Life-Changing Lessons from a 15,000-Mile Journey in a Honda: Embracing Adventure, Family, and Discovery
Taylor Shanklin is the VP of Product Marketing and Strategy at Pursuant. With over a decade spent in the nonprofit technology sector, her passion and purpose is to help charitable organizations connect the dots between marketing, technology, and fundraising. Taylor is also the mind behind Hacks for Good, a passion project where she brings the ideology of growth hacking to the nonprofit sector. A lifelong Austinite, Taylor shares life’s journey with her husband and two children, along with a grumpy old Chihuahua named Toby. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing Zumba, writing about tales of motherhood, and occasionally leaving her kids at camp grandma so that she and her husband can truly enjoy a vacation.
“Is there an arcade in Biloxi?”
“Can we go to the pizza restaurant in New York, New York”?
(For context: New York, New York is the Vegas casino and hotel)
My husband and I heard these questions over and over again this summer. We traveled 15,000 miles cross-country with our two children (age five and seven) in our Honda Pilot.
Yes, you read that right: No RV. Only a Honda. 15,000 miles.
You see, this summer we opted out of putting the kids in summer camp. We also didn’t want them to sit in front of the TV all day.
We are fortunate to be in a situation where I telecommute full-time and my husband is the primary caretaker of our home life. And because of this, we decided to embrace the opportunity to get our kids out and see things other than arcades. We wanted them to experience more of life early on in their impressionable ages.
How did it work?
I worked during the day while the kids and the hubs adventured, and we opted to drive during evenings and weekends. I also flew in and out of the journey for work commitments, while the rest of my gang were the always-on warriors.
Despite all the amazing things we saw along a 15,000 mile road trip, the arcade question came up in pretty much every city. Kids are going to be kids and like kid things. C’est la vie.
And yet our kids became enamored by the wildlife at Yosemite, the size and stature of The Mall of America, and the endless variety of desserts at the buffet on the ferry boat from Seattle, WA to Victoria, BC.
In this journey, my husband and I were reminded of a few important life lessons that I’d like to share with you.
If you’ve been following along on our journey through the evolution of a modern family, I hope this puts a nice bow on 2018.
1) Don’t sweat the small stuff
We bought a new Honda right before we went on the trip because we wanted to have a safer more reliable car to make the trek. And it got dirty and dinged. We even lost a mirror via an attempt to drive through a giant sequoia tree. I could be angry about that. Instead, I cherish the fact the dings, dents and dirt remind me of the amazing experiences we had as a family this summer.
2) There’s always time for sleep. Life is short. Experience it.
The world is big and there is a ton of stuff out there waiting for you to see it. A common argument in our hotel room was me telling the kids to “get to bed!” and “settle down!” But post-trip, I realized the summer was short-lived and there is always time for sleep down the road. Life really is short. So, embrace experiences while you can.
3) Be a tourist in your own backyard
As Americans we often get wrapped up in traveling to other parts of the globe. In this trek, we saw vast and breathtaking landscapes in our very own “backyard” that anyone can drive to. This also gave us a new perspective on being a tourist in our own city more often.
If you feel like you don’t have the budget or the time to get out and travel to far off lands, start with your own backyard. Where could you drive to on a long weekend? Where could you go in your own city that you have never been? Be a tourist.
P.S. If you want to see where we went, go to 50statefamily.org. We’re on a mission to see all 50 states in 2018 and we’re only 14 states away! Wish us luck!