How to Plan a Road Trip

The boys and I went to Texas for a three week visit/tour.  On our return we wrangled in my girl Lesley to ride back the whole 17 hours with us.  Yes, she loves me LOTS!

Lesley is a planner.  Sometimes it's to her detriment as she will plan what to wear, what to write, and what to do until all her time has been lost.  I love a plan but mostly I love the execution of a plan.  I am flexible with the plan prior to it being set in motion; then I can not tolerate any deviation from said plan!

Due to our love of a plan and of just being together, Les and I decided to meet just for this purpose.  We wanted to map out our route and reserve a hotel.  Les arrived (as planned) armed with a giant tote full of supplies, i.e. a bottle of wine.

Here is the official way to plan a trip:

Step 1

Open a bottle of wine. 

We were at my mom's house though.  Mom does not often drink wine and has a wonky wine bottle opener that Les and I could not get to work. 

                                                           Les tried:

And tried:

We tried it where I sat on the floor holding it between my legs while Lesley stood above me pull, pull, pulling.  Unfortunate that we did not have a picture of that. 

Then I tried:

Next I tried a trick I'd seen on YouTube.  Did not work since there was already a hole in the cork.  There were a few tragic drops that were lost in this attempt...

This did move the cork a tiny bit though and so I tried grabbing a hold of it with my teeth as seen here:

My apologies to every dentist I've ever worked for and who have cared for my teeth. 

Yes, I know better.

A final attempt was made in the traditional manner.  Sort of...  We reinserted the cork at a different angle.  I rocked and pulled and rocked and pulled and....



SUCCESS!!



                                                           Step 2

                                                   Get Your Grub On

Whew!  Next we put together a lovely spread of various cheeses, smoked summer sausage, raspberries, strawberries and stuffed grape leaves.  Lesley then reached into her bag of goodies and succinctly plopped out onto the table an atlas, post its, pens, and her GPS.  I had a lap top computer.

While I both mapquested and called my husband to compare directions, Lesley simultaneously began plugging coordinates into her GPS.  In about 20 seconds we had our route planned, plotted and confirmed as well as a hotel reserved for the half way point.

We stared out our spread and laughed!  It took about a half hour to get everything ready (not to mention Lesley's 45 min. drive out to my mothers and my half hour grocery store excursion for the "planning fare") for a 20 second planning meeting.  I still stand by it.  This is the only way to plan a road trip!

Just look at the happy results!