Our road trip experiences

Road trips are fun! Although I agree that road trips may not be for everyone, there are many reasons we love taking road trips as family vacations: You decide where you want to go and how you want to go. Sight-seeing and visiting new places on the way is a bonus. You don’t have to stress about your departure time, as you can go on your own pace and decide what time works best for you. Road trips are like little adventures, where you get to see new places, explore and spend quality family time.

Bear with me as I take you down my memory lane, reminiscing beautiful moments as we made memories of a life time! Some pictures brought a lump in my throat, as I did not remember, and have not looked at them for almost a decade. I hope I am making beautiful memories for my kids, and I hope they remember their childhood as fondly as I remember mine!

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2019:

So here I am thinking about all the trips we have taken and thanks to Facebook I have tons of memories through the check-ins and the pictures posted. Our last vacation was a road trip in Dec 2019 when we visited Disney World. My earlier post has more details about the overall experience. The drive time was 14 hours and we covered 965 miles in 1 day. We started at 5:30 am CST from Houston, took 2 pit stops for gas and 1 stop for lunch which also included filling gas for the 3rd time, and reached the Disney World resort at 8:30 pm EST. My husband drove most of the time, and I gave him a break in between when I drove for 4-5 hours till it was gas filling time again. We traveled in an SUV with a mileage of around 19-20 on the highway. It is a 7-seater and our 2 kids sat in the 2nd row seats; we put the rear seats down to hold our luggage. Kids, 16 & 12 years, did not complain about leg space or moving around; so this worked well for us.

In summer 2019, we flew to India and spent 2 weeks with family and friends there. On the way back, we took 9 days break in Europe and visited parts of Switzerland, Austria and Czech. You can find more information about our Europe trip in this post.

I also flew to Detroit in May 2019, to chaperone my teen for her Change Makers summit. It was an inspiring trip where we got to meet and interact with other youth interested in social justice through innovations in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). My then sophomore presented on Cyber Security. It was an all-expense paid trip by Ashoka and GM; and it was a phenomenal experience!

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2018:

We try to take 2 trips every year, when the school is out; generally 1 in summer & 1 in winter. In Dec 2018, my husband was traveling so there was no family vacation in the winter break. In the summer of 2018, my teen was in NYC for an internship with NYT (New York Times) and then we visited Cancun in July for 5 days. We flew from Houston to Quintana Roo, Cancun then; and are now thinking of doing a cruise also:)

2017:

So 2018 was more of a year of flying than driving, but that is because our vacations were out of the country. The 2017 winter trip was a road trip when we traveled to Wyoming and Utah. Wyoming is around 1300 miles and 20 hours drive from Houston. We drove to WY and on the return came through Utah. We spent our Christmas at Jackson, WY and then drove to Salt Lake City, UT. We wanted to go up to Montana but there was a severe weather forecast with some inter-state highway closure; so we had to return back without entering MT. We visited Snow King Mountain resort in Jackson Hole and enjoyed snow tubing as a family. We also explored and enjoyed the Grand Teton National park visit and spotted multiple Moose in addition to the sleigh ride spotting of Elks in the National Elf Refuge, Jackson, WY

In Utah we explored the Antelope State Park, Olympic Park and the Price Canyon. It was about 1400 miles and 22 hours drive back to Houston, so we took an overnight stop on the way back.

In July 2017, we took a road trip from Houston, Texas to Minneapolis, MN. The distance is about 1200 miles one way and drive time was between 17-18 hours. On the way we also visited Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois. Below are some pictures taken at Papa John Scripture Park Des Moines, IA, Minnehaha park, Minneapolis, MN, Bloomington, MN, Mall of America, MN, Portage lake front & river walk, Portage, IN, Indiana Dunes National park, Chesterton, IN, Field museum Chicago, Sky Deck Willis Tower/ Sears Tower, Chicago, Northman Riverwalk, Chicago, 360 Chicago, Street beach, Chicago, Adler planetarium Chicago, Shed Aquarium Chicago, and the Cloud Gate/ The Bean Chicago, IL. We started on July 17 and returned back on July 25. We covered a distance of more than 3000 miles (1180 miles 1 way from Houston to MN).

