Episode 5: Our Road Trip a Month Challenge

Episode 5: Our Road Trip a Month Challenge

Hello, hello! Welcome back everyone to episode number five. Okay, I hope that everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. And usually around the holidays, since it's so close to the new year as well, I love to take some time to sit and reflect on the year that has passed. And also think about the year coming and what I would like to do and accomplish and things.

But But year has been really fun to look back on because honestly it's the first year that I made a goal at the beginning of the year and stuck with it and accomplished it. And I'm so proud of myself and I'm so proud of my family because it was a family goal. So you might have heard about it already from me, my Instagram, or the title of this episode. But the beginning of last year, my family and I made a goal to go on a road trip a month. At least one. Some of the months we went on a couple, but but was our goal, is to go on a road trip a month. And we called it a road trip a month challenge and it was so fun.

And I wanted to just share a little bit about what inspired me and what we did and also what we learned and kind of took away from this experience. So I guess it all kind of started. So last year, at around this time last year, I was thinking about the year before, thinking about what we wanted to do. And I knew that travel, I just always, I love travel, I love experiences and that's something I wanted to do more with my family. And right now, with who we were at, we don't have a ton of money for travel. And so it's kind of hard to make that happen sometimes. And so part of the inspiration was road trips are something we can afford to do with our whole family. That we can afford to do more often.

And our really good friends told us that they either were looking at, I can't remember if they were looking at buying a trailer or if they had already bought it. They got, yeah, they ended up getting this really neat little trailer that attaches to, like, they pulled along the back of their car and they can like sleep back there and things. And they told us about it and we were so excited for them. And And course we were like, oh my gosh, that would be so cool, you know, to have a place. Because we do, we have done many road trips in the past, especially to visit family. So we're thinking, oh, you know, that'd be so cool. We wouldn't have to pay for hotels or Airbnbs or anything like that and can just sleep in the back of the trailer. When we're traveling and also like think of all the camping trips and, you know, all those fun things.

So we left for looking at trailers and realized pretty quickly right now is not a time that we can afford one. But it was really fun to look at and dream about and hopefully sometime in the future we can get one. But I kind of had the thought that, like, you know, even if we got a trailer right now, I don't know how often we would use it. You know, because usually we would do really big trips in the summer to visit family and for like family reunions and all that good stuff. But we didn't really do a ton of road trips throughout the year. I I I would say we do more than I feel like, I don't know if I would say the average person maybe. I mean, I do think we do a fair share, a good fair share, our fair share of a road trips. But we didn't, I just feel like if we caught this trailer, I just don't know how often, you know, we would use it if it would even be worth the money of paying for it.

So thinking kind of pondering about that, I was thinking, well, even if we don't get this trailer, we can like have that same lifestyle that we want with that trailer. We can still visit, you know, cool places and make travel a priority and go camping and do all those fun things that we were dreaming about this trailer that we would do with this trailer. We can still do that. We can still like have that lifestyle and do those things right now.

So I kind of thought like, okay, like what would help us kind of reach for that and like make us grow and force us to make these trips happen. And then I thought about the road trip a month challenge. So that's kind of how it came about. So yeah, it has been just an amazing experience.

I will say our road trips have been really simple for the most part because our budget has been small. We have just taken advantage of visiting friends and family and visiting places that we live pretty close to and it has been wonderful. So I just want to preface this and that if this is something you're interested in, I really think you can do it. I think for the most part, like this is something everyone can do if you make it a priority. You can make these road trips very budget friendly or you can kind of go more all out and do crazy things. I would highly recommend it and would love to hear about it if you end up doing something like this.

Okay, so I'm just going to kind of go through each trip that we did this year and then after that I'll go through kind of what we took away, what we learned from this experience.

Okay, so last for January 2023, we started with a visit to our friends in Pennsylvania over New Year's. So it's kind of part of the Christmas break and also into New Year's, the beginning of January. It was a six and a half hour drive and we stayed at their house for a couple of days. They took us to some really fun places like close to where they live. We We this amazing market with amazing food and of course Pennsylvania, there's a lot of Amish community there and they have the best food and so we got to try some delicious Amish food. And And well as just being with our friends, we had amazing conversations. Our kids got along so well and just got to deepen that relationship and that was so fun. Also, the kids really loved seeing the Amish like buggies driving around. That was really fun.

