Totally Unprepared Road Warrior

We drove straight to the beach. The kids piled out of the minivan and ran into the ocean. No bathing suits. No towels. Just sheer excitement and a hell yeah we drove a billion hours to get here we are going to jump in right away kind of attitude.



We arrived three hours too early to check into our rental house, so we eventually found a public bathroom to change out of our wet clothes from our spontaneous ocean dive and into our bathing suits. But nobody remembered to pack towels, so we drove to the nearest gift shop. I searched for the cheapest towels in the shop. I found some for $6.99 a towel. They weren't the most colorful but they would dry us off, I hoped. 

The towels did indeed dry off the kids as they got out of the ocean. But they were also the kind of inexpensive towels that left little bits of cheap terrycloth all over after patting dry. No need to wonder which kid was mine on the beach....not the one with the bright orange rash guard, nope mine was the one with little bits of blue terrycloth sticking to his wet/dry skin. 

Who drives a billion hours to get to the beach and forgets to pack towels?  This experienced road tripper, that's who.

That story is from last year's road trip. 

I leave tomorrow for this year's epic journey across a few states. I'm feeling nervous because I'm not packed and my plans are loose. But then I think about how unprepared I was last year, and really every year, and how much fun we've ended up having.

If there is one thing I've learned after driving thousands and thousands of miles with my four children over the last decade, it's that road trips are the best of times and the worst of times and make for the MOST INCREDIBLE MEMORIES THAT LAST A LIFETIME AND MAKE THE GREATEST STORIES.

Forgetting the towels is one thing, driving through Georgia in a minivan with no air conditioning is a whole other thing.  But yeah, I did that too. It was so hot, but funny and ridiculous and we survived with some funny stories.

One year we were (okay, me, I was!) obsessed with The Sound of Music. We watched the movie and sang the songs through six states. My motto if anything went wrong was "what would Maria do?" The answer was usually sing a song and feel better, so that's what we (I) did.

A lot of times I forget to plan beyond the destination. Like the time my goal was Graceland. After we did the tour, my kids asked "now what?" and I said "I have no idea."

One year I didn't really have a plan of where or what we were doing, but I made T-shirts for everyone. Priorities! 



Up until last year, I didn't use my phone or even a navigator thing-y. Nope, I looked up the routes on my laptop and wrote it out on whatever I had handy the night before, usually paper plates. That sounds so old school but remember using maps?! I mean what a lost art. Maybe I'll go old school and use paper maps one year. 

Over the years, we have collected maps; had countless McDonald's fries and milkshakes; spontaneously stopped at the birth places/museums of former presidents and inspiring people like Helen Keller and Martin Luther King Jr.; we've stumbled upon amazing art exhibits and fun free concerts in parks; we took goofy pictures everywhere with state signs and different props; bought peaches every year from our favorite fruit stand in Alabama; seen sunrises and sunsets over mountains and oceans and highways that are simply unforgettable. 

We have been road trippin and finding silly photo ops for forever. This picture is pre-Wade.

My favorite place that sadly closed down after a million years. SOOOOOO glad we stopped several times over the summers. When in doubt, stop and experience...that's my motto on road trips.

We always look for the genie.

I LOVE tours.

We've visited family and stayed connected to people and places that help tell the story of who we are. We've laughed over and over and fought with each other, and laughed again. We've learned so much about our country and people and ourselves.

Looking through old pictures and memories I found this from 2015 and it is the perfect reminder of WHY I keep doing this and why I hope I always will:

"Hitting the road with no real plans, a minivan full of kids and a heart wide open helped me be less afraid.

This road trip wasn't full of fairy tale endings, monorails, parades or fairy dust--it wasn't Disney World. 

Instead it was a real world adventure that connected my kids and me to pop icons, civil rights leaders, inspirational women and political leaders and cousins and family members, and a region that has a complicated heritage, and the idea of slowing down and listening and learning and paying attention, making the most of wrong turns and hitting the open road, and it connected us to each other."



I'm completely unpacked and unprepared, but here we go. 
We leave tomorrow for THE summer road trip.

