Would you ever imagine yourself living in a car with your 53-year-old mom for an entire summer? Last summer my mom and I did just that. We lived out of our SUV, camping across America, traveling across 47 states, logging over 12,000 miles in six weeks. It was an amazing and eye opening adventure. We explored national parks, went to fascinating cities, and made friends with complete strangers. My mom and I like to say that trip changed our latitude. The theme of our trip was ‘That Looks Like Fun.’  This is a game my family created to make trips that we go on even more exciting. It's easy to play. When you are traveling and you see something interesting you simply yell “That Look Like Fun!” Sometimes when we yell that out, we veer off the highway to go and explore that fun thing.

My mom and I began our trip from our home in North Carolina. As we passed through the fields of Tennessee we saw a billboard that said, “Tour Mayfrield’s Ice Cream.” My mom yelled, “That Looks Like Fun!” We pulled off the highway and drove to Mayfield’s Dairy & Production Plant. As we arrived at Mayfield’s, the diary was closing down. The ice cream clerks were cleaning and became annoyed by our last minute interruption. We only wanted to try Mayfield’s ice cream. I didn’t expect to be handed my peanut butter chocolate milkshake, made by someone so angry. It’s ice cream, for heaven’s sake! We went outside and sat on rocking chairs on the porch of Mayfield’s dairy. I looked around. It’s was real dairy. Cows, fields, the plant, delivery trucks, and people who make ice cream for a living. I never really thought about where Mayfield’s Ice Cream came from before. I just thought of it as an ice cream that you see in the grocery store while your walking down the aisle. It was a delicious experience. 

The whole entire trip across America my mom drove. Think about that for a minute. She drove the entire United States of America. I don’t think there are many people who could have done what my mom and I did. We were in the car for days and days and days. Seven days a week for six weeks straight. Here’s the amazing part, in those six weeks we somehow didn’t get sick of each other. You know the stereotype, mom and daughter on a car trip bickering non-stop. I am happy to say that is not my mom and me. We have always gotten along. I feel most people might ask if that trip changed our relationship, but it really didn’t. We are the exact same as we were around each other before. 

When we hit middle America there was major flooding. The actual highway was clear, but you could not get off on any exit. All exits were blocked due to flooding from the Mississippi River. My mom had no choice but to drive 24 hours straight before we found a safe place to rest. It was exhausting, truly exhausting. It felt like you were completely out of your body. I kept falling over I was so tired. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. But at the same time I was trying to keep my mom awake. I tried as hard as I could to stay awake, but just couldn't do it. I fell asleep. I woke up the next morning and my mom had gotten us to a parking lot. At the time I didn’t think anything about it, but now that I’m thinking back on it, she was a determined driver and an even more amazing mom to do that for me. I would have helped with the driving, but sadly I am only 14 and don’t have my license yet.  

For the most part we slept in our car. My mom fixed up our SUV as a Glamper. In the back we had a twin mattress we shared. We had battery powered fairy lights and USB charged fans hanging from the ceiling. We organized our travel items in plastic tubs: clothes, food, cooking supplies, toiletries. We had a large lunch cooler we would fill with a cup of ice each day to keep food cool. In order to sleep we would pile our plastic tubes on top of eachother in the front seats, then we could lie down and sleep in the back. That turned out to be a lot of work. So we mostly  slept in the front seats of our SUV. It was kind of uncomfortable at first, but we got used to it. The one thing we never got used to was the heat. Most nights it was around 90 to 103 degrees. It felt like we were on the sun. Every once in a while we would turn on the car and blast the air conditioning as high as possible for a few minutes. Those moments were nice. A few times during the trip we would stay in a hotel when it was simply too hot to sleep in the car. Sometimes we were just so tired that we couldn’t function from driving for so many hours at a time.

I’d actually never traveled before we took this trip. My mom traveled all her life with her parents covering most of Europe and all of America. She was getting frustrated realizing I was getting older and hadn’t seen the world. For my 14th birthday my mom surprised me when she said we were going to spend the summer traveling across America. She said that if, at any point, either one of us wanted to come home we would turn the car around. I’m happy to say I never wanted to turn the car around and go back home. In fact, as we were driving the last few miles home I was a little sad that our trip was coming to an end. I doubt there are many 14-year-old daughters that want to spend six weeks trapped in a car with their 53-year-old mom, but I am so happy we did this trip across America together. I would not trade that summer for the world.