Great Road Trips – Share Your Ideas!
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I want to hear your favorite road trip ideas on this post! Inspire us in the comments!
As a child, I remember my grandmama telling me about the road trips they used to take as children. Her mama would cook up some chicken, pack it in a basket, and mix up a gallon of tea in a big old glass pickle jar to pack in the trunk, wrapped in blankets to keep it chilled and prevent the glass from breaking. They’d get in the car and head off to visit family, stopping along the way for picnics on the side of the road. There were no drive through restaurants back then and even roadside diners were a new concept so bringing your own food was a necessity. Sometimes, though, Grandmama said they’d stop at a local gas station that had a deli counter and buy some fresh sliced bologna and a loaf of “light bread” as they called it. This was considered a huge treat for them and made the road trips even more special.
My family has always loved impromptu road trip adventures. We hop in the car on a sunny day and head out to parts unknown just to see what we can get into. Early in our married life, Ricky and I tired of fast food on long road trips and I stopped at a local deli, picked up some roast beef, cheddar slices, and Hawaiian sweet rolls and our little family road trip sandwich was born. Some of our happiest memories and best conversations have taken place sitting beside each other while I make little sandwiches in my lap to hand him and now just the thought of a road trip sandwich brings all of those precious memories to mind. We sure have been blessed these past twenty years!
Another fun addition to our road trip menu is Southern Breeze Sweet Tea. I keep the little cold brew packets of it in my purse, all different flavors, and we can have guilt free Sweet Tea on the road anytime.
In fact, did you know:
- Southern Breeze is calorie free and guilt free so it can be enjoyed glass after glass.
- Cold brew Southern Breeze is single serve-take it on the go or enjoy at home.
- Southern Breeze cold brew is easy to make: pour 8oz of water over 1 tea bag, let steep for 5 minutes, toss out the tea bag and pour over ice!
- All of the zero calorie Southern Breeze products (cold brew and family size tea bags) are available by clicking here.
Southern Breeze Sweet Tea is just one of the things that make our road trips even more fun and don’t have to be planned or thought about earlier.
There is still plenty of time for more summer road trips so today I wanted to share some of my ideas with you but most importantly – I WANT YOUR IDEAS!
Be as general or as specific as you like but please chime in and know that your answer will help inspire friends and family to spend more time together.
Some ideas from the Jordan camp:
- Road trips don’t have to involve a lot of time on the road! Check out local attractions first – budget friendly memories are just as sweet.
- Pretend you are a tourist in your hometown:
- Check out the visitor’s bureaus of nearby towns and see what their most popular attractions are.
- Festivals are an easy find! This time of year there are so many fun festivals all around. You can also find these at visitor’s sites and all that is needed is saving the date on your calendar!
- Feed the ducks
- Watch the sunset
- Free outdoor concerts and movies
- Hikes at state and local parks (or national if you’re close to one!)
- Tailgate picnic! There are some gorgeous spots with amazing views of the valley where we live so some evenings we grab the fixings for our road trip sandwiches at a local deli and head on up to a pretty spot, sit on the tailgate, and enjoy the view.
- And one of my absolute favorites: Take a glass of iced tea out to your back porch.
What are some of your favorite ideas for summer road trips both near and far? Let’s talk about them in the comments!
While you’re here, you can head on over and see all of the zero calorie Southern Breeze products (cold brew and family size tea bags) by clicking here. It’s perfectly sweetened sweet tea with no calories and no carbs and if you place an order online by June 30th using code CHRISTYJORDAN you’ll get free shipping. But you can also get in on a chance to get a free sample sent directly to your home by clicking here.
Special thanks to my friends at Southern Breeze Sweet Tea for sponsoring this post and for making the tea that I drink all day long! All opinions contained in this post are my own. #ShareTheSweetness & #guiltfreesweettea
Long time ago, before seatbelts, our family of 4 and my aunt’s family of 5 would pile into one of those big old gas guzzling cars and go for Sunday rides after church. My uncle would drive and we might end up anywhere, at a restaurant across the state line, at the home of a family member in the next county, at one of those little roadside picnic pull-offs, getting ice cream or a “Coca-Cola” at a little country store. Great memories, fun times.
How fun!! I love that y’all never had a plan and just went wherever each week!!
