Ten Steps to Road Trip

Step 1. Fight off all incapacitating illness.

Step 2. Do all laundry.

Step 3. Make the kids pack their own things.

Step 4. Pack own bag.

Step 5. Verify kids packing. Add items forgotten, such as underwear and pyjamas. Take out party dress.

Step 6. Clean house. Ok. Tidy house. Ok. Make it look like there is not much to do when you get back.

Step 7. Pack snacks. Whatever you have in the house will do and extras can be gotten on the way. In this case, a lot of apples and oranges (which caused a tense moment at the border until I found the sunkist sticker that said they were originally from the USA- we were just repatriating them…) Little artery clogging croissants were also bought as well as these awesome healthy veggie pate wraps that I recommend for any road trip. They fill you up without making you feel gross.

Step 8. CEAN OUT CAR. (This required a large garbage bag and wading through a foot of snow to get to the car. By the time I got there, my feet were soaking and my legs were burning from the cold.)Fill garbage bag with all the debris that has accumulated in the car for the last year. If you are like my family, this will take several minutes, so plan ahead.

List of items found on floor of car:

• Broken tapes of Peter Gabriel, Holly Cole, The Replacements.
• Empty bottles of windshield wiper fluid
• Soaked and frozen roll of toilet paper
• Frozen summer hat
• Frozen gloves
• Many, many crayons
• Old pack of Doritos
• Doritos crumbs
• wood floor
• wood shelves

Step 9. Make sure ipod is charged, and you have all cellphone and camera paraphanelia needed on the voyage. An address book and a map are also handy items.

Step 10. Leave a note for the wonderful friend taking are of the turtle, turn off all the lights, grab the library books to be dropped off on the way and lock the door.

And New York is a go!