This past Sunday we took the girls—Lexi and Willa—and went for a drive up into Wisconsin. And while you’d be hard pressed to find much snow on the ground in Illinois, they still have more than a smattering up there.
Every now and then we’d come across a dip in the road—sometimes hidden, sometimes not—and I’d shout, “Kiss me quick!” as that’s what my mother always did on family drives when we’d hit a dip big enough to cause butterflies in our stomach.
Over the years we’ve additionally added “Kiss me quick!” shouts when we see a windmill…
…or a cattle guard.
With a cattle guard, however, there’s the additional lifting of the feet while crossing over it—driver included—and touching the car ceiling with both hands—driver included.
Ah yes, those wonderful Sunday afternoon drives.
What’s your favorite family drive memory?
“Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.”
— Laurie Buchanan
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Tuesdays with Laurie 
Going to my uncle Jerry’s cabin, going skeet shooting with dad, going to grandmas for dinner every Sunday, going on boat ride every Sunday in the summer.
I do not miss dads cigars in the car, I got car sick a lot.
Kim
Kim – They all sound like wonderful adventures (except the cigar smoke)…
Kiss me quick! Oh how fun! Love these family stories. We used to drive north of town on our way to my grandparent’s cottage (about an hour a way.) There was a barn painted blue just north of Yale. We would all sing, “I see the blue barn, how ’bout you?” The barn is still there, by the way, although no longer painted blue. It’s now a respectable, but less fun, red barn.
Kathy – I would love to see a blue barn!
Hi,
Great photos, and I love the “kiss me quick” so much fun. 🙂
We had a lot of great Sunday drives not only when I was a child, but of course we still love our Sunday drives when possible. Very hard to pick a favourite, I have enjoyed them all. 🙂
Magsx2 – With the price of gas we don’t take Sunday drives near as often, but they sure are still fun!
What a fun way to spice up a journey… You are always full of surprises.
Savira – I’m glad you enjoyed the post, thank you for stopping by today 🙂
When I was a kid, we had no air conditioning in the house, or in the cars. On hot summer evenings, my mom would sometimes take us for a “ride by the river”. We had to drive through a forest preserve to get there. We would open all the windows and let the cool wind blow through our hair, and I remember thinking the river was dark and mysterious at night. It was a great way to cool off and a great memory for me.
Linda – Wind blowing through your hair (and a dark and mysterious river) — that’s a GREAT memory!
I don’t drive but I remember being in the car with my mum and dad when we were on holiday one year when I was a kid and for hours we’d been driving under a blue sky, then suddenly it was raining and then it wasn’t. I looked up and there was this one little cloud that had rained on us as we’d driven beneath it! Most odd!
Val – To experience your own personal rain cloud — how COOL is that?!
Oh my, never heard of a cattle guard before – what is it? I have so much to learn about the rest of this country…
Whenever Dad was driving and we hit a dip in the road or rounded a tight curve my mother would sing out, “Hang on to your hat!” Or, if the move was extra exciting, she would dig her nails into the dashboard and exclaim, “Hang on to your teeth!”
Barbara – A cattle guard is a steel “grid” placed across an intentional dug-out “channel” across the road. Cattle will not — under any circumstances — try to cross it. It’s an affordable way to fence them in (so to speak), without the costly fee or maintenance of an actual fence.
I have never heardof “kiss me quick” but is sounds like fun if you can pull over to the side of the road if the driver is your “honey”. I remember all the fun travel games of counting cows, cars, license plates, gas station signs, etc. I think the interaction with my family encouraged conversations, singing songs, reading skills, healthy competition. In my “cranky old crone” opinion, it is sad that now adults and children plug in or tune into their electronic devices instead of tuning into each other on a roadtrip. Just a sign of the times, no pun intended.
Sheila – You just named a lot of fun car games that we’d play too. And sing…oh my gosh! “Hey good lookin’, whatcha got cooking’? How’s about cookin’ somethin’ up with me?” over, and Over, and OVER again!
My dad inviting us all to look for the sea even though we were 100 miles away just to keep us quiet… and picnics … dad would find a quiet road to turn off into and then when there was a convenient grass verge or farm gate he would pull up and the adults would spread a blanket on the ground and we would all sit down and eat sandwiches and battenburg cake and they would drink stewed tea from a thermos flask and I would have a bottle of orange juice.
Andrew – Your picnics sound magical!
