Great Road Trips – Share Your Ideas!
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I want to hear your favorite road trip ideas on this post! Inspire us in the comments!
As a child, I remember my grandmama telling me about the road trips they used to take as children. Her mama would cook up some chicken, pack it in a basket, and mix up a gallon of tea in a big old glass pickle jar to pack in the trunk, wrapped in blankets to keep it chilled and prevent the glass from breaking. They’d get in the car and head off to visit family, stopping along the way for picnics on the side of the road. There were no drive through restaurants back then and even roadside diners were a new concept so bringing your own food was a necessity. Sometimes, though, Grandmama said they’d stop at a local gas station that had a deli counter and buy some fresh sliced bologna and a loaf of “light bread” as they called it. This was considered a huge treat for them and made the road trips even more special.
My family has always loved impromptu road trip adventures. We hop in the car on a sunny day and head out to parts unknown just to see what we can get into. Early in our married life, Ricky and I tired of fast food on long road trips and I stopped at a local deli, picked up some roast beef, cheddar slices, and Hawaiian sweet rolls and our little family road trip sandwich was born. Some of our happiest memories and best conversations have taken place sitting beside each other while I make little sandwiches in my lap to hand him and now just the thought of a road trip sandwich brings all of those precious memories to mind. We sure have been blessed these past twenty years!
Another fun addition to our road trip menu is Southern Breeze Sweet Tea. I keep the little cold brew packets of it in my purse, all different flavors, and we can have guilt free Sweet Tea on the road anytime.
In fact, did you know:
- Southern Breeze is calorie free and guilt free so it can be enjoyed glass after glass.
- Cold brew Southern Breeze is single serve-take it on the go or enjoy at home.
- Southern Breeze cold brew is easy to make: pour 8oz of water over 1 tea bag, let steep for 5 minutes, toss out the tea bag and pour over ice!
- All of the zero calorie Southern Breeze products (cold brew and family size tea bags) are available by clicking here.
Southern Breeze Sweet Tea is just one of the things that make our road trips even more fun and don’t have to be planned or thought about earlier.
There is still plenty of time for more summer road trips so today I wanted to share some of my ideas with you but most importantly – I WANT YOUR IDEAS!
Be as general or as specific as you like but please chime in and know that your answer will help inspire friends and family to spend more time together.
Some ideas from the Jordan camp:
- Road trips don’t have to involve a lot of time on the road! Check out local attractions first – budget friendly memories are just as sweet.
- Pretend you are a tourist in your hometown:
- Check out the visitor’s bureaus of nearby towns and see what their most popular attractions are.
- Festivals are an easy find! This time of year there are so many fun festivals all around. You can also find these at visitor’s sites and all that is needed is saving the date on your calendar!
- Feed the ducks
- Watch the sunset
- Free outdoor concerts and movies
- Hikes at state and local parks (or national if you’re close to one!)
- Tailgate picnic! There are some gorgeous spots with amazing views of the valley where we live so some evenings we grab the fixings for our road trip sandwiches at a local deli and head on up to a pretty spot, sit on the tailgate, and enjoy the view.
- And one of my absolute favorites: Take a glass of iced tea out to your back porch.
What are some of your favorite ideas for summer road trips both near and far? Let’s talk about them in the comments!
While you’re here, you can head on over and see all of the zero calorie Southern Breeze products (cold brew and family size tea bags) by clicking here. It’s perfectly sweetened sweet tea with no calories and no carbs and if you place an order online by June 30th using code CHRISTYJORDAN you’ll get free shipping. But you can also get in on a chance to get a free sample sent directly to your home by clicking here.
Special thanks to my friends at Southern Breeze Sweet Tea for sponsoring this post and for making the tea that I drink all day long! All opinions contained in this post are my own. #ShareTheSweetness & #guiltfreesweettea
Hello from Honduras (although originally from Decatur, AL)! Still love your blog and your recipes and they give us a little taste of “home” when I cook them here. One of our favorite road trips was to Cloudland Canyon State Park in Georgia. It isn’t too far over the GA line and they have the most amazing hiking trails, gorgeous overlooks, fun cabins you can stay in and it doesn’t cost too much since it’s pretty close to North Alabama.
Our family trips were mostly with the children’s sports teams. It was such fun! Lots of excitement going and then either singing to cheer people up coming home or a play by play rehash of the game. Those are special times and gone too fast.
They definitely do go by way to fast Karen!!