In February, we drove two hours north to Columbus, Ohio to visit our family. This is the closest we have ever lived to family except like the very beginning part of Garen and my marriage when we were finishing our bachelor degrees. We lived about 45 minutes from family then. Then we moved, not even like, I think it was like six months after our marriage. Ever since then, we haven't been able to live closer to family. This has been so neat to be two hours away from my brother and sister-in-law. It's just been really fun to get to know them better. Also, I think it just makes such a big difference to be in someone's space. To visit their house and their life. I think you really get to see a window into their life that you normally wouldn't. I think that's really special.

Then March, this was a more simple road trip. We just drove an hour north to Dayton, Ohio and we went to the Air Force Museum. That was just like a day trip and it was so fun. If you ever have the chance to go, you totally should. This is a place I think we'll definitely want to visit again and even take family that come to visit us. We really loved it. Our kids loved it. It is like, I can't remember how many buildings, like like or eight, just like huge hangers full of aircrafts. It is so cool. Some of them you can sit in and sit in the cockpit and stuff.

My favorite part was walking through the President's Plains. They had them, like the first one, which which going to get my history wrong. I think it was built in the 1940s, maybe 1950s somewhere around there. I could totally be off. That was the first one and then throughout the years just seeing how they modernized and what they included. It It really fun.

Then in April, we drove seven and a half hours to Charlotte, North Carolina to visit my brother and his family for Easter. Again, it was just so fun. We We that close to family and to some of you, you're like, that is not close. But again, before, we moved from Texas. When we lived in Texas, the closest drive to family was 16 hours. The rest were well, like 20 or above. To be a seven and a half hour drive, like a half days drive from family is just the best. We love it so much. We love hanging out with the thingies. They have five boys and are just a hoot. My brother and sister-in-law are just some of the best people I know. It's just so fun to, again, get to know them, be in their house, be in their space. We really just appreciated those experiences.

Okay, in May, we drove about 45 minutes, again, this was a simple one, to Springboro, Ohio, kind of a random spot. We found this just as beautiful camping spot. Our kids have loved going camping. We have kept camping very simple. We usually stay a night, maybe two nights. This time, we just stayed one night and they just get us thrilled. Sleeping under the stars and eating s'mores over a campfire and cooking our dinner in tin foil. It's always a hit. I just love when we go camping or just out having an adventure in nature. My kids, I just feel like they're set free. They run around, they explore, they rarely fight. They just come up with amazing games and activities and they just have a really good time. So we really enjoy camping with our kids. This spot was a pretty good beginner spot. It was really close to civilization, people living nearby, but it was still just so beautiful and such a fun way to kind of step out of our life for a minute and take a breather.

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-Back to the Episode-

And then in June, we again, this is another simple one, we drove just about 30 minutes to Loveland, Ohio for strawberry days. This was such a fun experience, such a fun memory for us. I think we'll definitely want to try again going this year. I wish I could send you through my microphone the smell of that strawberry field. It was just, oh, it smelled just, I mean, of strawberries. It was just the best smell ever.

So what you do is you buy your ticket for a time to go and pick the strawberries. So you get on a little trailer and they'll take you out to the spot where you pick them and then you buy them. And then you go to this fun area where they have like tons of activities and food and like plants to buy and like a petting zoo and like a big jumping thing for the kids and this like bike track and just so many fun things. We had amazing tacos there, which I definitely want to get again. And the best strawberry pie I had ever had. Oh my gosh, it was so good. Yeah, we're definitely excited to go back.

Okay, and then in July, we drove 12 hours to Minneapolis, Minnesota, visiting my sister and her family over the fourth of July holiday. Again, 12 hours, that is far. I will say that is a long drive. But again, like, we're just so happy to be able to see these families that we haven't been able to visit their home. So it's just been so fun for us to live closer.