We four kids would sit in the back of the Ford station wagon and vie to be first to spy the water tower in the small town where my grandmother lived. That, and memories of singing “You are my Sunshine” still give me pause and a smile. Thanks for taking me back, Laurie. Love the picture of the dip in the road 🙂
Winsomebella – Spying out the water tower on the way to grandma’s house and singing “You are my Sunshine” — I love it!
“Kiss me quick” sure beats “Punch Buggy”. : )
My favourite family drive memory…
Mom and Dad were driving down the backroads of rural Manitoba. Dad hit a hill, the car took flight and landed with a bounce. Mom held her tummy and said, “Jim, be careful of Leanne.” They shared a smile. Even though they had yet to see me, they knew I was riding along.
Leanne – That’s a great in-utero story! “Punch Buggy” is new to me – what is it?
This great Laurie. I like the memory of egging my dad on to drive fast while my mother hollered at him to slow down. The more she would hell “Jack slow down! Okay Jack that is fast enough!” We would yell from the back seat “go daddy go!” And Dad would giggle and push the peddle down just a little farther. There wasn’t much traffic where we were driving, in fact usually no other vehicle on the road, and it never felt dangerous but it was an awful lot of fun.
Terrill – That’s a great memory. I can just see you kids eggin’ your dad on 🙂
Terrill:
As a contrast I well remember driving in the car with my then 91 year-old paternal granfather (who lived to 96) who drove 5 miles per hour incurring all kinds of road rage from others. I remember hiding my face and looking downwards! Ha!
I have fond memories from childhood of Sunday drives in our mouthwash blue Ford. One in particular stands out as a favorite. This one I called “Madeline’s Picnick.” It was part of a bigger outting. . . the “round the world” drive. Circling country roads within a 20 mile radius of our house in Vermont my dad took us on the equivilent of an around the world trip, pointing out all the new innovations indicative of big city progress comming to the small town. On that drive we’d pass the pasture where our neighbor Madeline had held her family picnic. Even after they converted the cow pasture into show grounds for bright red tractors, I still blurted out each time we passed it “that’s where Madeline had her picnic”. . . partly because it really annoyed my mother (never knew why) and partly because it was the demarcation line indicating that the “round the world drive” was half over.
Alison – I love your descriptor, “mouthwash blue.” And the rest of the “round the word” drive memory, that included Madeline’s picnic.
Hi Laurie,
Sounds like a lovely drive. We lived out on a farm – some relatives would take a Sunday drive to come see us but I don’t remember that we took any! Boohoo. Never ever thought about it til I read your post. Good thing. I might have gotten depressed, haha!
ooops forgot the
Hugs
SuZen
SuZen – Living on a farm your folks probably couldn’t get away because of the assortment of chores that had to be taken care of in a timely fashion. That’s most likely why your non-farming relatives came out and visited with you guys. For them it was probably nice to get away from the city grind 🙂
Great post idea, Laurie. My favorite dip in the road was on the way to my grandmother’s summer house. It meant we were almost there!
Hugs,
Kathy
Kathy – The “almost there!” dip on the way to Grandma’s. How fun!
I can’t remember it first hand, but have heard others in my family speak of a time when my parents loaded all five kids into the station wagon, in the dead of winter, for an impromptu camping adventure. I won’t argue about the merits of safety, or even if what was called an adventure was something else entirely, but what I like to hold on to from the recollections that surround that story from my childhood is the sheer adventure factor. Imagine throwing the kids and the dog and a tent into a beaten up old station wagon, and setting out to find the perfect place to build a campfire, so we could toast weenies and marshmallows in the sparkling sun while surrounded by the untouched expanses of snow spreading out in every direction. I see that picture in my head, and I’m awed by the adventure of it.
Nancy – Roasting stuff over a campfire is fun no matter how you slice it. Tent camping in the snow does, indeed, sound like an adventure 🙂
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It’s been some time since I was on a long family drive. The last time was with my kids about 8 years ago. We drove across the country to the west coast. It was hard to get them to shut off their Game Boys and look at the beautiful scenery. Before that, I was the kid driving the same route with my parents and two brothers in our old Pontiac with the plastic seat covers and no air conditioning. I spent much of the trip on the floor (before the mandatory seatbelt laws) where it was a little cooler and less stinky. We had no car games or rituals that might have made the endless miles fly by faster.
