road tripping

I am dying to go on a road trip.
Not entirely sure where- but I just want to get in the car and drive.
I grew up taking road trips.
I think we pretty much covered most of Canada and The United States in the back of our '77 Oldsmobile station wagon when I was a kid.
Faux wood panelling on the sides and all.
I loved that car.
My brother and I were most likely camped out in the back part of the wagon on our sleeping bags, breathing in a combination of fresh air from all the windows being down and my parents Matinee special milds blowing in from the front seat.
Seat belts, what seat belts?
My brother and I would encourage my dad to "GO FASTER DAD!!" over the winding roads and hills and get up on our knees in the back pretending that we were on a roller coaster.
Hard to believe that we ever did anything like that now that we live in a world of uber car seats and safety regulations.
Not that I'm knocking the new way of life (preservation) but I do find myself pining for those good' ol days of being so carefree.
One of the parents at Lulu's camp this week asked me last minute if I could drive her daughter home, and I said not a problem except that I didn't have an extra booster seat- and she said, don't worry about it, we do it all the time.
Sure it was only a few blocks, but still, I totally felt put on the spot.
What if I get pulled over? or worse, get in an accident?
Statistics do show that most car accidents do tend to happen close to home..
I am a law abiding citizen after-all....
What would you do?

But I digress..
Back to my road trip down memory lane.
My parents really did go with the flow when we were kids, and as a result we had the opportunity to have some really great experiences.
We would just jump in the car and go.
Travelling by car is all about the journey, and not necessarily the destination- right?
Try telling that to a little person in the back seat asking "hooooowww much faaaarrrrrttherrrrr??????"
Lulu has never been in the car longer than 3 hours, and I have to admit, her constant chatter was a wee bit grating at the best of times, so I wonder how we would survive 7-10 hours of driving.
How did my parents ever deal?
Okay now that I think about it, I do recall several threats of "YOU TWO BETTER KNOCK IT OFF OR I WILL PULL OVER!!!!!" coming from my dad in the driver's seat.
How he managed to drive one handed and reach back and catch us with the other hand still amazes me to this day.
I can't even reach a juice box that's dropped on the floor and still keep my eyes on the road at the same time.
Ah the fantasy is always better than the reality I guess.
Back in the day there were no such thing as built in DVD players in cars- look out the window kids- the world is your oyster!
GPS-I loved reading maps and following along with my trusty red pen
Seat belts (see above)
itunes - had to love the crackle of the a.m. radio stations, or if you were a high roller an 8track player-I hope they play John Denver-Take Me home Country Roads again!
Those were much simpler times.
Or were they?
Maybe I do need to take a cue from my folks and just "go with the flow"
and maybe just get in the car and go.

Or if Big daddy has his way..Leave on a Jet Plane....