In Minnesota, it was so fun to get to know Minnesota. I've never been to Minnesota and to have my sister show us around and her husband and her kids. My sister is always a party and just a great conversationalist. We could talk and laugh all day, which we did. And we had such a good time. We picked raspberries and it was like a five minute drive from our house. Everything was just so pretty went to a farmer's market. They took us to their library and we saw like some raptors and our favorite, my favorite thing was going to one of the famous Minnesota lakes with just gorgeous clear water. And And have a paddle board that we used and it was just so fun. It was relaxing and we just chatted and just enjoyed each other's company.

It It also so fun because my sister and her husband surprised their kids with a puppy. And we got to be a part of the surprise or to see it. And And watched the kids where they went to pick up the dog and watch their kids be completely surprised. And it was that was really fun memory. Just so grateful for these memories that we have made.

I think a lot of these connections and like building these relationships. I don't know if we would have visited if we didn't have this challenge. So I'm just so grateful that we kind of pushed ourselves to do it.

In August, we drove the 24 hours to Salt Lakes in Utah for a last minute reunion to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. We were originally not my side of the family were not planning on doing a reunion this year. But But of last minute we're all like, hey, let's go. Mom's turning 60. Let's go celebrate with her. And it was amazing.

All of my siblings were able to come, which was so so special. And that's saying something because all of us live in different states. This all throughout the country. One lives in Canada and it was just so special.

And Utah is so great because we also have Garen side of the family, my husband. A lot of his family is there as well. So while we were there, we were able to see them and we got to like participate in some of their back to school traditions that we haven't been able to participate in before. So that was just really fun. And Utah is just gorgeous in the summer. It's one of our favorite places to go in the summer. It's just so, so beautiful. The weather is perfect. It's amazing.

And it was really special for my mom's birthday because all the siblings were there. My parents treated me and my siblings. Just my siblings. We went out with my parents, so kind of do-gees. We went out to this really special dinner while our spouses, our sweet in-laws, stayed home and took care of the kids. They were so, so sweet to do that. But me and my siblings and my parents, we went out to this special, special dinner. And that is maybe one of my favorite memories of the summer, is just, and even of the year, just talking and laughing. And it was just, it was such a sweet time. We, we haven't done that since, who knows when, probably before my older sibling like got, was the first to get married. I don't know. It's been a long time. So that was really special.

In September, we drove two hours to Hawking Hills, Ohio. And we camped with our friends from Pennsylvania. This was so fun. It was kind of last minute. Like it's not something we had planned way in advance. And it kind of just worked out. And honestly, I think this is one of those trips that I don't know if it would have happened if we hadn't created this challenge in the first place. But honestly, like I'm so glad we did because it was definitely one of the highlights of the year.

So when we first moved here, I kept asking people like, you know what, what places would you recommend visiting? Like what are some of your favorite things to do here? And almost every single person I asked mentioned Hawking Hills. So it was on our list. We knew we had to go. And it was so beautiful. We went on a hike and the hike was like we had between our families. We had seven kids. Yeah, one was a baby. So he was being held. So the six other kids walked the whole way and did a great job. It was not a hard hike. You could have made it longer if you wanted to. But we were able to see just beautiful caverns and little waterfalls. The waterfalls were like trickling this time of year. So I'm curious to see them a different time of year. But nonetheless, they were still beautiful.

And we had this river right next to our campsite that we would swim a couple of times. And we brought up like our blow up kayak to enjoy. And it was just, it was so fun. It was just relaxing. Like zero expectations. We mostly, the adults, we mostly just sat around the fire and chatted while our kids played. And honestly, that was my favorite part. It was just relaxing and fun to again kind of step out of our crazy lives, be outside and enjoy each other's company.

We also split up like who was in charge of different meals. And that was really fun because then we just had to worry about like a lunch and a dinner. I think it was on a breakfast and kind of split that up. And then we went out to dinner one night. It was just, it was so fun to just kind of like live together and help each other out with kids and food. And it was a lot of fun.

And then in October, we had another family reunion. This one was for Garin side of the family. And it was in Hilton Head, South Carolina. This was so fun. And I'm trying to remember if it was a 12 hour drive or a 15 hour drive. One of those, maybe it was 12 hours. But Garen's family has lots of family history in South Carolina. And so that was kind of the original reason why we wanted to go out there. We stayed on the beach, which was one of my favorite things in the world. I actually grew up going to the beaches in North Carolina for family reunions. And so it's just, it's one of my favorite places ever.

