Just Along for the Ride

Ah, the joys of the open road.

I recall being a young tot, facing the rear of my grandmother’s station wagon, heading to the lake every summer. She’d stock us up with yummy treats, like Hugs (Who remembers those lovely sugar-water-filled, barrel-shaped juice drinks?) and Pringles and, if we were good, those Penrose pickled sausages in a jar.

We couldn’t watch a movie or play a hand-held video game, but we could make signs on blank pieces of paper with our crayons or flash funny faces at the drivers facing us the whole way there.

Trips seemed endless as a kid, and I think that is a frustration my kids will never fully understand. These days, the car has a built-in movie system. We pop in a few DVDs from the front seat, and they are content for hours.

If they get sick of viewing the latest Disney movie, they can instead play with a Nintendo DS or DSi. They each, at age 3 and 5, have their own, along with an assortment of game titles.

I doubt either of them would ever become bored enough to actually color in a coloring book with old-fashioned crayons, but they are packed, too, just in case. Sometimes, they’ll find themselves desperate enough to play with their action figures or dolls—which are also loaded into a center console jammed with toys and accessories.

We have a third row of seating, so assuming we are going away for only a week or less, we can also arrange our luggage to allow each child to have his or her own row of seating to stretch out in. Sure, they have to stay in their kid seats, which, while we are at it, are much-improved, as well, but they can throw their belongings all along a row designed to hold three grown adults.

When my sister and I climbed into my grandma’s station wagon, we didn’t even have seat belts, let alone a car seat. Now, it seems, with new regulations, kids are to stay in those boosters until age 12 or 48 inches in height. It seems a far cry from cars of my childhood, some of which did not even come with seatbelts as an option at all.

I know—it is beginning to sound like one of those “I had to walk uphill both ways to school” stories, but it’s true. Kids have traveling a bit easier these days.

I write this column myself from the open road. On my way to see my sister in Virginia, I am typing with a laptop on my lap. I have all of my files at my fingertips. I have full Internet access thanks to my Verizon Wireless air card.

In case my battery gets low, I can plug it into the three-prong plug in my center console, since our Honda Pilot conveniently comes with one of those in the front, middle and back seats, in addition to those “smoke lighter” kind. (Remember when those were for smokers, not kids’ electronics?)

In case my computer runs low, I could check my email on my iPhone, or catch up with friends and family on my old-school LG phone. I could text to check in on my co-workers, or even play a game myself if the scenery gets dull.

Hmm, I guess it isn’t just the kids that have it easier in the car these days. Pretty soon, I assume the car will just drive itself. Until then, my husband, at the wheel, and the dog, stuck in his buckle-in, car-safe crate, will remain the only ones bored on this trip.