Oh, say can you see…,” Johnny belted out our National Anthem at the base of Mount Rushmore. It was day 13, and the pinnacle of our 24-day, 4,800-mile, mother-son adventure. It began with an invitation to a family celebration and transformed into the trip of a lifetime.
I’m not one to miss significant family events if I can help it. With families spanning across multiple states, it isn’t always easy or feasible to make it work. The invitation to celebrate a nephew’s milestone in March was a tricky one. The dates didn’t correspond to spring break for the children. Weather isn’t always cooperative between Ohio and Nebraska at that time of year. If we were to go at all, my husband and I would have to divide and conquer.
Johnny, a 14-year-old eighth grader and our youngest child, who has Down syndrome, is a lover of all things presidential, our nation and its history. He has a fascination with states and their capitals. As much as I knew it would be impossible to coordinate getting a family of five to Nebraska in March, I also knew it was a trip Johnny should take with me.
I had long been thinking that the next time we traveled west, I wanted to make the nearly 600 mile “side trip” to see Mount Rushmore. As I formulated a plan for a weeklong vacation, I was conflicted, picking and choosing the sites Johnny would find most interesting. As I rejected options I knew he would like but we couldn’t reasonably visit in the time we had, my mind kept wandering, wondering, “How often will I drive this far west in the future?” As I hemmed and hawed, the thought mushroomed: “Let’s go big!”
The major hurdle in my wild idea: school. My email to the principal went something like, “Instead of a week off, would you be able to support a three-ish week road school experience?” I listed the national parks, historic monuments and experiences like logging miles and map reading for hands-on learning. Within an hour, the reply came: “ABSOLUTELY!!” Four months later, Johnny jumped into the car with a resounding, “Let’s hit America!”
In the months between, I pulled together a rough itinerary using Johnny’s interests as a starting point. I looked up where all the presidents are buried. I listed places where we knew people. I googled “how to plan a long road trip.” I found an app that let me add and take away destinations with ease.
I heeded advice gleaned from my research and added a few things that made sense for us. I aimed to have our “butts in the seat of the car” no more than 5 hours a day. The five-hour tip was one I read about in my research about long drives. It proved to be right on. I never felt like I was driving the mileage we accrued. And most days, it was not five straight hours. I tried to identify someplace to stop with something to do or see that got us out of the car.
We brought a good cooler. I created what I called my travel kitchen — a tote with a small air fryer, hotpot and mess kit — so we could “eat in.” The car was equipped with first aid, flares, flashlights, sleeping bags, and hand warmers in the event of an emergency — which thankfully never arose. We arrived at our hotels no later than 4:30 or 5 each afternoon. Every few days, we stayed more than one night in a place to allow for some downtime. We had no prescription meds to worry about. I had a first aid kit with the basics. I brought a thermometer and COVID-19 test kits, etc. I made sure I had insurance cards, AAA and I enabled OnStar emergency services and Wi-Fi for my car — you can turn those on and off for a fee if your car is equipped.
More important than packing lists and gear was mindset. Every other vacation I’d been on, the destination was the prize. Getting there was the burden, something to endure. This was different. The journey itself was as important as where we were going. We stopped at interesting points along the way. If we heard about something we thought would be fun, we modified our plans. When we got too tired, we crossed things off the list. If weather impeded our progress, we stayed put until it was safe to travel. This was not about going someplace and seeing everything it had to offer. Our goal was to see a lot of places and pick the most meaningful experiences for us at a reasonable pace.
I packed plenty of snack foods that Johnny eats. And I replenished with grocery trips as needed. He’s a picky eater with limited choices — a nugget and fries kind of guy. I didn’t want him or I to eat fast food the whole time. I packaged up the frozen nuggets and fries I use at home into single serving bags for the cooler and cooked them up in the air fryer in the hotel. I brought some dish towels, sponges and detergent for clean-up. It worked well. The hotpot could boil noodles for mac and cheese. I had brought canned soup and salad fixings for me, which also were replenished as needed. When we did eat out, restaurant portions allowed me to pack up leftovers for the cooler to reheat.
I didn’t tell Johnny about the trip until a few weeks before. I knew he would be excited and it would be distracting. I didn’t want him to “check out” at school too soon. He knew we were going to Nebraska for his cousin’s confirmation. Then it was just talking about what we would see, both people and places. He helped pack using lists I made.
Ultimately, we traveled through 13 states. We visited seven state capitals and eight presidential burial sites, birthplaces and homes. We spent time with 13 cousins, two aunts, one uncle and five friends. We shared 78 painted rocks, made by Johnny’s classmates, with people who showed us kindness along the way. Johnny stamped his National Park Service passport book in eight locations and earned junior ranger badges at each one. We saw bison, pronghorn sheep and prairie dogs in the Badlands, and a roadrunner in Petroglyph National Monument. We drove along the Lewis and Clark scenic byway and crossed through nine of the 14 states included in the Louisiana Purchase. We traveled through plains, mountains and deserts. We graffitied cars at Cadillac Ranch on Route 66 and stood where Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma intersect. We bought souvenirs at the Corn Palace, ate ice cream at Wall Drug and rode the Sandia Peak Tram. And best of all, Johnny sang his heart out at the foot of Mount Rushmore while nearby a star spangled banner waved o’er the land.
