Running with Scissors

Sara Peterson-Davis has worked as a newspaper researcher and reporter, as well as a communications director and consultant. She and her husband, Monty Davis, can be found in Liberty, Mo., keeping their two children from running with scissors. Contact Sara

Road Trip

by Sara Peterson-Davis

If I were asked to choose a theme song for my upcoming trip to Yellowstone National Park, I’d have to say it seems to be a tie between “On the Road Again” and “Highway to Hell.”

While this might sound a bit overdramatic, you haven’t met my two traveling companions.

In the driver’s seat will be my dad. A man who never met a stretch of asphalt he couldn’t spend hours speeding down, my dad doesn’t think he’s put in a full day of driving unless he’s crossed at least one time zone and a major mountain range.

Growing up, when vacation time rolled around I learned to get in the backseat with an empty bladder, an ample supply of reading materials and the knowledge that America the Beautiful would be whizzing past my window at 60 miles per hour.

Riding in the backseat will be my nine-year-old daughter, Brynne. A girl I can never imagine begging to get her driver’s license, my daughter considers an hour in the car 57 minutes too long.

Once on a trip to Branson, Brynne suggested we stop to get a motel room in some little town an hour outside Kansas City because she didn’t think she could ride one more mile.

What about me? While I hope to be soaking up the scenery from the passenger seat, I know my role will be navigator, mediator, and, quite possibly, ultimate cage match referee.

The trip to Yellowstone was Brynne’s choice for her “Grandpa and Me” vacation, a tradition my dad started with my nephew and continued with the next two grandkids. Now it was Brynne’s turn. And thanks to a social studies report in second grade, she chose the location that would involve three days of hard driving, much of it through some of America’s more scenically-challenged landscapes.

Having traveled with both Dad and Brynne, my husband took in the news by asking, “You know that’s going to involve a car don’t you?”

“Yes, I know.”

“And that means driving,” he added.

“Yes, I know,” trying to sound optimistic.

“Hours and hours of driving with Brynne in the car. And you know how much you’re dad loves to drive.”

Now, he was totally killing the moment, but he was right. I was going to be locked in a car at 70 miles an hour with the yin and yang of road trips.

So I’ve decided that it’s up to me to create balance to our trip, to be a cruise director of sorts. I’ll add a little yingness here and a little yangness there. If we need car tag bingo, drink service, sing-a-longs, on-board movies, interpretive readings, trivia, bathroom breaks or humor, I’ll be on it.

With that in mind, I think maybe my personal theme song for this trip should be “Crazy.”

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