When you drive somewhere, do you stop a lot?

[DawnM]

I have always wondered what it would be like to just, say, "Hey, that looks interesting!"  and actually stop and see it.

 

The only stops we make are fully PLANNED stops if it is more than a potty break or food break.  Sight seeing is ok if pre-planned, but not if it is a "Hey, let's stop there!"

 

My husband is a "Point A to Point B ASAP" kind of guy and it makes him crazy to stop for anything other than necessities.

 

I was just on the phone with a friend who said they often stop, go to a sit down restaurant, or stop when they see something interesting, or stop to even take a nap at a rest stop!

 

That simply wouldn't happen with us.

 

What about you and yours?

[Guinevere]

No stopping!  

 

Even if we planned to stop at places to sight see, it would drive me crazy not to have  general plan for the day.  I can shift plans on a dime, but I don't do well with NO plan.  

[Arcadia]

If our kids are awake, we stop a lot if it is daytime and we are not in a rush to get to our hotel by 9pm. If our kids manage to fall asleep like on our 190 miles drive home from San Luis Obispo then we don't stop since we don't want to wake our kids up.

[Carol in Cal.]

If it's the first time I'm going somewhere, I mostly just go there.  Then in the future I figure out fun or impulsive stops, once I know what I'm dealing with on the other end.

For instance, there is a place that we usually stay at when we go to Lake Tahoe that has big carts to help you move your luggage and stuff to and from the room/car.  And it has really good lighting in the parking lot.  So I know I can be in there really fast and settled once I arrive, so I don't feel as concerned about leaving at least a half hour of daylight for the car to room transfer. 

 

So on the way there, I'm actively looking for fun side trips.

The last time I went, I used a roundabout route that let me see the famous Delta for the first time.  Another time I spend two hours in a Gold Rush town on the way up.  And then there was that yarn shop....well, probably the less said about that the better.

[Tess in the Burbs]

we are becoming stop and look people.  I used to be a drive from point A to B person with minimal breaks, but now, we stop.  I just had the best fish and fried oysters ever b/c I saw a food truck and I wanted to try it.  We have found some of the best places by just going and checking it out.  Our road trips are getting longer b/c of this adventuring, but it's fun and I'm glad we are taking the road less traveled more and more

[3 ladybugs]

I don't stop right now but that is because I typically drive to Florida and I have already seen all the stops (or I refuse to go to South of the Border) so I just zoom past. HOWEVER, we are planning on going to NC next month and for that I am debating going through 3 states that I have never been to (TN, KY and WV) on the way back home. I will have to stop in each... it is the law! LOL 

[2_girls_mommy]

I am like your husband. Mainly because we only have so much time on any given trip. So if we want to do everything we planned then we need to get there. But we have stopped before. On a trip last year, we found out it was free museum day for some reason, and a museum we had often passed signs for was one of the free ones, so we went. 

[Annie G]

When we're going from northern Illinois to South Georgia we usually plan our stops, but often include a fun thing to break up the trip. We bring a picnic lunch and stop at a rest stop or another interesting place to picnic. Our trip there next month includes a day off the beaten path to do some fun sports car driving on some curvy roads. It's a whole day of 'let's find something fun'.

 

When we're day tripping we do a lot of spur of the moment stopping.  We drove to Iowa one day to see the Field of Dreams and ended up also visiting a cathedral, farm toy museum, quilt store, antique store, and a local restaurant.  So we had a destination but took time to see the other fun stuff we ran across. 

 

I am a 'make a plan' person when we're on vacation so this has been a learning experience for me to adapt to a spur of the moment traveling style. 

[fraidycat]

Sometimes we stop. Sometimes not, it depends on our schedule and in the case of our last road trip - whether or not the travel trailer would fit in the parking lot/on the road, etc.

[OneStepAtATime]

My dad was always a stop and look at things or taste things or whatever kind of guy.  It made trips much more interesting.