BTW, Laurie I have nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award or you could take part in the Lucky Seven Meme – your choice. If you feel like taking part, please drop by my site and see what it’s all about. 🙂
Mywithershins – I can’t even read in a car or I’ll get car sick, let alone try to play electronic games. I wouldn’t have missed out on the delicious scenery my eyes consumed, for anything! Like you, I too see lots of people (children and adults alike) with ear buds, and electronic devices. They even sell vehicles now with built-in television screens so kids can watch movies when you’re out and about.
Thank you for the nomination 🙂
Ok I believe everyone had the same game as us Wieser sisters. When we saw a Volkswagen Beetle we punch each other in the arm. Red SLUG BUG! Blue SLUG BUG! Also when we drove under an overpass, we’d put our arms up against the roof of the car to hold up the roof because we thought it would collapse. hahahaha
My poor little sister used to sit between me and my older sister. She’d fall asleep and lean on my shoulder. I’d then push her over to my older sister and she’d lean on her. And you guessed it! She would push her back. It was like playing sister volleyball with her head! I’m laughing right now thinking about it.
Beth – Your “poor little sister” is right 🙂
Hi Laurie
Too many memories fond memories of driving to have a single favourite.
I recall once on a trip back from East Cape when we drove into a cloudburst on the old Mk2 Zephyr, and were forced to stop, as the rain was so heavy that the vacuum powered windscreen wipers were not strong enough to lift against the rain. Like Val, it was only a small cloud, in an otherwsie clear sky, but it was jet black, and the heaviest rain I have experienced.
We have something of a tradition of seeing how many times we can hit the horn as we go through a tunnel.
On Monday as we were coming home from Ailsa having her cast removed, we paused as we crossed the Parnassus overbridge to let a train go underneath us (there being no traffic in the rear vision mirror). The train driver acknowledged us with a couple of toots on his horn.
On our honeymoon, we took Ailsa’s little Diahatsu Mira on a trip around the South Island, and going over the Crown Range road we encountered a large mob (about 3,000 sheep) in a large cutting. Lots of cars stopped, waiting for the sheep to amble past, but I looked at the edge of the cutting, and it had a quite gentle slope (about 30 degrees), so I just drove off the road, and kept two wheels on the top of the cutting, and two on the edge, and we drove up and over and past the sheep, shepherds, and stalled drivers, and merrily on our way. Leaving a few open mouths in our wake.
I’ve driven several million kms, and enjoyed most of it – 21 hours out of 24 behind the wheel was my longest day – and I swore never to repeat that one, but 10 – 12 hours is fun.
Ted – First of all I’m oh-so-glad that Ailsa got her cast off — whoohoo! That’s great news!
Honking the horn while driving through a tunnel — now that’s a new one on me! We don’t have many tunnels around here, but you can be sure I’m going to tuck that note into the back of my mind and whip it out the next time the opportunity presents itself 🙂
My family adventures in a car when I was child generally involved moving from one army base to another . . . five kids, two adults; one time I had to hold my goldfish on my lap for about 600 miles; another time my sister insisted on throwing up the entire time she sat next to me. Oh. What joy. So, let’s fast forward to my favorite memory of the last vacation I took with Bethany. She was 12 and we drove all the way from El Paso, Texas to San Antonio and then to and from Malaquite Beach down in Corpus Christi. We played Journey’s Greatest Hits the entire time. She was still fun to be with. We spent a day at the amusement park in San Antonio and had pictures taken of us with parrots on our heads. Everytime I hear a Journey song (Don’t Stop, Faithfully, etc.) I think of that trip and enjoy it all over again in my head.
Barbara – If I’d been charged with the fast of keeping a goldfish bowl on my lap for a 600 mile drive, I assure you that the poor thing would not have survived! The memories of your last road trip with Bethany sound wonderful. Nice to have that “film” to replay in your mind when you want 🙂
Kiss me quick! I would if I were closer… I can remember my sister playing the Carpenters Greatest Hits again and again on tape, not even a car stereo but a separate mono cassette player. Every so often she would say “are we nearly there yet?”. Then the batteries would start to fail and Karen Carpenter would start to sound like Barry White… totally hilarious!
My Dad’s really old cars would stall without warning, we blamed it on “kangaroo fuel”.
Another cracking post Laurie!
