Outside Heinz Field after the big Raiders win of fall 2015.
Last year I took 24 trips. T W E N T Y FOUR. With the Steelers back in the Playoffs this weekend on the trip to the Super Bowl it made me look back, to so many road trips I’ve made in my life, including driving to Indianapolis to watch the Giants win back in 2012, and just this fall to see the Steelers beat the Raiders at Heinz Field. This was one of my favorite road trips of 2015 in my #driveMazda. I was thinking I could write them all out for you as a sort of memory time capsule but I think you’d get pretty annoyed about five trips in. So instead, I wanted to give a look into my life and why I do what I do. Why I love to travel and take trips, and why I love to take my son.
This is an actual photograph taken from my father on the side of the road in New Mexico in the early 90s.
I’ve been traveling and driving all over America since I was a small child, and Max follows in my footsteps. He took his first road trip to Pittsburgh in a car when he was only three months old. And he made it just fine. For all those new moms out there who are afraid to have a life again, don’t. Cars are way more equip these days, and you’re missing out if you don’t – here’s why.
Why Is Driving Better?
1. You Have To Put The Phone Down.
Legally, you can’t text and drive, and most places you can’t even be on the phone. But why would you want to be? Driving gives you the excuse to disconnect. Whether it’s five minutes to the grocery store or seven hours to Pittsburgh. You actually get to have real conversations – with your kids, with your friends, or just yourself. Some of my best inspirational ideas have come in the car, or real heart to hearts.
I shouldn’t probably admit this, but when we took road trips as a kid, we would throw the cap on the top of the pickup and I had a make-shift loft made of plywood in the back. I opened the window to communicate with my parents and laid back there among tons of blankets and pillows reading and playing games all the way to Florida and back. Some of you just had a heart attack I know, but I am still alive to tell the tale. We didn’t even have phones back then. My point is I still remember those trips, and they are some of the best moments in my life.
2. You see the world, well America the Beautiful.
Road trips mean venturing through the unknown. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. One time we took a trip to the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde (we lived in Colorado at the time). I remember when we got there, all the hotels were sold out, and we had to go and stay at this seedy little joint. It was so scary my dad moved the television dresser in front of the connecting rooms door, and I slept in my clothes on top of the cigarette burn-holed sheets. In fact, I don’t think we slept much that night (maybe it was the drunk yelling next door). But it’s one I’ll never forget, first because back then we didn’t have a lot of money, so even if it wasn’t luxury, I was seeing places I had never seen before.
I’ve also found the best diners in the world (ask me!), really cool and weird gift shops for aliens in Roswell, New Mexico, met some really intriguing people, and seen a lot of America that Americans will never see (such as the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota). Well, maybe now they will thanks to Guy Feiri, but to me, those pit stops were priceless.
3. You become independent.
When I worked on the farm, I started driving tractors and trucks around the back country roads when I was way under 16, and ask my mom how many times she caught me not wearing a helmet on the four wheelers (I would drive off and hide it in the bushes). Or the time she came home to see me zipping up the road on her Harley (true story!), OR the time she came home to find the Chevy across the street because I took it for a spin and forgot to put it in park when I turned it off and it rolled across the street. Sigh. The good ole days.
They also taught me how to drive a stick shift, and to pump my own gas (ok, just a small dig at New Jersey there). Say what? Exactly, it barely exists anymore, but they always said, one day, there will be an emergency and someone’s going to need to know how to drive that vehicle. Well, you’ll be happy to always be standing next to me and know that that person could be me.
4. You can stop where you want.
When you drive, you can explore and find little things along the way. Trust me, there is nothing more fun that seeing a super creepy, famous or intriguing location pop up on the way to your destination. There are so many cool things to explore between here and Pittsburgh alone in itself. Such as, the time we stopped at the Haunted Candle Shop in the Poconos because we had watched it on the Animal Planet, or how sometimes we stop in State College to go to the Penn State Creamery (you haven’t lived till you ate their ice cream), or the time I had to pee so bad and Max was little and asleep and I didn’t want to wake him, so I pulled over on a scenic outlook and peed right there next to the car (hey, I’m a country girl!) without waking him, and then surprised myself to stumble upon one of the most breathtaking views I had ever seen. You can’t always get up and pee on a plane people, pick your battles.
Last summer I drove up to Boston to see the new Thomas Land, and I knew we’d have to stop somewhere with the kids in between. I looked it up, and found an incredible beach in Connecticut with a boardwalk with rides, food and of course, beach. Use Google to find something new and cool – maybe it won’t be as awesome as it looked online, once you get there, but at least you can say you went there.
5. Luxury.
Ok, cars today are a LOT different than they were growing up. So much so that driving is actually way more comfortable than flying anywhere. Think about it – people always ask me why I never FLY to Pittsburgh. It takes seven hours to drive (with stopping). It takes 45 minutes to fly. Plus getting to the airport, going through security, only taking a carryon, sitting next to someone you don’t want to, oh and did I mention paying for two full tickets to take Max? Only to have to rent a car once I get there. Driving = peaceful time to myself, time to actually jam out to music, stop where we want along the way to explore and eat, and pack as much as we want. We don’t have to worry about picking up that new rubber band shot gun toy because it won’t fit in the suitcase.
Plus cars today, like this Mazda, are synced with you. Plug in your phone and it plays your music through the car, the GPS knows when to tell you to turn, the side mirrors light up when a car is in your blind spot, the seats not only warm in the winter but COOL down in the summer, and the leg room! Need we say more?
This post was inspired by a #DriveMazda Drive shop trip I took in November. If you want to learn more about Mazda and their affordable luxury features, feel free to email me.