 

Unfortunately, the times I have been driving long distances I had limited time away and was badly needed at the location I was traveling to so there just wasn't the time luxury to stop and hang out.  I even had it timed on one trip I was making quite a bit so that I had exactly one stop in 9 hours.  17 minutes at a Dairy Queen where I could get in, order my food, use the restroom, come out as the food was ready, eat and leave.  

 

I miss the days of enjoying the journey...

[City Mouse]

It depends on the purpose of the trip, but we often stop on a whim to see things. If fact, just yesterday we were driving back home from El Paso and the 6 1/2 hr trip took us 10-11 hours. We decided to go ride the Wyler tramway before leaving El Paso. Then we stopped at the Alamogordo zoo thinking that it would be a tiny thing and a quick stop. It was very nice and larger than it appeared from the street. We stayed like1 1/2 hours. I found a Kmart having a going out of business sale, so i stopped to shop. That did make us too late to go to Smokey Bear historical park since it closed at 4:30pm, but we drove through another state park that will be a great place to go camping.

[Carol in Cal.]

I especially like factory tours.  Cheese factories, breweries, wineries, etc. 

[Ottakee]

It depends on the trip. On day trips or closer to home ones we often just stop along the way at what looks interesting. We love paper maps for this as often we can spy things near our route we would miss of we just followed the GPS.

 

On some road trips though we drive much more quickly. Stop every 2 hours for a 5 minute potty and stretch break and every other time for a quick bite of food.

 

I love the slower, stop and smell the roses, and explore type trips but often if we did that we would never make it to our destination.

[medawyn]

Both DH and I prefer not to stop, but DD gets carsick. I vastly prefer stopping to play/sit down eat/run around to cleaning vomit out of the car seat, so now we stop.

[MaeFlowers]

I used to used to be a point a to be b asap person. I still am to some degree. I find that the length of the trip matters. If it is a long trio, say 12 hours, it feels good to get out and stop for a bit. For a short trip, say under 6 hours, it makes me grouchy. Bathroom breaks dont bother me but stopping to eat or sight see on a short trip does.

 

Also, I don't do planned stops. They make me anxious. I would rather drive until I need a break. I don't like itineraries of any kind on a trip. I just play it by ear.

[KungFuPanda]

I don't stop right now but that is because I typically drive to Florida and I have already seen all the stops (or I refuse to go to South of the Border) so I just zoom past. HOWEVER, we are planning on going to NC next month and for that I am debating going through 3 states that I have never been to (TN, KY and WV) on the way back home. I will have to stop in each... it is the law! LOL

 

I'm from WV and we just drove there week before last. Just a little warning: It's bigger than people think it is and it's not remotely flat. We use gears on our van (automatic) that we never bother to use at home. The hills and tight turns make my daughter miserable. She's fine driving at home in MD, but she gets carsick every time we go to southern WV. (I prepped a multi-bag-lined bucket as recommended on this board just in case.) It's only a 5 hour drive, but my mom's house is about 1500 feet higher, so there's a lot of ear popping.

 

I prefer going through the state to sticking to major highways because I get bored with nothing to look at, but I have a cast iron stomach so the curves never bugged me.

[Ellie]

It depends. Have we been that way a dozen times before? Is there a deadline by when we have to be where we're going?

[Tap]

My husband is a "hurry up and get there so you can maximize your time at your destination" type of traveler.

 

Im a "the journey is just as nice as the destination".  

 

 

DD18 and I went to the beach last week.  We never even made it to our destination. LOL  I pre-planned a specific hike that she could handle (chronic health issue) but on the way we found another spot to stop that looked good and just went there instead. I couldn't really care less about my actual destination most of the time....the journey is way more fun with out sticking to a specific plan. 

[Lanny]

I have always done it like your family. Get from point A to point B ASAP. One exception when I was young was a detour one day to see the Grand Canyon National Park. That was planned into the trip and was not last minute.

 

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[heartlikealion]

As a family? Someone is usually hungry/has to use the restroom for us to stop. And it's usually just a drive-thru. But we're talking road trips, right? Well sometimes we've made mult. stops but usually short ones. There's this place that sells fried pies and ever since dh stopped there once I always ask if he'll stop LOL. Traffic was so bad we couldn't get over last time, but I wanted to get something for ourselves and my mom who we were on our way to see. I'll probably ask him about it next trip. We also often had a cat in the car and I felt bad keeping her cooped up longer than necessary. If we didn't send the cat litter via Amazon to our family's home we'd stop at the pet shop but that was about it.

