The Lasting Impact of the Classic Family Road Trip
By: Greg Smith
Tags: Vacation, Travel, Family Travel, Family, Memories

What do you think of first when someone asks you about your favorite childhood memories? What immediately comes to mind? We all have a very unique but instantaneous response to that question. For me, the first thing that comes to mind is a very specific family vacation.

Twenty four years later, I now recognize that this particular family vacation has been largely responsible for many of the things I love most in life and many of the experiences I’ve been fortunate enough to have.

Back in 1997 my family embarked on what would become the epic adventure tale of our household when the six of us piled into our Chevrolet Suburban with a 17-foot rented pull-behind camper in tow, bound for Nova Scotia, Canada from our home in Summerville, South Carolina. Go ahead, check Google maps, that’s 1,600 miles of mayhem and every bit of 24 hours not including stops. Oh, and yes, we drove right through New York City like we owned the place, all 35 feet of us. I’d never seen such a flock of birds in my entire life.

When I think back, it proves my parents were indeed crazy. Who in their right mind would ever plan a trip that meant 24 hours in a car with four kids aged 14, 11, 5 and 5?? They probably remember it a little differently than we do; they may have tried to erase it from their memories entirely, but I look back now with such incredible appreciation for them for planning and taking us on that trip because I can absolutely say that it changed my life. I think it probably changed their lives too, because come to think of it, I don’t think we ever took another trip that adventurous again.

I’ll spare you all the details of the trip, like how I had never been outside of the country and I filled a plastic bag full of grass, yes, actual grass, to bring home with me (and maybe a little dirt too). Weird? Yes. It gets dumber though, dumber because of the anxiety that little bag of grass filled me with, so much so that I hid it in the car when we crossed the border. I hadn’t seen marijuana before and my biggest fear was that the border patrol folks would think it was the other, more potent, kind of grass. I was genuinely concerned that I was going to have to explain to them what it was NOT.

(Sir, I swear, that’s fine Nova Scotia fescue. See that little bit of dirt?)

Needless to say, nobody suspected I was a smuggler. Somehow I made it through.

But back to my point — this big, fun, epic family trip was absolutely one of the highlights of my childhood and now, as a parent of two boys myself, I recognize the power, opportunity and responsibility I have in introducing the broader world to them.

We had always traveled to Maryland to see my grandparents throughout my life, so that path was pretty well worn. We stopped at the same restaurants and rest areas along the way. I knew we were getting closer once we made it to Richmond, Virginia. If we were lucky we’d get to see a train coming into town right as we came through, passing underneath the bridge into the city on I-95.

I fondly remember any trip or detour that took us off the beaten path as a kid. I was, and still am, keenly aware of new environments and spaces. I’ve always loved the feeling of experiencing a new place for the first time, how people go about their day, where they work, what their homes look like, where they eat, how they commute, and I’ve always tried to piece together what life was life for them day-to-day. So, when my parents let us all know that we’d be going beyond Maryland that summer to experience a whole new part of the country and even another country I was excited. It didn’t dissappoint.

One thing I want to make clear is that we weren’t sheltered kids by any means, we were just a big family of six so we didn’t have the ability to travel all the time. Even still, my parents always made it a priority to make family vacations a priority even if getting everybody moving in the same direction was like herding cats.

That trip and all the new stops along the way showed me simultaneously just how similar and different people are. It started to reveal to me just how small my little corner of the world was relative to the rest of the world and how one could travel a lifetime and barely scratch the surface of all the world has to offer. That fascinated me.

To visit and experience new places is so critically important for our children because it quickly teaches them that their way of life is just one unique viewpoint of the world. It isn’t any better than anyone elses. It isn’t any more important. It isn’t any more or less right. It’s simply their own, shaped by the people, ideas and places that they’ve encountered. This is where family vacations and family travel are incredibly important because through travel we experience and encounter things that are different than us. That experience is where we find humility and empathy.

After that great family trip to Canada I was determined to do bigger things with my life because I had had a glimpse of a larger world. My worldview had shifted. I had been re-wired in a sense, all for the better, and we haven’t even touched on the family bonding aspect that was equally as central to that trip. Despite the classic sibling beating sessions, we all had a blast and grew closer. Those crazy trips are like the glue that holds your family together over the years. The shared experience is permanent and heart warming and I only wish we had written down some of the details so we could re-live it.

I share all of this for one reason: as busy as you find yourself, as crammed with work, projects, meetings, t-ball and piano lessons as you may be, I hope that you will set time aside to plan your next family vacation. The investment in time, money and energy will be significant, but the return will be absolutely priceless. And yes, this is an investment. Not only are you investing in your child(run), you’re also investing in yourself.

Afterall — don’t we work hard day in and day out to give ourselves the time and space to make lasting, meaningful memories with family? If that question hits you like a ton of bricks then it’s probably time to re-evaluate some things, in which case reading this would have been well worth it.

We only get one ride on the carousel of life and we have a very short window of time with our young children. It’s up to us to make the most of it by using that time wisely, enjoyably and intentionally for the betterment of ourselves and our family. Small family trips that may seem insignificant will have an incredibly profound impact on your children, far more than even we as adults can recognize. Only by looking back at our own childhood vacations will we realize how rewarding those times were.

Plan it. Experience it. Record it.