So I, and this time around, some of my nieces and nephews, this was their first time seeing the ocean. And honestly, it was such an honor for me. I just loved watching them, seeing them see the ocean for the first time in their lives was something I will never forget. I thought it was so cute. One of my nieces was like, oh, it's not as scary as I thought it was going to be. And I just thought it was so cute what her imaginations were.

But we found sand dollars, which I, which was so fun. I feel like I, I've only done that once before and I've gone to the ocean many times. So that was really neat. We found a couple this time around. And we enjoyed riding the waves and building sand castles and just sitting on the beach chatting away.

And we also drove to Charleston and we saw some gravestones of Garen's ancestors and some of like the places they had lived. And honestly, that part of the trip, I like wasn't super excited about, I didn't, you know, I wasn't really looking forward to the family history part. But honestly, those experiences were so neat. And definitely like stand out in my, in my mind as a really sweet memories. So I'm really, really glad we were able to do that.

We also took a tour of Fort Sumter, went to Charleston and, and then me and Garen and my kids, we decided to take advantage of being there in Charleston. So we walked around the city and for a little bit and we saw Rainbow Row and the pier and the famous Pineapple Fountain and we ate some delicious ice cream.

And this reunion, reunion was so fun because we were all completely like relocated to a remote location where no one's work was close by. Everyone was taking work off. No one had responsibilities that they could, that they had to do, you know, while we were there. Cause usually when we visit like Utah, people are working, people have church callings or, you know, other responsibilities they have to do. But this was so fun because we were all just totally disconnected and just focusing on each other. And it was so fun to chat and, and get to know my in-laws more and it was just, it was a lot of fun.

In November, we actually decided to work on house projects. And then enjoy friends visiting us, which is so fun. We love having visitors. That is something we really enjoy. So honestly, if you want to come visit Cincinnati, come visit us. We would love to have you.

Our good friends from Fort Worth, Texas, where we used to live, they drove 14 hours to come and have Thanksgiving with us. It meant the world to us. We were, we were just so grateful they came. And honestly, we had the best time. Our kids get along so well and just played and played and played all day. Like literally, like there wasn't any TV. They were never bored. They just played all day and were just exhausted by the end day with sleep, wake up and do it all again. And it was just so fun. And we just loved chatting and spending time with each other.

Me and my friend, we went and had tea time at the Bon Bonri Cafe. And we also had s'mores outside and played on the trampoline. We just, it was simple and so fun. Went to the zoo and just had the best time. So it really means so, so much when people come visit. It's just, to me, it's like, this is another way to say I love you. I care about you. I want to spend time with you. And we just so appreciated all the effort they made to come. And we just, again, we love visitors. So, come visit.

And that leaves the last month, this month of December. We have done a little road trip already to Carmel, Indiana for the Christmas Market, which was so fun. It's a big German Christmas Market. And I actually used to live in Carmel, Indiana. So we got to drive by my old house and stuff. And it was a lot of fun. And we also are planning on going to see our friends in Pennsylvania again for the New Year's, just like we did last year. It was such a fun time. But you would definitely want to do it again.

And I think that's another part of this experience that we really enjoyed. The more experiences you have, you want to do them again or do something similar. And so that's been fun to kind of think of, okay, what do we want to do again this year? What do we want to try differently this year? Okay, so those are all the trips we've done this year. At least most of the trips we've had this year.

And so I kind of wanted to go talk about more kind of what we learned through this road trip a month challenge. And I would say the number one thing I think that both Karen and I took away with was that it is always worth it. It's always worth it to go on an adventure or go on a trip. It does take effort and a little bit of planning. But it was always worth it to go and to have an experience with each other. We never regretted spending our money on the trips and making the memories we did. In fact, like when I reflect on the year, the things that come to mind are these memories from these road trips. They just stand out like gold. And I'm so, so glad we did it.