 

A couple times we did stop at this clothing/shoe store in the middle of no where. We browsed a bit and used it as a bathroom break.

 

If I am not with dh I am known to pull over at a walmart as a restroom (and maybe snack) destination. I might even browse briefly. But in general pit stops like that aren't real fun with kids in tow! lol

[Rachel]

We build time into our schedule to allow for stops in at least one direction, My husband used to be all about getting to our destination as quickly as possible and we would miss so much. Since we usually travel to the same destinations we do have a vague idea of where we might stop and we have a goal for where we want to stay for the night, but we don't make reservations until we are a couple hours away. Traveling that way is so much more relaxing and we see more local stuff instead of just the interstate.

[Pawz4me]

We're RV'ers. The journey is just as much the point as the destination. ;) The only time we're inclined to go from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible is if it's a route we've traveled many times before and have already seen everything. But we try to avoid that as much as possible and take different routes. Even when traveling familiar roads we make a point to stop every couple of hours to move a bit. Three hours w/o a break is our max. We don't feel it's safe to drive for much longer stretches than that. We both grew up with fathers who would drive and drive and drive, and both of us remember hating it.

[TravelingChris]

Mostly we plan breaks like we have visited a few different sites while travelling to see our daughters in their respective cities. I think every time we have gone down to the coast here, we have visited something else along the way or back. One thing my dh is interested in and has been for a long time is visiting all the National Parks, Monuments, Historic Places, etc. So we veer often. But it isn't just that. I hate just driving. We just drove to my fil's viewing but we went back a different way and stopped several times. We always took advantage of our moves to stop in interesting places either along the way during the day or at stops before or after travelling. We would have missed so many things if we hadn't stopped. We saw things like Mt. Rushmore, Salt Lake City, Hot Springs, really delicious restaurants in places we wouldn't have travelled to specifically, unique shops, interesting little museums that told us about historical stuff we never knew, etc, etc, etc.

We also stop frequently because blood clots are no laughing matter.

[Alice]

My husband is very much a planner but he plans in interesting stops if we are taking a long road trip. When the kids were little we would stop every 2 hours or so. Now they can go longer but I'd say we still try and build in stops every 3-4 hours.  

[Guest]

I'm a Point A to Point B person, and DH is much moreso when he's driving, BUT we hve stopped sometimes if we saw something really remarkable. I would happily stop if it was part of my plan, though. DH hates to stop even when everyone is starving and needs to use the potty. It was a point of contention when the kids were small.

[Sherry in OH]

We stop every two hours to stretch our legs, use the restroom, and snack.  Every six hours or so, we stop for a meal.  Sometimes we picnic at roadside rests, other times we eat at restaurants.   

 

Dh will sometimes stop on a whim. He will drive miles out of the way for something that caught his eye or because he finds the highway boring.  He is more likely to do so on the way to a destination than on the way home. On the way home, he just wants to get home. 

 

If I am driving without dh, site-seeing stops are almost always pre-planned.  Rest stops are as needed.  I have on more than one occasion found a hotel for the night because the children needed to be out of the car and/or I could not drive any longer.  Before children, I would nap at rest stops and probably will do so again when they are grown. 

[creekland]

It depends upon the trip for us.  If we need to be at Point B and can't leave early enough, then we drive to get there stopping for bathroom, food, and/or gas every 3-4 hours to stretch, etc.

 

But if we can travel our way...  :coolgleamA:  We leave earlier than we have to be somewhere, take back roads - whatever looks interesting (on a paper map) and meander to our heart's content.  Neat looking diner?  Time to stop.  Want ice cream?  Stop for it.  Wow those rocks look really different!  Stop and see them.  Geocaches can be part of our trip - whatever.