Our History

For the past 10 days I have been on a road trip with my four kids.  We have seen so much-- mountains, the Mississippi River, history museums, hotel pools, what feels like a million miles of farmland, country stores, Beale Street in Memphis, tributes to Elvis, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln, baseball games, fireworks stands, signs about Jesus, signs about triple X rated bookstores, fast food restaurants for days and a lot of open road.  We visited family, jumped on trampolines, swam at water parks, cheered on cousins at swim meets and baseball games.  We laughed a lot.  I threatened to pull over a lot and maybe once said one of my kids was going to have to find a ride home to Michigan. We had to pull over during a tornado warning and wait out the storm with strangers in a small Kentucky town. We heard the news about the Supreme Court overturning the ban on gay marriage and we cheered in the minivan as we headed across another state.

I have so many things I want to say and write about. So many! And I will, when we get back home.  But for now, I am thinking so much about history--visiting it, learning about it, seeing it, living it, creating it.  

Each stop we've made has impacted my kids and me. We've had discussions about what it was like when...what we would do if...We talked about the whys and hows. We talked about Elvis and the south and baseball and civil rights and equal rights and Johnny Cash and my aunt's dementia and my mother's mental health and why she still smokes and needs so much medicine; and how beautiful the mountains are and the red dirt and how hot it was in Memphis; and how there are good people in the world and also bad people, and trust and fear and so much more.  

We talked about how our country is complicated just like family can be, and how there is so much to love but also things that we hope change and how we can be a part of it all.

This road trip with everything we saw and everything we did and talked about will be part of our family history.  I hope my kids remember it forever, I know I will.

Saw this quote on Instagram this week and well, I love it.

Graceland Here We Come...

I'm getting ready to hit the road.  I love hitting the road, it's maybe one of my most favorite things ever.  It's all freedom and rolling down the windows and jamming to good music and not being tied down by "have-tos"and over scheduled-ness.  Give me an open road full of possible adventure but definitely a change of scenery any day. I look forward to our summer road trip all year long (I've written about it before here and here and here).

This year we have a little bit of have-to involved...we are driving to my oldest kid's baseball tournament. A week-long tournament. I will not lie and say that I am excited because I'm sort of not. But my oldest kid is and so I am happy for him.  The tournament just happens to be in Kentucky a short drive from my sister's house.  So we will be staying with her family and that makes it more than just watching baseball for 500 million hours and that is good for all of us. I am happy that we get to visit with my sister and her kids for a whole week, but I wanted to throw in a little more open road-quirky-go-where-you-wanna-go vibe to the trip.  So, we are going to Memphis. Actually, we are going to Graceland.

Yes, Graceland. Home of Elvis Presley. Also a bucket list site for pop culturalists like myself. I mean I liked Elvis music when I was a kid, but I loved reading Elvis and Me when I was in middle school. Why was I reading that when I was 12? I have no idea. Possibly because I was a fan of Priscilla Presley on my all-time favorite TV show growing up, Dallas.  Remember she played Jenna Wade, Bobby's old girlfriend?  I loved her.  So anyway, the pop culturalist in me is kind of freaking out because I have toured Southfork (the ranch featured on Dallas) and now I'm heading to Graceland (the home where Elvis lived (um, and Priscilla!).  Whoa.

The drive to Graceland is about more than pop culture fascination. It's about being able to be with my kids and show them that there is more than just our little bubble. There's a whole big, beautiful, wild, interesting, different world out there.  I don't have the money to fly them somewhere exotic or even to god damn Epcot Center, but I can jump in the minivan and put down the windows blast some kick-ass music and show them something different than what they are seeing now. It's an adventure that we will share together. They will have stories to tell--they might be stories of how their mom made them make this really long drive to some mansion of a dead guy that wore sparkly suits int he 1970s OR they will tell stories of the day they discovered their love of Elvis music and an appreciation for the beauty of western Tennessee.  

Who knows what will happen...I just hope when they tell the stories they remember what it felt like to get on that road toward adventure and possibility. I hope they remember laughter and good times and stopping at weird gift shops and funky museums and talking with friendly people at the continental breakfasts at the hotels. Then I hope they remember what it felt like to miss home and appreciate all that we have and cheer when we crossed back over the Michigan state line.

It's good stuff these road trips.  

Graceland, here we come....