The second thing we felt like we learned with this experience was helping us connect to friends and family and make memories with them and strengthen our relationships in ways that we probably wouldn't have if we didn't have this challenge. It really gave us the opportunity to visit those we lived close by, close to or closer to. And it gave us this excuse to really make it happen. And I think sometimes a lot of times, like, oh, yeah, we'll go visit them. Or yeah, we need to go on this trip sometime. And sometimes it just never happens because it's hard to plan or things come up. But having this challenge really forced us to like, no, like we have to go. Like we need to go visit. And we made it work. And I'm so glad we did because we got to see so many people we loved this year. And we got to be in their homes and just strengthen those relationships. And that was really special.

The third thing, third kind of takeaway we learned was when you travel often, you learn how to travel better. So our preparations became easier because we were used to it. And we know what we needed. We know what we needed to do. So it kind of took away from the stress because we've done it before. We can do it again. Packing became easier and less stressful. And when things are kind of like more in your brain, you also like, you remember them. You don't forget important things. It just became easier. Also, I feel like we became really efficient with like our gas stops, our restaurant stops. Like we just got in a groove. And also like in our time in the car, we also got in a groove of like, what the kids, like the toys they like to play with and wanted to bring. And the books that we wanted to listen to and the movies we wanted to watch and the games we wanted to do. And we just kind of, yeah, gotten this like road trip groove where we all kind of knew what to do and what to bring and we really enjoyed it.

And just traveling more, I think you, when you live far from family and friends, you know that the time you have with each other is precious. And so you really focus on and enjoy the time you have with them when you're with them. And when you do, when with traveling more and doing that more often, I felt like we were also better at that, if that makes sense, like better at focusing on each other and working on and being better at working on those relationships and connecting while we had the chance.

Another thing we learned was that this is helping create that adventure mindset in our family. That's something that we have wanted for our kids and for our family and making it a priority and actually doing it really helped kind of create this family culture of adventure, of road trips, of putting in effort to make memories and explore.

Also, it helped us get to know our area even more quickly. So we moved here about a year ago in November when we were here for a year. And I think kind of forcing us to kind of look around seeing, you know, what do we want to visit, what do we want to see, what's going on, like that has really helped us to get to know our area, I think a lot quicker than we would have. And also driving, you can, you look out the window and you see things, right? You see your city, you see your state. And that has been really fun.

So I'm just, I'm so glad we did this challenge. Sometimes it was tricky and it seemed like easy, like, oh, it's like to not go on a trip. But we never regretted a single one.

I asked my husband, Garen, kind of what he took away from this experience. And Garen is more of a homebody. I'm not. I get, like, anxious if I am home too much. So for me, like, I love this. This is like what I need. But for Garen, I think it was a little bit harder because he is more of a homebody. He would love to just sit and relax at home. So he told me that he would get, like, a little stressed or nervous, kind of with the preparations of each trip. But then when we were on the trip, he could relax and he loved it. And he loved it. He loved doing that and he said he didn't regret it, that all the trips were worth the effort.

And like I said before, for me, like, looking back over this year, those memories, those trips really stand out. They stand out like gold. Our year was just full of experiences and memories and adventure because of that. And you know what? Like, I don't even remember what we spent our money on the other weeks when we didn't go on a trip. But like these trips, like, it was totally worth it to spend the money on travel. Like, that, those are what I remember and those are what I think my kids remember too. Are just those memories that stand out.

So again, I highly recommend something like this if you have any interest. I, we need, we've thought about kind of what we want to do this year. We haven't quite nailed down things yet, but I know for sure this year we'll have more travel just like last year. And I would highly recommend like a goal centered around adventure and travel. I think it really makes such a huge difference. We really, really loved it.

And again, if you do something like this, please let me know. I would really love to hear about it and hear about like where you decide to go and what you decide to do. So again, we just, we loved that experience this year. I'm excited to see what comes this year and the year after and the year after that. And we're just grateful for these experiences and all that we were able to do as a family. And I do feel like we grew closer together.

So thank you again for tuning in. I hope that you have a wonderful holiday season and get excited about your fun goals for the new year. Hope you have a wonderful day. Love always, Elizabeth.