 

We've gone coast to coast and north to south multiple times using very few Interstate Highways and those trips were absolutely awesome.  The whole family loved them.  Our first major western trip was created by every family member picking a spot they wanted to see and we connected the dots.  For the curious, those spots were The Grand Tetons, Mt Rushmore, The Giant Redwoods, The Grand Canyon, and Four Corners.  We ended up seeing something like 27 attractions on that trip and I had everyone rate them all at the end.  The most favored places?  Bryce, Badlands NP, Yellowstone, Mesa Verde, and Chaco - places not even on our list...

 

That's our preference for traveling, but we can't do it when we "have" to be somewhere.  We would have even stopped more on the above trip, but we had to have reservations at some of the NP's giving us milestones we had to reach by a certain date.

[regentrude]

When we drive long distances (6 hours+), we stop as little as possible. Bathroom, gas, a quick meal break. Those are spontaneous and not scheduled, but we do not stop spontaneously to sightsee or do xyz.

If we go on a day trip with only 2 hours to our destination, we may stop spontaneously, because one or two extra hours somewhere don't matter. 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2017 by regentrude

[Pink and Green Mom]

I grew up taking very few road trips (my dad hated driving and preferred to fly), but we stopped for gas only.  If there was a bathroom you used it, and we stopped at a restaurant nearby.  We were never allowed to eat or drink in the car.  We all joke about this 40-some years later, but I am (and my sister is) still that way today.  I will never forget the first time I drove from NJ to FL in high school with my friend's family.  I was flabbergasted that they stopped every 2 hours so someone could use the bathroom.  The trip seemed to take forever.

[lavender's green]

When it's just DH and me, we'll stop to look around, eat at that cute little diner, or whatever else we feel like. We used to really enjoy road trips.

 

Now with three littles, and knowing their personalities, my parenting mantra is Minimize Transitions. We don't stop, except for meals/potty, unless we intend to stay there for a good long while.

[Pam in CT]

As a family, pretty much Pt A to Pt B, though if the drive is more than 6 hours we usually stop overnight (neither my husband nor I take the marathon drives particularly well); and if we're stopping overnight I usually make an advance plan that enables a fairly-reasonable visit to some sort of weird museum or nice hike or other attraction.

 

 

But this very issue gave rise to one of my Great Parenting Insights, which I share freely herein:

 

On college visits, which in our family are one-parent-one-child, my tradition is that the kid looking at the college gets to  make all the little decisions around the spine of the trip: where we eat, what college-specific activities we do (see a play, sit in on a lecture, wander around the art museum etc), whether or not I stick like a tick or go off and leave the kid alone... and, also, whether and where we stop on the drive.  

 

This is a wily trick to get the kid more invested and autonomous and enthusiastic about a process which can often be fraught with anxiety and/or frustration.

 

And some of my most treasured memories with my older kids have been spontaneous moments they've chosen, taking us into random stops along what I thought was our way.

[Zinnia]

It would have to be super, super interesting for us to stop these days.  We used to stop frequently, find new sit-down restaurants in towns we were driving through, get out and explore, etc.

 

Once we get in the car, my kids settle down and are good travelers.  But they are awful with transitions.  "wait.  We're stopping here?  We're done traveling?  We're going to sight-see?"  And then getting them back into the car to settle down to travel more would be hard.  They do much better with A to B, minimal stops.  We've adjusted our style to accomodate.

[SparklyUnicorn]

If it is a far drive I usually want to get all the driving over with so I only stop for food and bathroom breaks. 

 

 

[regentrude]

We live in flyover country, and it takes us at least 12 hours to get to the "nice" parts of the country if we travel out West. There is nowhere I would want to stop, especially not during the summer when it's a 100 degrees in the flat plains. We like to get the first day over with, so that we are in the mountains or desert on the second day. Meandering for 18 hours along hot country roads in Kansas holds no appeal for me

[My4arrows]

Typically we don't since we have reservations and things to do at our destination and want to get there as quickly as possible. At times I will plan stops along the way for longer car trips, but DH and I are both the type to go from point a to b.

[lllll]

nm

Edited July 25, 2017 by tentwelve