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Hello friends!
First of all, I want to send my love to each and every one of you. I know that in these unprecedented times we are living in a new reality that didn’t seem possible even a week ago. Many of you were thrown into homeschooling and while I am in no way an expert I did learn quite a lot about education, my kid and myself in my two years homeschooling them. You can read more about that here. The most important take away from that experience is that there is no right or wrong way to teach you kids. I did find that the more you can make it fun and practical the more kids stay engaged and take away from it. And as the Eagles say in Take it Easy, “don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.”
Before I go any further I want to also acknowledge the devastation that the travel, service, and hospitality industries are feeling right now. I know that people everywhere are hurting right now and would never want to minimize anyone’s hardships, but as these industries are near and dear to my heart and also a majority of what I write about here, I want to share an idea with you.
Once this is all behind us, and we will get there, we will travel again and I know that much of America will once again be welcoming you into their communities once again. But in the meantime, Abby and I want to challenge you and your families to plan virtual road trips with us! We will cover all of the steps which include browsing the websites for places along the way. I am very sure they appreciate the traffic (virtual of course) right now and you will discover some fantastic places to look forward to visiting in the future! Look for official visitors’ sites as they are a wealth of information. Some of them have Live Cams to enjoy right now too! Don’t forget to PIN the best places you find on Pinterest and share them on social media!
And do you want to know the best part? This is a fantastic learning opportunity for your new homeschoolers. Obviously we are covering geography but also math as you calculate distance, technology, honing in on research skills, and more!
Plus, it gives us some things to look forward to which I think we all need a little more of right now!
Ok, let’s go!
Sarah and Abby’s Virtual Road Trip Challenge
(1) First, open Google Maps.
Type your address into the search bar.
Now, you need one starting destination. Ask your kids if there is a city or attraction they have wanted to visit. When I asked Abby she immediately said, ” Oklahoma City” which caught me a little off guard as it wasn’t even on my radar. When I asked her why she told me about the Science Museum Oklahoma which she heard about on DIY SCI, a series by Steve Spangler, that she watched on Amazon Prime Video. She wants me to tell you that your kids need to watch it! Let her know if you do!
(2) In Google Maps, get directions there from your hometown. Your trip is started!
At any time you can click on these maps to view larger. I realize they may be hard to see on small devices.
Now you one more stop to create a loop.
(3) Click Add Destination again and pick somewhere else. We chose Dallas, Texas because that is where my sister, her husband and my adorable little nephew live! Abby actually decided that while in Dallas she wants to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. Once you have this step in you can Add Destination one more time to get you back home and close the loop.
This is where the fun begins! Look at places on or near your route that you can stop in! We decided that we probably wouldn’t want to do more than 3-4 hours in a day so we looked at places along that route. Click DETAILS just left of the total distance and it will break it down in stages and show the distance between each stop. We had a great time doing this and spent time on the websites for towns like Conway, Arkansas and Tupelo, Mississippi. Did you know that Elvis was born there? It was fun to see her add that to her plans! On the various CVB sites, they break it down into WHAT TO SEE or WHERE TO STAY and it is interesting to find out more about places that weren’t ever really on my radar as well as places in my backyard that I never knew existed!
The next step is to add more stops to your road trip!
(4) Click Add Destination and once added you can drag it up to where that stop should fall along the route. Remember to have the kids expand details and try to find stops that get them out of the car every few hours. In the graphic below you can see how it takes 3 hours and 23 minutes to get to Birmingham but then over 10 hours until our next stop. It’s always fun to google roadside attractions as well! They are perfect places to stretch the legs and grab a snack. Click that arrow in the upper left to get back to your map.
TIP: You can add up to 10 stops on one Google Map.
(5) Continue to repeat until you have your perfect road trip!
I would love for you to share it with us! Click those three horizontal lines in the upper left and it will give you a link to share with us! Leave it in the comments here or on my social media posts so that Abby and I can check it out. Tell us what you are most excited about along the way! Please use your hometown and not your actual address when sharing!
Abby’s Awesome Road Trip
Hi, Abby here!
I get to plan a road trip for me and my family! I have an aquarium, a zoo, and even a cat cafe on my list! I hope that you decide to go on a road trip, too, when COVID 19 is over. This is my first blog post and I really hope you enjoy it. So, without further ado, I present to you my list of things to do this summer! It may take a couple of weeks but luckily I won’t have to drive. Haha.
Home
Birmingham, Alabama: The Birmingham Zoo, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Gatos and Beans
Huntsville, Alabama: U.S. Space and Rocket Center
Tuscumbia, Alabama: Helen Keller Museum
Tupelo, Mississippi: Elvis Presley’s Birthplace
Little Rock, Arkansas: Fourche Creek Wetlands
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Science Museum Oklahoma
Dallas, Texas: Great Wolf Lodge and visit Aunt Linsey, Uncle Tevin, and Baby Cousin Hudson
Shreveport, Louisiana: Shreveport Aquarium
Home
Join us and plan your road trip today!
Don’t forget about other variations! You and your family can create a map to visit all National Parks, create a map to visit all of their cousins (find the most efficient route and then find the most interesting route), map out a theme park road trip, the options are endless and pretty fun! I mean who wouldn’t want to go on a road trip to find haunted hotels?
Let them use Roadside America to find wacky places to visit in your home state and plan a road trip through those.
And if you want to take it further you can have them figure out how much gas it would take and how much it would cost!
Happy planning!
