Route 66 baby ~ DYNAMICS OF “LIFE IN THE CAR” (A blog series of our two week adventure!)

We love road trips. 

Our "Constant"

We embrace them, often choosing to drive to our vacation destination over flying.  We traveled often with Abram when he was younger – trips that included car games, laughter and good conversations with a noted absence of DVD players or earplugs.  The time together is the point of the drive.  Besides the destination of where we’re headed, the car time is a little separate vacation within a vacation. 

Route 66 was a stand-out.  This was the first time the drive was the focal point of the trip and for two weeks no less.  The dynamics changed a bit when the car became the only constant on the trip.

Coolest McD's on the trip!

First dynamic? Coffee and Tea.  As much as we wanted to stay true to local diners (more about these in another post) this was one necessity we quickly addressed.   Tea for me was no problem - vacation or not, I carry my own 24/7 because I prefer Bigelow Constant Comment.  So, a little hot water and I’m good to go (add a little Sugar in the Raw, which I also carry, and I’m extra happy).  Steve however was at the mercy of the local diner coffee gods – and they weren’t too kind this trip.  Enter…McDonald’s a couple times a day for a good, consistent cup of brew that Steve enjoys.      

We switched on & off driving and the person riding shotgun this trip definitely carried the title of Car Concierge.  From that seat you ran the inner working of the car and believe me, it’s no fluff job.  It’s total control of all zones in the car other than the driver’s seat.  This includes:

• Passenger side foot area –Amy’s purse, various tourist publications for the current state, three ring binder with maps, travel journal and garbage collection bag
• Glove compartment – receipts, snack items, napkins and utensils (getting this all in around that pesky car manual is no easy fete!)
• Center console – keeper of glasses, sunglasses, iPod, and the occasional stray map or two
• Dashboard – useful for heating leftovers, warming cookies to that “just out of the oven softness” and of course on this trip, monitoring Wilson (our Ore-Ida smiley French fry – more about HIM in a later post)
• Back seat - case of water, snacks, picnic/hiking backpack, pillows, and cooler filled with individual packets of peanut butter and jelly, butter and cream cheese from the hotel breakfast bar, leftovers from the previous days lunch or dinner, and the stray candy bar or two.  (Each morning at the hotel we’d fill a couple of gallon Ziploc bags with ice for the cooler.  Worked like a charm!)

More about this meal in another post!

As Car Concierge, you juggle the planning and execution of all beverages, meals and snacks, including dashboard reheats (complete with makeshift foil “oven”), navigational devices, maps, iPod and music stations, glasses and sunglasses,  pictures of passing sights, pillow placements for weary arms and tender elbows  and of course, note taking (I’m a writer – of course there’s always a running travel journal!)

Oldest DQ we could find!

We love to snack and that pastime definitely rose to a whole new level on this trip.  Our McDonald’s stops generally vetted a couple cookies or a pie or two for the glove compartment.  There were stops at Dairy Queen or Sonic, nearly every day.  Not something we do at home, where an ice cream stop is a once a month treat!

Passing thousands of miles through farm and agriculture country each day found each of us casually remarking  “you’ve got cows” and the inevitable “lost your cows” when a grave yard was passed.  We didn’t bother keeping count, it was just enough to know whether you had some or not. A silly road trip game that stuck; even with a couple of 50 year olds.  At times there was a stray horse or two thrown in and one time Steve even got credit for a few Gazelles! 

Gas stops fell into an easy routine of Steve at the pump while I cleaned the window with the squeegee – something I never do at home.  I’m not one to pass up a restroom opportunity, so we generally went into each store and then stocked up on glove compartment and backseat snacks while the opportunity presented itself!  One store had a particularly busy, albeit shady transaction being done in the front row of the parking lot that ended when the plain clothes cop finished his shopping, went over and shooed them off the property. 

