Just Remember People...Play Fair or I'll Turn this car About...

[Dixon Carter Lee]

"I Spy" was always good for cross country road trips with your family. I always like the "License Plate Game", though -- who could spot the most plates from different states.

I think back on some of those old cross country trips with mom and dad and the brood and I think, "Christ! We were six people in a car with no seat belts! What the hell were my parents thinking?"

 

[*bratcat*]

Are we there yetttttt?

 

[Kymberley]

Labor day weekend, the boys and I went to Oklahoma from Missouri.

We always bet to see who will find the most states. All together for the two days we were gone we saw 38 different ones, but never left the two states.

I was kind of surprised to have seen so many considering the size of the U.S.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Did you ever have to ride on the hump?

 

[TN_Vixen]

DCL

our family played a game called "count the cows"

No shit.

I would take one side of the road and my sister the other and we'd count as many cows as we could on our side until we arrived in Tellico and whoever had counted the most cows was the winner.

Amazing how that entertained us for hours.

 

[Rambling Rose]

I have to peeeee...

LOL! We played 'Who Am I'...someone picks a famous person and the others ask questions that can only be answered with YES, NO or I don' t know, then you try to guess the person.

The best time was when my mother was The Unknown Soldier

 

[Rambling Rose]

no, but...

Did you ever have to ride on the hump?

I used to sleep in that space behind the back seat in the window and watch the moon follow us...and I used to tuck into that space on the floor behind the front seats and read. It was warmer there and private.

 

[MissTaken]

My mother, try as she might, could not give the four of us anything that would keep all of us occupied at once. So, there were threats of vehicle stoppage and spankings.


Hmmmm----that doesn't sound like much of a threat now!

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Sounds like "20 Questions".

The Alphabet Game was good, too. Find something with an A, etc.

Or the Geography Game -- name a place that starts with the last letter of the last person's answer..

"Switzerland"

"Denmak"

"Kansas"

And then you always got caught in that vicious "A" cycle...

"Alabama"

"Alaska"

"America"

"Africa"

"Antartica"

"Altoona"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"

 

[TN_Vixen]

my son likes to play

the animal alphabet game.

A-Alligator
-Anteater
-Aardvark
etc... until you go through the entire alphabet.

 

[freakygirl]

i remember my parents.. in Utah saying.. "It's NOT to late to turn this car around and go home".. umm duh.. we live in Washington and we were going to visit people in Utah.. yeah, it was a little late.

During that trip, my brother (he was 2 at the time) was made to sleep between the seats on the floor.. i remember him all curled up in a ball between the door and the "hump".. older brother got to sleep on the seat. I was stuck with the back window

We went from Utah to California, had to go thru the Mojave Desert.. i remember it raining for about 30 seconds, because we didn't have air conditioning, we all leaned out the windows trying to get cooled off by that 100 degree mist.. lol

San Francisco was fun.. mom and dad were fighting with my older brother, our punishment was we couldn't go over the Golden Gate Bridge, instead we had to go over the Oakland Bridge. My older brother threw my younger brothers pacifier out the window. Jon cried all the way home.. god what a long trip.

I don't think we played any games except for "Who can scream the loudest" for the whole trip.

I wonder why we didn't travel more often?

 

[TN_Vixen]

we traveled all over the US & Canada

4 kids and parents in a motorhome. Dad up front playing Barry Manilow in 8 track- "Lola" was heard 1042 times. heh - he drove with a beer between his legs and a bag of doritoes beside him.

My mother used to tell us she was going to install one of those police cages to separate us from her as she drove.

Then, she'd just give up and start singing "Ha ha hee hee.. they're coming to take me away, to the funny farm where the grass is green...."

Ah memories.

 

[celiaKitten]

On our family road trips (in a full size van - 5 kids 2 parents) we would play 'The Jingle Game'

You know - if you passed a 'Bob Evans' if you were the first to sing the jingle you'd get a point.

We were pretty competitive too! We'd play the damn game from Michigan to Texas ..

Sometimes I think my mom was a genius ... other than looking at road signs and singing .. we didn't do much!

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Things I learned from our trips...

-There's a lot of fucking corn in America.
-There's not enough shit in Texas to justify it being so big.
-Every city except New York has an Interstate "loop" system.
-Florida is ugly.
-The Grand Canyon is too Goddamned big to actually seeproperly.
-Never drink soda and read a book in a speeding car unless you like the smell of puke.
-"Mad-Libs" actually are cool.

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

My mother, try as she might, could not give the four of us anything that would keep all of us occupied at once. So, there were threats of vehicle stoppage and spankings.

She didn't try drugs?

 

[Calamity Jane]

9 passenger station wagon... mom, dad, my 4 sisters, my step sis and bro, gramma, and 2 dogs.

sometimes when i was really lucky, i got to ride in the rear facing seat.

i like the alphabet picnic game...

and a word of advice. when riding through tx with my mom. BELIEVE her when she says she doesn't want to hear anything more about the smashed armadillos! She WILL stop the car, cross 4 lanes of traffic and bring one back to the car so everyone can get a good look at it.

 

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

spam

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

LOL

Dance for me KR. Good boy.

 

[Guest]

God you're dull

 

[Guest]

and boring

 

[Guest]

Did I mention dull?

 

[celiaKitten]

*bump*

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

And there was the "Driving into the oncoming traffic" game. Dad was good at that one.

 

[SimplySouthern]

From my trip experience

If your Dad whirls around (while still driving at mach speed straight ahead) and screams "Goddammit, kids, if any of you say one more word I'm gonna stop this car and then you know what will happen" -- don't EVER say WHAT?

If Mom says, "Do you want me to reach back there and smack the shit out of you?" -- even if you are in high school -- never roll your eyes and say, "Yeah, that's the only thing I can think of that would make this trip more pleasant."

Also, cross country trips on airplanes aren't any better with a large family. Then you are tired, bored AND humiliated by how idiotic your family is.