Wow. Really enjoyed reading about the great adventures above. Lots of memories of mustard, bologna and a slice of onion sandwiches. My Dad had a couple of brothers and they would schedule their vacations at the same time and we would all head for Panama City. There were no condos (yea) but rather little beach houses with no air conditioning…. I’m talking old Florida. We rented a couple of houses across Highway 98 from the beach and never ate out. We cooked every meal and had a lot of sandwiches and a blast. Walking from the rentals to the beach was an adventure. No flip-flops in those days but our feet were pretty tough from going barefooted. Anybody remember pleading with your mother to let you go to school barefooted in May and her only objection was “the grounds still too cold and I don’t want you to come down with something”?. If you were not raised in the South you are thinking “NO WAY”. Yea… we barefootin’.
Well, after the half mile walk on the hot sand and across the burning asphalt of Highway 98 we were ready for a dip in the beautiful Gulf. Our floats were patched inner-tubes we had brought along and aired-up at the Seahorse which today would be described as a combo convenience store and farmers market. In the old days we called it a General Store. They had everything we needed, at fair prices, to make our vacay a heyday.
Still recall memories of our female cousins heading out for a sun tan smelling of cocoa-butter or a mixture of baby oil and iodine.
Thanks Christy for all you do and God bless everyone. Sweet memories.
I can just see it now Glen!!! I have really enjoyed taking a walk down your memory lane today!!!
Thank you for posing this question! I have enjoyed reading about everyone’s roadside picnics. I’m always intrigued about road trip fare, as it’s more than just a meal! You’re making memories too. I remember traveling as a child and we’d find a picnic table somewhere and eat bologna sandwiches. It was the BEST when we found a little country store that sliced their own bologna – we’d request thick cut. So simple, and yet, those are the memories that stay!
Yes Chrissy, I also find that sometimes the simplest of memories are some of my fondest!!
My whole childhood was one long road trip! My dad was an evangelist and we traveled as a family ministry team. We never lived in any one place for more than 2 weeks.
When I was a kid, I didn’t realize it, but we didn’t have much money, you know you’ve had a rich childhood when you weren’t aware that you didn’t have much money! Evangelists in the 60’s and 70’s weren’t normally wealthy people – they weren’t doing what they did in hopes of gaining a lot of wealth, rather they did what they did to share the Gospel with as many people as possible. Even though we didn’t have much money my parents always made life special for me and my sister.
One of the things they’d do is when we’d arrive in a new town they’d find out what was in the area of historical interest, what national parks were near by, etc… and on our day off they would take me and my sister to all these wonderful (and often free) places. I’ve climbed mountains in Glacier National Park, driven through huge sequoia trees in Sequoia National Park, swam in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, stood in awe at Mount Rushmore, looked in amazement at Niagara Falls, climbed the Washington Monument, toured the White House, rode toboggans in the mountains of Washington state, looked over New York City from the top of the Empire State Building, visited the Alamo in Texas, was intrigued by the statue to the bool weevil in Enterprise, Alabama the only town with a statue of an insect (at least the only one at that time), stood on the banks of the mighty Mississippi, with much tingling trepidation I’ve gazed over the edge of the Grand Canyon, rode the cable cars in San Francisco, visited China Town in San Francisco, and Little Italy in New York City, had the breezes from the Gulf coasts gently caress my face, visited beautiful plantations in New Orleans… and the list could go on and on – and that’s just in the States… that doesn’t touch where they took us in Canada, Mexico, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Italy, Greece, and many other countries!!
I loved my road trip childhood! I’ve been blessed indeed!
Wow Sandy. What a great childhood. TY for sharing.
I’ve been enjoying everyone’s comments, the trips down memory lane and the funny stories. What a heart-warming post this is. One of my favorite road trips is traveling down the Blue Ridge Parkway from Virginia to North Carolina in October.
My favorite memories are riding in the car with my mom to see family in middle Tennessee. We would leave before the sun came up. Mom packed a small cardboard box with a red and black plaid thermos of coffee and cinnamon rolls for our breakfast. It was fun to travel two-lane winding roads for hours. Mom worked and it was rare that I got her to myself for that long. She would share stories of growing up in her small town. There was a fire tower we stopped at for lunch. Mom always packed Vienna sausages and light bread or potted meat. We had homegrown tomato slices too. Snacks were raisins, bananas or apples. We didn’t have money but I was a happy girl! I “car picnic” with my family now.
What wonderful memories!! I love the winding roads in the Tennessee Mountains, it is always so pretty up there, no matter what season it is!