The luxury of time, two whole weeks, afforded plenty of long, companionable silences and plenty of great extended conversations. There were no interruptions, no residual irritations about a work issue from earlier in the day, no deadlines of heading out to a meeting or obligation to be somewhere.  I loved that there was a particular stock Steve was watching during the trip and over the course of a few days he taught me about what it means to short a stock, how it works and how it affects the market.   We chatted about family histories, world events, places we’d just visited, Route 66 facts, retiring and writing plots.  Often he had me laughing until I cried.  Some days we made note at the top of the travel journal page of items to look up on the internet that night.   (I’m talking really important stuff like…How long ago did George Carlin die? T. Boone Pickens and his view of windmills and the Ghia automobile.)

When we planned the trip, partially as a 30^th wedding anniversary gift to each other, I honestly hadn’t given much thought to all the car time we were going to have.  It certainly took on a life of its own as we got rolling.  Sure, we could have gotten in and just driven.  But we took it to the next level.  It was fun and adventurous.  Hence, neither of us had a moment where we dreaded having to get back in the car again.  Yes, it was our constant – a source of good food, good conversation and good times.  It’s nice to know that after two weeks in the car, I’m ready to hit the road again with this man for the next thirty years and beyond.

Next up... "Oh, The Places We've Seen!"  Join me, won't you?

DINNER (A-Z April Blog Challenge)

When we were all home, there were seven of us gathered at the dinner table each evening.  Dad and Mom at either end, the two oldest boys in chairs on one side and us three younger girls along the deacon’s bench on the backside.  If you were home, you were at the table. It wasn’t a strict rule, just the everyday expectation.  They were talkative times with laughter and discussion and everyone took part. 

Setting the table was the girls’ job and the same whether you were eating at the dining room table or the picnic table on the back porch.  A tablecloth (often linen), plates, silverware, and napkins.  Then, there was the MANTRA…Salt, pepper, cream, sugar, bread, butter.  Salt, pepper, cream, sugar, bread, butter.  Salt, pepper, cream, sugar, bread, butter.  If you forgot an item, writing out the mantra 25 times, or 50 times after dinner, as the soft wood of the table absorbed the words through the paper, was a sure bet way that you were going to remember those six items next time.    

Honesty disclaimer - I never ate the prunes!

It was always good, basic food.  But often, there were “family recipes” that were outstanding.  One most notable was Noodles and Prunes:  homemade egg noodles made early in the morning and then cut into thick strips and laid to dry on newspapers throughout the day.  Cooked in boiling water and turned crisp on the outside by being finished in a frying pan with butter.  Tossed with big, fluffy  homemade croutons and cooked prunes.  A pile of those put on your plate and dusted with table sugar and you thought you’d died and gone to heaven. 

Our schedules weren’t crazy for seven people.  There weren’t sport practices or dance lessons to get to.  None of us stayed after cool until 6 or 7 in the evening.  Meals wove our lives together.  It was a constant, a touchstone, for us.  

Forward to dinner in my house and not my parents and you’d find the MANTRA is gone, but the linen tablecloths, the desire to share good food, and the value of sharing a meal is the same, just with less people.  We are a family of three, Steve, Abram and me.  It’s always been a priority for us to have our evening meal together.  And just as it was when I grew up, Abram’s always had an opportunity to speak and be heard.  As a child, we never “dumbed down” the conversation, which is why as he grew into an adult, our conversations still flow so easily.  We talked about how our work days were or how things were going at school.  We had political, financial, religious and ethical discussions.  One of the most memorable and heartfelt conversation for me at our table was when Abram shared this.  

We celebrated new friends that entered our lives and mourned the people we loved and lost.  We shared our dream, our insecurities, our fears and turned to each other to help us through troubling times. We told jokes and puns, developing  our own “Morgan Humor”, and amidst all this, quite often, dinner conversation lasted way past when the forks were all laid down. 

Dinner time. Our constant. Generation to Generation. Nice…………