Skip to main content

Roadgeeking with Kids: The first day trip with both kids

Image
By
Around 10 am this morning, my wife says to me,"How about going to the Richmond Children's Museum today?"

Me: "Sure, Why Not?"  (Hey that's not a bad idea to name a blog!)

So at about 11:30 - we started the trek from Raleigh to Richmond.  Of course after a stop at Sonic in Zebulon to get lunch and also change Nash, we were officially on our way.

Of course that's if we don't have to make any stops.  Which we will of course need to make.  This trip was spur of the moment so we need to get gas on the way etc.

Colton is a very good traveler and he is at that age where you can go I spy or use road signs to help him recognize letters and what not.  Nash obviously at two months is/will be more difficult.

This trip we are kinda planning as we drive, and we hope to go to the museum and also the Silver Diner and possibly a good ice cream place.

I'm typing this real time so obviously any changes I'll write as we go - so if a train of thought gets interrupted - I apologize.

Speaking of train of thoughts being interrupted- our plan was to stop at the Virginia Welcome Center to feed Nash and have Colt go potty.  Well, Nash at about Mile 169 on 95 North decided he was hungry.  We decided to exit now at Exit 173 in Roanoke Rapids and stop at Chick-Fil-A.  We can feed Nash and Colton can play.

Now we have been back and forth on 95 from PA and NC so many times we know pretty much where every Chick-if-a / McDonalds are etc. - if they have a play place or not.  Well on this Saturday afternoon - so did everyone else it seemed.


Yes, that's the line at the Roanoke Rapids Chick-fil-a.  Now I am sure many of you would say just walk out - but there's an infant to feed and I don't think there is a toddler that would wait patiently during that.  Fortunately, we already ate so as Maggie fed Nash his bottle, Colton played in the play area.  Anyways by the time we left and then survived a storm riddled traffic jam on 95 our eta changed to

 
As you can see the rain and traffic would cause us to detour onto US 301 (hey roadgeeking!) and believe it or not - we did pass the moving truck that was in front of us on 95 along 301.  So yes, Waze did work!  More rain pushed us not getting there until 3:20.  Now yes I will admit, there were moments where I thought "well this will be a disaster."  But we made it!


And we had a great time! We did make it to the Silver Diner and also to a great gelato shop called Gelati Celesti! 

And you know that it was a worthwhile day trip when there are two boys sleeping in your backseat on the way home!  Also makes for a quicker trip home!  No stops!


My wife drove the whole trip.  We split driving duties a lot and it allowed me to take a few road related photos - again thank goodness for cell phone cameras!

I'll update Nash's county map (I'll post about that soon) and also did get new roads on the trip.  

The best part of having your kids and family take part of this or any hobby where a trip is involved is to tell them we are going on a mystery adventure and need their help in solving it.  When we arrived at the children's museum, Colton kept saying, "this is the mystery museum mommy and daddy - the mystery museum!" He was extremely excited and really loved the trip.

All in all our first adventure as a family of four wasn't so bad.  It's harder to just get up and go - but we did it - and we are going to seriously add another one-two hours on trips - though there are some remedies to that.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

By
  There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population.  The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t
Post a Comment
Read more

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

By
The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two
1 comment
Read more

Huey P. Long Bridge (New Orleans, LA)

By
Located on the lower Mississippi River a few miles west of New Orleans, the Huey P. Long Bridge is an enormous steel truss bridge that carries both road and rail traffic on an old-time structure that is a fascinating example of a bridge that has evolved in recent years to meet the traffic and safety demands of modern times. While officially located in suburban Jefferson Parish near the unincorporated community of Bridge City, this bridge’s location is most often associated with New Orleans, given that it’s the largest and most recognizable incorporated population center in the nearby vicinity. For this reason, this blog article considers the bridge’s location to be in New Orleans, even though this isn’t 100% geographically correct. Completed in 1935 as the first bridge across the Mississippi River in Louisiana and the first to be built in the New Orleans area, this bridge is one of two bridges on the Mississippi named for Huey P. Long, a Louisiana politician who served as the 40th Gove
1 comment
Read more