation.

No kidding.

As I recall, the package deal with Wanda’s parents also includes Aunt Rhoda, another capable babysitter. Hmmm.

Easy. Leisurely stop for lunch and a chance to wander/run around. That could be two stops. Stay at a hotel with a pool and maybe other activities. Television as late as they want. Buffet breakfast in the morning, another lunch stop, and everybody is excited to see the grandparents in time for supper!

could always rent a small uhaul trailer and have the kids ride in that…(PSA: if you have kids, don’t do that!…had to cover myself there for legal reasons, kinda like when you buy a toaster and it says don’t use it near a bathtub full of water…that kinda thing)

Saves on hotel room money

We only had two. A pair of twins. Road trips were broken into 1 hour units. Drive, find a bathroom and gas and snacks. Clean up the passenger area as best we could. Eat the snacks outside of the car. Repeat. Second or third hour look for a place to get a meal. Repeat until we get there. No more than 6 hours of driving in a day unless it was SF to LA. And for those trips we would leave at O’dark 30 and hit the one IHOP in town for breakfast and San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara for 2nd breakfast and be in “Dizzylandt” in time to check in to the hotel and have lunch and then a nap and hit the pack before closing if everyone was still awake.

Works for me. Let them see how well they are progressing

Are we there yet?

I can define the sales pitch slightly. We’ll cram the kids and luggage into the Van and drive for eight hours, and we’ll leave the kids there.

Going to visit my Grandparents in Ny while we are in PA was only a 2 1/2 hour drive and I loved seeing them but it was just so boring of a weekend, spend Friday night with Gram talking and watching Tv, Saturday go to Mom’s dad’s house talk and watch tv or watch him play cards while he had his old country western albums playing, which I loved those, then Sunday went to Dad’s sisters house for a big family dinner and visiting, they had 2 tv’s but hardly ever watched them and in nice weather we would sit in the screened in garage and play lawn darts or croquet, and that was the best day of the weekend. then on Monday morning come home and the whole way listen to Mom and Dad complain about family drama until my sister and me got our own walkman players with head phones and listen to cassette tapes and read. We did this once a month from May-September, before and after those months you get a chance you may get snow and could be stuck so never take that chance.

We lived 3 hours from our grandmother and my dad, along with the other sons-in-law worshipped the ground she walked on. It was never an issue to go visit or bring her for a week’s visit.

Road trips combined with camping and fishing were our parents’ preferred vacations. Drive to the Finger Lakes? Indiana Dunes? Vermont, New Hampshire and the coast of Maine? western North Carolina? That’s what we did for our longer vacations, though most weekends from April through October were spent on trout streams in the GW National Forest. We rarely went to the beach.