Dave and I met in Boston in 2001. Next summer, it will be a decade that we have known one another. In those 10 years, we have logged more miles on the road as a couple (I won't even attempt to add up Dave's individual miles) than anyone else I know. Two cross country moves required two cross country journeys of course. From Beantown to San Francisco via the northern tier of the U.S. Once on the left coast we traveled in our Jeep Cherokee to Lake Tahoe, Oregon, Mendocino, Sonoma, and Monterey. We then left our hearts in the City by the Bay and ventured east this time across the southern states. Once settled in our nation's capital, we took day trips to Baltimore, Virginia Beach and bi-annual trips to our favorite destination, the Outer Banks. Our lives changed with the birth of Cole and we found ourselves on our 3rd move (4th actually move since we rented first and then bought a house in DC) in 5 years, this time to the Twin Cities. Packing up Cole who was five months old, the Jeep was weighing heavy as we followed Dave and Tucker in the loaded Penske truck as we made our way to our new home with its yard, fence and suburban zip code.
Having Cole has not curbed our appetite for road trips, we realized early on that we had more control traveling in our car than flying and because we prefer to take our canine kid with us as much as possible, we continue our quest to drive here, there and everywhere.
Cole is a road tripper extraordinaire. With long drives to Pennsylvania, Montana, Kansas and our annual treks to Outer Banks, he just knows what the deal is. We stop thanks to GPS at playgrounds to let both kids stretch and play but we spend hours on end in the truck, Cole watches the big rigs go by, has his own personal movie theatre and passes the time adeptly using our Iphones (wow, the applications for kids are amazing and educational). A cooler and snack bag keeps us from having to stop too often. Just like when he was a baby, the soothing movement of the truck traveling at high speed (and Tucker snoring) makes him nod off. Sure he has his meltdowns but they truly are few and far between.
This post is being written two days after our 26 hour and 1400+ miles journey to Hatteras Island, NC. As you can see from the photo included, Cole has a smile on his face as Dave snapped this on a pitstop, what great memories we hope we are creating for him as these road trip adventures weave their way into our family fabric!
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