We had one day to make it from Grandma’s house in Detroit to the lake house in New Hampshire, easily a 12 hour drive if you can’t go through Canada, which we could not. That is simultaneously a nightmare and a relief when you have already been driving for six days. Our only “point of interest” stop was for the Giant Rocking Chair which is…somewhere in Ohio. It actually is giant.

My best recommendation for those of you taking your own road trips in the future is to always, always take the scenic byways. Adding a few minutes on to your trip is totally worth it if you get to see the sun set over the cornfields on Route 20. Taking this route also FINALLY got me close enough to cows, which was on my checklist of things I wanted a photo of for at least the last half of the trip (I did have a mental checklist, because I am a dork). Those cows were not into me at ALL, but the light was perfect and the place was perfect and the whole trip was perfect. We drove through Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the dark, but we’ve seen those roads a million times anyway. My dad greeted us at the door when we got to the house, we slept in familiar beds, and woke up the next morning on the lake.

Taking an entire unpaid week off work is not something I do very often. Maybe you feel like you can’t afford to do it either. But if you have the opportunity to spend seven uninterrupted days with your mom doing ANYTHING…you should do it. You’ll figure out the rest later.