My favorite road trip memory – and most everyone’s favorite get together story – is when Mama took us all the way from Arkansas to New York City. I was starting kindergarten that fall, and Mama wanted me to see “the amazing Country you’re gonna learn about”. We drove through all the historical places, I even got to touch the Liberty Bell, if that tells you how old I am. The grand finale was climbing the Statue of Liberty, all the way to the crown – again, an age tattle. It was late July in the 1970’s, and everyone was dressed in their finest polyester. The spiral stairway climb from Lady Liberty’s toes to crown was nose to rear end packed as we ascended the endless stairs. About midway, or waist level, the heat and the odors got the best of my four year old stomach – and I pronounced “I’m sick”. Mama wasn’t hearing of it, she told me, “you’re fine”. This conversation was repeated in it’s exact form for several more flights. Perhaps the armpit level stairway of Lady Liberty was the final straw, but I still remember the sound of my lunch as gravity smacked it upon several unfortunates below, and the groans that followed. The elderly man directly behind me stopped my Mom in mid sentence stating, “lady, you’d better not say one word to that kid, she’s been telling you she’s sick for the last hour!” 🙂
I can’t help but laugh. I can just see your Mama now, excited about showing you the history of our country and then the embarrassment of what followed. I think every family has one of “those” stories in one form or another 🙂
A few years ago, we made a family New year’s resolution to go to all the places in our area we would go to if we were tourists. For one year, we went to state parks, historic places, house tours, etc. We learned so much about our state. Also, we decided to show our kids this amazing USA and to have them in all 50 before our oldest goes to college. we have driven everywhere and just returned from fulfilling the last of the lower 48. Two more states (Alaska and Hawaii) and two summers before he heads to college. It’s been the best thing we have done for our family. Lots of time together, only eating at local restaurants and learning about the topography and diversity of our country.
I LOVE that Gwen!!! I imagine y’all have had some amazing adventures, made so many memories and have tales to tell!!
OH what memories you’ve stirred! At this stage of life, my road trips include driving RT to visit and help parents. When I was growing up, my Dad got 2 weeks vacation and we SAW the USA. One memorable year we made it to (not in order) Walls Drug Store, Corn Palace, Badlands, Mt Rushmore (where we took a ‘copter fly over) and Yellowstone National Park where we parked the truck (with bed camper) for 4 nights. Back then, folks could stand OVER TOP Old Faithful and peer down into the bubbling hole. I remember Daddy timing the blow…get ready now…almost time…RUN!
Nowadays they’d have his guts for garters and me in “protective services” but OH the memories and sheer fun we had.
I am loving hearing about all of these wonderful adventures!!!
My family is 12 hours away so twice a year we pile into the car and off we go~ and I am always the one crawling back and forth from the cooler and snack bag serving as we roll down the road. If you ask my kids, I’m sure they’ll say “Mom singing for 12 straight hours” is one of their memories. I don’t know the titles or artists of songs, but if I hear it, I have a weird sense of knowing all the words! ha ha…we start off every trip with singing “On the road again….” and we affectionately call ourselves the Griswolds while on the trip. This summer will mark our 43rd trip from PA to Upper Peninsula Michigan. 🙂
I hope y’all have another wonderful trip and grand adventure Carrie!!!
We didn’t take too many road trips growing up. Usually if we did it was to go to my Grandpa’s camp that he built himself on Blue River in Southern Indiana. No need to bring any food. My Grandma was the greatest cook in the world. No one could beat her fried chicken and I mean no one. When we packed a picnic lunch we usually went to the Locks at Dam 44 on the Ohio River. We would picnic and watch the boats and barges come up the river and go into the Locks. The locks then filled with water and the boats passed on upstream. Not a fast process. Perfect entertainment for a lazy summer afternoon.
What wonderful memories though!! Sometimes, the simplest mean the most 🙂
My favorite memories are of road trips when I was a much younger (like elementary school age). We would drive up to the mountains in North Carolina for the say to see all the amazing waterfalls. Picnic lunches were a must and eaten at any spot off the road that had room to park. We always had fried chicken, egg salad sandwiches or deviled eggs, potato salad, some kind of dessert and plenty of sweet iced tea. Sometimes we even had tomato sandwiches which were my favorite all time sandwich. Those were the days!
Ahh, to go back to those days!!