Vacationing With The Family

I was reading the post about vacationing with the family at fellow blogger Carmi's site. It made me start thinking about what I remember from traveling with my family.
I remember a trip made to Disney World from Texas when I was about 8. I went with my dad and stepmom, her brother and his girlfriend. The motels we stayed at along the way, in the many towns we stopped in there and back. You didn't dare stay in an hotel unless you planned on spending the big bucks. For me, they made sure each motel had a pool. I couldn't wait to go swimming and I am sure they couldn't wait to get me out of the car. It rained every day at the same time in Florida!
On another trip I made with Dad and TLDC, she got up early and baked fresh cinnamon rolls from scratch. She stored them on the front dash using the sunlight filtering through the glass to keep them warm. I was told on the first stop we made to rest we would have the cinnamon rolls. Do you know how painful that was? Besides smelling them baking, I had to smell them for what seemed like an eternity in the car. I thought we would never stop! But stop we did, at a quaint roadside park. Dad got the milk out of the ice chest..(old and metal), and let me tell you did we chow down!
I don't remember where we were going, or anything else about that trip, but I remember that!
Keeping me occupied was the main challenge. Sometimes we played the alphabet game or the license plate game. Sometimes they would buy me small "to do" toys and I would get one every 2 hours or so. These would be like colors and color books, puzzles, little pinball games that you could hold in one hand and the paddle to start the ball was spring loaded. Pull that baby back and go, go, go!
I remember being in front of an 18 wheeler and holding my arm up, making a fist and then moving it in the up and down motion as if pulling a cord to get him to honk back. When they did Dad would hollar out, "Stop it!" Between that and me I guess he was nervous..LOL
I remember going on trips to see my cousins David and Eddie. I know I rode with my sister, but I couldn't tell you anything about the ride or what we did, but when we got there! Boy oh boy! We played, got into trouble, generally all of us had the best time.
Moving forward in life, those same things are what I passed on to my family. I taught them the alphabet game and the license plate game. I will say I now understand why Dad never was really excited about it as when you are the driver, it's hard to play and drive...Kinda like don't drink and drive..

Don't Play and Drive! (insert picture of stern looking sheriff here)

or

MAGAD (mothers against games and driving)


Sigh....

Memories....