Kevin – I can relate to your sister — I loved The Carpenters, too, but probably not when Karen started sounding like Barry White with the failing battery. That’s a great story 🙂
I loved this post and it just made me smile ear to ear Thank you
My kids used to blow at the red lights to make them change to green and when we went on long drives such as over the mountains to their Grandparent’s home I would read aloud to them and we would pack dinner for the car. We left town with dessert first – an ice cream cone and then ate the meal backwards. My favorite trip, was having daughter #2’s 5th birthday party in the car…we got enough gifts for her to open a present every hour and everyone had a game or a treat. But that only happened one time…and now at 28 the child is not certain she thought it was so fun…
It was rather a relief to have a book on tape, because then I could knit or mend on the drive. I sat in the way back of our Vanagon because 2 of the three kids got extremely car sick as does my husband. Not a lot of long car trips in our families life…
My father and I drove across country several times and across Canada to move my Grandparents when I was a kid, but we did not have many shout outs…just lift feet over railroad tracks.
Patricia – I love the idea of blowing on the lights to make them change, and eating the meal in backwards order! If I ever have grandchildren, I’m definitely going to remember that!
Snow? In March? I forgot about the stuff, as we haven’t seen it here in the NYC area since a freak Halloween storm that caused tree branches to snap and power lines to break. We lost our own electricity for five days. Yet the ensuing winter was by every barometer of measurement an exceedingly mild one, and we haven’t had a single snowfall. We’ve gone over 70 three times in the last four days and it’s been humid in good measure. As I type in this comment to you in my computer room I have the window air conditioner running. In any event that’s certainly a wonderful trip you and Len took, and well worth some documentation.
Our family’s most unforgettable “ride” occured in August 2006, when I drove non-stop from out northern New Jersey home to Jacksonville, Florida, where Lucille’s aunt (mother’s sister) lives with her new husband (her beloved first died of bone cancer at age 76 a few years earlier–and there was a guy who was a non-smoker and non-drinker for his entire life–go figure- and her six grown children with all their kids. A friendlier clan can’t possible exist, and we had a fabulous one-night stay before continuing down to Orlando and Disney World, the ultimate destination we had planned. The five days there were of course unforgettable, and we have those priceless photos for evidence. But that 22 hour ride straight through one night is one the kids talk about to this very day.
Sam – Hula burgers! A 22-hour straight through car ride with five kids and two adults. Had that been my family, I assure you that someone (namely me) would have been left on the side of the road 🙂
You already have the air conditioner turned on?! Oh my gosh, we’ve lived in this house for 18 years and we’ve never even had an air conditioner installed. We rely heavily on cross-breezes, but when that does’t cut it, we head down to the basement.
Oh my! Made me laugh just to think about you and Len and the doggies going for a fun ride, Playing Kiss me quick!
To tell the truth we have not been on family ride in a long time… we use to do with when we were kids. I will be having a road trip with Mom and the Dogs next week, I am taking Mom up to Vermont, I think I will stay up that way a few days, take some photo journeys!
Keep you informed!
Jeff – Have a blast on your driving adventure with your mom, Muffin, and Riley! I’ll be looking forward to seeing the photos over at the Reluctant Blogger.
Love and miss snow here in the Greek island!
The facebook page you suggest does not work or is something wrong with my net?
Dimitris – Fiddlesticks! I just tried the link and you’re right, it doesn’t work. And I don’t know why. If you go into Facebook and search on Laurie Buchanan, I’m the only one who lives in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Or if you search on my business, HolEssence, it’s the only one in Crystal Lake, Illinois (it comes up with a picture of our building).
Oh this is an easy one! In the summer time, we used to drive up to the lake. We would listen to Michael Jackson or Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits on cassette tape. You know, because they still had those when I was growing up! 🙂 45 minutes of pure bliss….sigh.
We used to call those dips and rises “hold your tummies” and we’d shout “Hold Your Tummy” whenever we bobbed over one in the car.
Paul – “Dips and rises” – I love it! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
And the same to you.
We were well beaten in the rugby earlier today – but the bloggieverse is lifting my spirits.
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My mom used to “communicate telepathically” with our ginger tabby cat through solitary, puffy clouds while we were on road trips. She’d find the loneliest, puffiest, whitest cloud in the sky and say “I can hear Cheddar now. She says she misses us and is upset with us for leaving. She wants us to know that she’ll ignore us for at least 4 days when we return…”
Those are my fondest driving memories to this day– thank you for bringing them up to the surface of my consciousness with your post! 🙂
Dana – I love your memory, thank you for sharing it here with us!
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