Packing for an impromptu road trip to Graceland, the kids and me. (I mean after we dance). Yup. Because I want to go there, because my kids don't know who Elvis is, because it's the only adventure I can afford, because it's summer, because I love road trips, because why the hell not? #kitchendance #ilovemykids #summervacation #roadtrips

A video posted by Angela Youngblood (@jumpingwithmyfingerscrossed) on Jun 22, 2015 at 6:31am PDT

Because AHHHHHH I love this song so damn much and the lyrics move me because of my need for adventure and reclaiming that I don't live in a bubble and because of the world and what's happening and our need for goodness and faith and redemption.


One of my favorite songs-

Uniting the World & Some Travel Tips

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of travel and excitement and emotion.  I've been in a different city--Nashville, Kalamazoo, D.C.--the past three Wednesdays.  For someone who usually thinks going to the library down the street or staying out past 9 p.m. is an adventure, these past few weeks have been huge.

Traveling teaches, it opens our minds, it's all kinds of good.  For example, while I was in D.C. I discovered a universal truth that comforted me.  As we made our way to the monuments in the ridiculous heat we passed all different kinds of people--different shapes and sizes, colors, nationalities.  One thing was the same in a every family we passed, behind every sweaty mother and father was a teenager rolling their eyes.  Every family.  It didn't matter what shape, size, color or nationality...annoyed teens roll their eyes to every mom and dad.  Truth.

Now that the World Cup is over and the world has nothing to gather together and celebrate or commiserate over, maybe this universal truth is where it's at.  Parents of tweens and teens in the world unite.  Let's hold hands and raise them in solidarity and say together "we may be different but we are not as annoying and embarrassing as our tweens/teens think we are, together we will get through this crazy ride of parenting tweens/teens."

Here are a couple other things I learned from my travels:

Traveling to D.C. with $60 and a gluten problem doesn't have to make you depressed.

Moms Clean Air Force paid for our plane tickets and hotel in D.C., otherwise we could not have gone on that trip.  We are still broke from the road trip we took a couple weeks ago.  So I took $60 and hoped for the best.  We spent money on the train ride from the airport and the rickshaw ride when we simply couldn't walk anymore. The kids wanted souvenirs and I simply told them "the story you have to tell people and your life experience here" were their souvenirs. Ha!  Honestly, they were a little bummed that they couldn't get the sparkly White House pen or the piggy bank with the Capitol Building on the side, but it didn't last too long.    

As far as the gluten problem, JT has Celiac and literally can't eat at many restaurants.  In fact, he has such bad cross contamination issues it's pretty impossible to eat anywhere.  He can't simply ask for the "burger no bun."

So I checked a suitcase full of gluten free food on the flight to D.C.  I hated to pay the $25 bag fee, but it was worth it in the end.  And you can't carry on these food and drink items.  

Udi's bread is our favorite.

We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and dinner, along with pretzels and apple sauce and chips. For breakfast I packed Fruity Pebbles (not my favorite choice for the kids, but it works in a pinch) and soy milk.  I packed paper plates, plastic bowls, plastic spoons and knives.  It worked out great.  We ate almost all the food and I didn't have to check my bag on the way home.  No depressed people in our party.

We had dinner in our hotel room while watching HGTV.

We also found great picnic spots outside to have lunch.

Smart phones can save your ass and enhance your traveling experience.

Forgot your flight info? Don't worry, look it up on your phone.
Have no idea where your hotel is in relation to the Lincoln Memorial? Um, the magic map on your phone does.
Want to know if a certain gum is gluten free? Google on your phone can tell you.
Miss your husband and want to tell him how amazing all of your adventures are right that minute? Dude, text him, send him a picture or actually call him on your sweet smart phone.
I would never want to travel without one.  And luckily airports, hotels, rest areas and restaurants are usually happy to let you power up your phones so they don't quit on you.  

Reading stands the test of time.

A book is just always a good idea when traveling (or really any other time).  My kids love it, I love it.  

I told him to look up at the sunset.
He did, and then went back to his book.

Lucy can tune anyone out when she reads, even her three brothers.

Got any travel tips?  Universal truths?  Tell 'em to me.  We leave later this week on yet another adventure and even though like the old Johnny Cash song, I've been everywhere man, I could use more/any/all help.

