Spring Break 2011: A Minivan on a Mission

As young college students, we hopped in cars and headed for Florida during our April break . All we brought was junk food, bathing suits and a couple mixed tapes.

Now the minivan is loaded with kids, sippy cups and healthy snacks, inflatable mattresses, sleeping bags, favorite stuffed animals and more.

We left New Jersey Friday after school and arrived at grandma and grandpa’s house in Palm Coast 19 hours later.

The minivan’s DVD system saved us. My husband and I decided "Jungle Book" was our favorite with its great jazz tunes. "Igor" and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" were good picks too with one-liners we could appreciate and decent soundtracks.

The restaurant of choice on any road trip with my kids is always the Golden Arches. Did you know there are no McDonalds restaurants on I-95 in New Jersey? Southbound traffic was super heavy on the Turnpike so we had a late dinner in Delaware.

To our dismay, the happy meals included toys that made noise. They serenaded us annoyingly for the rest of the trip.

Five hours after we left Parsippany, we found ourselves in a mess of traffic just outside Baltimore. We were at a complete standstill. I put the car in park and texted a couple friends that left town the same time we did.

I told them we hit lousy traffic and were now literally parked on I-95.

My friend Amy sent a quick reply that read, “OMG. Where r u?  We’re at exit 85.  I think I see your mommy mobile.”

What are the odds of that?

Two minivans leave Parsippany at the same time, heading in the same direction but traveling at different speeds and arrive at the same spot exactly four hours and 27 minutes later. 

Another change from road trips of yore is the advent of GPS and cell phones. 

Instead of sitting on I-95 for hours and playing Frisbee or Hackeysack while waiting for the cars to move, we asked our TomTom to find us an alternate route.

The GPS guided us through back roads that brought us back out to I-95 miles away from the problem. We texted our other friends to warn them of the road blocks and share the recommended work around. They shaved hours off their trip, too.

It was smooth sailing from there.

My husband and I drove through the night while the kids slept and we stopped at a Waffle House in Georgia at 8 a.m. 

The kids piled out still in PJs with urgent cries for the restroom. The ladies room was occupied, so I snuck into the men’s room with 3 kids wearing Sponge Bob and Dora.

About 15 minutes later, we tumbled out of the men’s room to find a couple young college kids patiently waiting their turn.  They looked at me wide-eyed and chuckled nervously. 

I just smiled and thought, “Ha! Laugh it up boys. You just got a sneak peak at the spring breaks of your future.”

A couple more hours in the car and we were in paradise. It seems like a miracle to actually see the sun after months of cold and gloom in good old New Jersey.

Listening to the kids splash and play and squeal with delight at the neighborhood pool makes it all worthwhile.