Same month of July I also took a trip from work to MIT, Cambridge, MA for 2 days by flight; I was back after 3 years and attempted 1st time kayaking:)

2016:

In the summer, we went to see extended family in India for 3 weeks and visited monuments and other sightseeing places near New Delhi, India.

The winter vacation was a road trip from Houston, Texas to Ober Gatlinburg, Tennessee in Dec 2016. It is about 15 hours drive with a distance of little under 1000 miles. On the way we visited Big dam bridge Arkansas, Witt Stephens Jr Central Arkansas Nature Center, Little Rock, AR, Little Rock Central High School National Historic site, Little Rock AR, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, TN, CNN center Atlanta Georgia, World of Coca Cola, Sapphire Valley Ski Area snow tubing, Tallulah Gorge, Tallula falls, GA, Lake Lanier Vista GA and a friend’s home in Nesbit Lakes, Alpharetta, GA

2015:

In December, our vacation took us to Canada but we flew instead of a road trip to Calgary, Canada. We do plan to take a road trip there, it is more than 2000 miles one way and would take about 32 hours to reach. But with breaks, we need to plan for 3 days driving each way. Can’t wait to see if we can do it:) It was our 2nd trip to Calgary but the 1st time in winter and it was so beautiful! Very cold but very beautiful! We visited Waterton Lakes National Park, Waterton park, Head smashed in Buffalo jump , Fort McLeod, AB, Maligne Lake, Jasper, Maligne Canyon Jasper, Jasper National park Hinton, Athabaska Glacier mountain, Jasper, Waterworld West Edmonton mall, Spruce meadows lighting Calgary, Prince’s Island Park Calgary, Eau Clark park, Calgary, Bow falls, Lake Louise, Banff National park, and visited family in Martindale Station, Calgary, Canada.

2014:

In summer 2014 we were contemplating our long road trip from Houston, Texas, to New England but decided against it as we were not sure traveling such long distance (1800-2000 miles with driving time of up to 30 hours one way) with our kids 7 & 11 years old then. We were used to traveling by road for shorter distance and took couple trips to Sea World, San Antonio, every year when they were younger and had just started exploring Six Flags Fiesta Texas.
During August 2014, we covered few parts of MA, NH, ME & RI. Below you will find some pictures from our Trolly tour in Boston, MIT & Harvard visits, Rock port MA, Tramway white mountains NH, Flume Gorge NH, Hobo Railroads NH, Cape Ann whale watch Portland Maine, Old man of the mountain- the great stone face Portland and Head light Cape Elizabeth ME.

I also had taken a 2 days trip by flight to Los Angeles in March 2014 from work.

2013:

In Dec 2013 we drove from Houston, Texas to Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is about 880 miles and 13 hours drive 1 way. On the way we also visited the Grand Canyon National park, Grand Canyon Village, AZ.

We also took a trip to India in the summers and visited Calgary, Canada on our way to India. Both trips were, of course, by flight. Calgary is beautiful, and breathtaking. I would highly suggest you to visit if you like picturesque places with mountains, lakes and lots of natural beauty.

2012:

In September 2012 we drove from Houston, Texas to NY and DC area. It is around 1600 miles and about 25 hours drive one way. In a way it was our 1st experience of a long road trip. We explored Niagara Falls, Times Square Memorial At Niagara, Ellis Island, Maid of the mist Boat tour, Cave of the winds tour and Pentagon memorial.

2011:

We took our 1st Disney World vacation in December of 2011. The driving distance from Houston, Texas to Orlando, Florida is 960 miles or 14 hours. We recently went back to Disney World in Dec 2019; and that brings us back full circle to the present!

Although we have also visited Disney Land and few other places in California as well as Las Vegas; they were not road trips and hence I want to end this long post of our road trips here! We have also traveled local in Texas multiple times (do you know driving in TX by itself may take up to 10 hours!) but I am not including those experiences in this post either. I hope you enjoyed looking at some of our pictures, if not the reading, and hope you will take a plunge into planning your (1st or 10th!) road trip soon.

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Please comment below to share the most exciting or memorable road trip you have taken!