How To Enjoy Road Trips With Your Kids

I love a road trip.  Growing up, my family made a few road trips a year.  My mother was always up for jumping in the car and going somewhere.  I inherited that (along with a pesky anxiety issue and hoarding problem, waaa).

For the past 12 years, I have been taking my kids on road trips and I've learned a few things about making road trips not just survivable, but truly enjoyable.

Here are my top 10 tips on how to enjoy road trips with kids:

1. Relax.  

Start the journey in a relaxed state-of-being.  Don't get too excited, don't get too anxious...stay calm, keep expectations low and relax.

2. Expect Traffic and Delays. 

Kids will have to go the bathroom a lot, know that for sure.  Even if you limit liquids like I used to try to do, not all the kids will have to go the bathroom at the same time.  

If you are traveling during the summertime, there will be road construction and that means there will be merging.  Merging makes people stupid, it makes people act crazy, it makes people rude, it makes people drive on the shoulder because they want to get to the front of the lane.  I am convinced that if we could figure out how to merge peacefully in highway construction we could solve all the problems in Washington D.C.  

So yeah, on my last trip we had some merging frustration. While I was muttering under my breath about "stupid construction" and "just sitting on the highway is so dumb," it started to rain.  "I feel bad for the construction workers," said JT.  "They have to work out there in the rain."  Oh man, out of the mouths of babes.  Yeah, I was in an air-conditioned van with my awesome kids, listening to our favorite music...perspective, gratitude, compassion and acceptance.  

Sitting in construction traffic isn't so bad.

3. Make Time To Daydream

DVD players and Netflix on the iPad are ingenious, wonderful blessings for parents and kids on road trips.  We bring a ton of movies and I enjoy listening to them on our trips.  But we don't constantly have movies playing. We take movie breaks to daydream.  

Road trips are a storytelling/daydreaming mecca.  My kids roll their eyes when I tell them it's time for a movie break, but then I catch them staring out the window.  They are staring at the fields of corn, the mountains, the puffy clouds, the abandoned homes, the high school football fields, the neighborhoods, the farms, the factories...they all have stories.

4. Pump Up the Jam

Kids fighting? Turn up the music.  Do it, drown out the noise.  It usually makes the fighting stop and even if it doesn't you can't hear them anyway.  Don't be a radio hog though.  Let the kids make some music choices too.  But remember if you have to sit through their music choices, they have to sit through yours.  Don't be offended if they don't like your music.  "Why do you have to play these oldies?," my son exclaimed with disgust.  He was referring to my Lauryn Hill MisEducation CD, sure a little old school, but oldies? I just turned it up louder.

5. Get Lost

I have made a wrong turn or taken a wrong exit on almost every road 

trip I've ever taken. 

Guess what? It wasn't the end of the world.  I believe talking to the kids about how everyone makes mistakes and takes a wrong turn now and again teaches coping skills and compassion.

6. Find Your Walley World

I am a sucker for cheesy roadside touristy attractions.  Maybe it's because my parents refused to stop at any growing up.  Maybe it's because I love cheesy things.  Whatever the reason, I love these kinds of stops.  Every summer my kids and I go to GunTown Mountain--it's sort of become like our Walley World from the old movie Vacation (one of the all time BEST road trip movies ever). 

The kids in front of GunTown Mountain's Haunted House in 2012 (L) and then again in 2014.

It is a family-friendly tourist attraction nestled in the Kentucky mountains somewhere between the Boobie Bungalow signs and the "Do You Know Jesus?" billboards.  Over the years, we got to know the owner Miss Della and we were a little devastated when we found out she was retiring and selling the place last year.  We weren't sure what to expect this year, but the new owners have added some fun features like "Old Time Photos."  Um, hello?  Yes!!!!

7. Pack a Lunch

Don't go broke on stupid fast food.  Pack a lunch and get outside and have a picnic.  I promise you your kids will complain but who cares? You are saving money and the lunch will probably be way more nutritious.

8.  Stay Hydrated

This is just really practical advice.  The end.

