Well, with summer now one day old, the thoughts of many parents turn to ideas for family travel.

Vacationing with your children can be a very rewarding experience for both parents and children. Much can be learned and shared, and great bonds can be forged. I vividly recall childhood trips with my parents and brothers, and with the tempering of time, the memories are fond. I’m sure that on a journey from New York to Oregon in a station wagon loaded with three boys and two adults there may have been a few skirmishes and lost tempers. I bet that even the Pioneers, trekking across America in search of land and opportunity, had one sibling in the back of the old Conestoga chiding another with I’m not touching ye. But it has been said that tragedy plus time equals comedy. And I add: comedy plus time equals pleasant reminiscences.

In honor of all those who would embark on such expeditions this summer, I wish you well, and give you this excerpt from an article I wrote about a trip my family took last April. May your travels be safe, fun and above all, memorable.


“Let’s drive down to visit my dad for Easter,” was my wife’s idea. Sounds good – in theory. The trip to visit my wife’s father is a 900-mile drive from Buffalo, NY to Charleston, SC with four children nine years old and under. Of course, I agreed. Nine years of unrelenting parenting have worn down that part of the brain that contains the “Are you nuts!” programs.
So we loaded the canvas, non-water proof van-top carrier with all of the necessaries: clothing for a week of warmer weather, special blankets and quilts that we can’t sleep without, umbrella stroller and a healthy supply of diapers. There is a mathematical proof that shows Diapers Needed as a multiple of Distance Traveled– i.e., the farther you go, the more often the baby goes. We also loaded the interior of the van with the important family travel items: Barbie and Bratz dolls and accessories, coloring books and crayons, stuffed animals, mini Magna-Doodles, blankies and binkies, story books, Disney travel songs CD, notepads and pencils, laptop (with DVD drive) and a box of DVD’s, including Dora the Explorer and Blues Clues. With the entertainment taken care of (for at least 35 minutes), we added essential nutritional items: a cooler packed with juice boxes, water and energy drinks (for the driver), sandwich fixings, Goldfish crackers, Teddy Grahams, Gogurt, apples, grapes and trail mix.
With the van loaded with 21st century hardtack and fatback, everyone was strapped into their appropriate child safety harnesses. Each child has a designated seat, which is the one and only specific area of the van in which he or she does not want to sit. After some discussion and juxtaposing, everyone settled and we were ready for the first leg of the journey, which meant everyone had to unbuckle and go to the bathroom.


Our first unplanned extended stop occurred about four hours into the trip, in the shadow of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. This is where, at a travel plaza for a potty stop and leg stretch, my son of 20 months – let’s call him Taz – decided to test the tensile strength of asphalt with his forehead. I picked him up, and carried him back to the van, trying hold the wound without benefit of a compress. I signaled to my wife to grab something to stave off the blood flow. She put a tissue on his head, and took him from me so that I could go into the travel plaza and try to obtain some type of bandage. When I returned with a box of Band-Aids and the suggestion we stick one on his head and hit the road, the look on her face cautioned me to come up with another option. She then indicated that I was an idiot as she showed me how, at the right angle, we could actually glimpse my son’s skull bone through the hole in his forehead. Back on the highway, with my wife holding the boy still in the back seat, we followed the blue “H” signs and the almost, but not quite entirely, useless directions from the cashier at the travel plaza to Aultman Hospital’s emergency room. If you have to have stitches in Canton, OH, I recommend Aultman Hospital. They have a nice waiting area for kids, with books and the Cartoon Network and a candy machine, in case you need to practice pronouncing “no.” Two hours and 14 stitches later, we were back on the road.