9. Rely On The Kindness of Strangers

Every time I travel someone I don't know helps me.  Whether it's a kind man pointing me in the right direction to the bathrooms at the gas station or the nice lady at the rest area telling me she doesn't mind rowdy kids and that she "misses them being little"--people are nice, people are good.  One year when I was traveling there was a particularly bad news story all over the TVs at McDonald's.  Two rather big men stood in front of the TVs on purpose so my kids could not see the alarming broadcasts while we were in line.  There is good in this world and people will help you in all kinds of ways.

10. Have Fun

Don't worry about everything too much.  Road trips can be the most adventurous, funny, ridiculous, special things you ever do as a family.  Even if your pre-teen rolls his or her eyes at every suggestion you make on the drive, I promise they will remember the good parts.  At the very least, it will make a good story for years about the time you made them dress up for an "Old Time Photo."

Here's the highlight reel from our most current road trip.

Road Trippin' & Getting Happy

Right now, I am on the road.  Road tripping with my four kids.  We left on Sunday for our annual trip down south.  

A quick stop in Kentucky to see my sister and onto Alabama to see my cousin.  I wasn't sure if there would be time to make the trip this year with all the baseball games and more baseball games and camps and practices and parties.  At sort of the last minute we decided to squeeze in a trip.  

I absolutely love going on a road trip with my kids.  I feel sort of like Mama Partridge with a van full of groovy kids.  We sing our way across a few states, looking for adventure and maybe a life lesson or two.  And getting happy (just like in the theme song for The Partridge Show, remember? Come On Get Happy).

Looking back over the last few years and what I've written about road trips, it makes me so grateful that I started this blog.  

I love reliving moments like the time my brother gave my kids nicknames, or the time we drove without air conditioning in 100 degree heat, or when I made road trip T-shirts.

I'll never forget when a road trip made me feel less afraid of the world and believe in human kindness.  Yup, I got that loving feeling from a road trip in a minivan with my four kids. Click here to re-read the story.

Here's the vlog I made about last year's epic road trip:

Follow along on my road trip adventures over on my Facebook page on Instagram and Twitter.

Are YOU road tripping anywhere this summer?  Taking an adventure?

Come on Get Happy, awww yeah here's The Partridge Family intro:

Okay, and this is my dream for what we will be one day...just like the fabulous Nicki Bluhm and The Gamblers' Van Sessions.  Here they are covering my favorite Whitney Houston song.

What I Know For Sure & #iPPP

Last week on the big road trip, I brought along a fancy camera to capture the magical moments.  But I never got it out.  I was too worried about sand getting stuck in the lense or someone splashing too much in the pool.  And I didn't want to spend my vacation worrying.  So, I took every picture with my camera in my phone and I still captured some pretty magical moments.

Like boat rides,

my kids on the beach (even if a few of them were annoyed with me taking their picture saying "um, take it already mooooooom"),

multiple trips to get ice cream,

the awesome streets of Savannah,

going for the perfect shot (at a game of pool and with water balloons),

and even an unintentional Forrest Gump moment courtesy of a grumpy tween who was sitting out on our fountain wishing in Savannah.

Big fancy cameras are great, but using the camera in my phone let me be less worried and more in the moment.  So that's what I know this week for sure, I love that we live in a time where we carry phones in our pockets with cameras.  

Here's what else I know for sure this week:

• My road trip made me love my kids more. In case you missed it, here's the video from our road trip.

• I love this song and the video.  It is a little like my kids in the summer.  Since I saw this on Girls Gone Child I've watched it a lot.  So beautiful (and my kids love it too).

• A cheeky (or peachy) sense of humor is a good thing.  I saw this sign at a fruit stand in Alabama I always stop into on my way home every summer.  I think it's referring to the peaches? I think.

• I love bloopers.  I always wondered how the guys behind the YouTube series Conversations with My 2YrOld did their skits with straight faces.  Turns out, they had some bloopers.  

What do you know for sure (this week)? C'mon, we're friends, share what you know. Do you get great shots with your camera/phone? Leave a comment here or on the Facebook page.

  Please come play with me on Instagram @jumpingwithmyfingerscrossed.

I'm linking up today with my friends Greta from  Gfunkified.com and Sarah from SundaySpill.com for the #iPPP link up.  They host a link up where they encourage people to share "your funny, your yummy, your heartfelt, your favorite photos of the week" from our phones. 

Check them out.