{"id":99,"date":"2015-11-19T08:26:37","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T08:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silveridge.com\/sun\/?p=99"},"modified":"2015-11-19T08:26:37","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T08:26:37","slug":"traveling-with-children-other-bad-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/?p=99","title":{"rendered":"Traveling With Children & Other Bad Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\u201cThere are two classes of travel in America\u2014first class and with children.\u201d
\nRobert Benchley<\/em><\/p>\n


\n\u201cA journey of a thousand miles begin with a cash advance.\u201d
\nAnonymous<\/em><\/p>\n

What got me thinking about traveling with children was reading a delightful story from our new RV Park Writers\u2019 Group. Then, at a dinner party the
\nother night, I started retelling the story of the family camping trip and it not only brought back memories to everyone at the table, but a lively
\ndiscussion of… well, I don\u2019t want to say, not yet. Read this story and then we\u2019ll talk.<\/p>\n

AND AWAY WE GO<\/h3>\n

By Sharon Van Lieu<\/center><\/p>\n
\"Sharon<\/a>
Sharon Van Lieu in Yellowstone Park last year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You really haven\u2019t lived until you\u2019ve taken three small children camping. As young parents, Honey and I purchased a pickup truck and a small cab-over
\ncamper and set out to give our little ones some adventure.<\/p>\n

The first night out, child #3 (male) got sick and barfed all over most every sheet, blanket and covers we had with us. After a damp and smelly night,
\nwe found a laundromat the next morning and washed everything.<\/p>\n

We continued our journey to find a place we could dry camp. Child #2 (female) decided she had to use the potty and didn\u2019t want to use the chemical
\ntoilet in the camper. Mom took her by the hand and up the hill we went to an outhouse. She took one look down into the holes and declared she didn\u2019t
\nhave to \u201cgo\u201d anymore.<\/p>\n

When informed we would be at this campground four more days she said, \u201cThat\u2019s okay, I\u2019ll wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sharon<\/a>
Sharon family from around the time of the story, in the 1960s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sharon<\/a>
Sharon family from around the time of the story, in the 1960s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n

On down the road to yet another camp spot. I decided to take child #2 and go grab a shower. It cost a quarter to shower (1960’s) and I figured to get<\/p>\n

about 7 or 8 minutes to wash our hair and shower so I took only one quarter. We lathered up our hair and soaped up our bodies and the water turned off
\nafter three minutes. What to do!! I got out of the shower, put a towel around her soapy body, opened the door and started shouting for Honey to bring
\nus more quarters. After five minutes of yelling, he heard us, brought some coins and we finished our showers.<\/p>\n

Several days later we were on the freeway near Denver when the top part of the camper started rocking. Honey figured the kids were wrestling around up
\nthere so he rolled down the window, reached his arm up to the camper and knocked. The movement stopped\u2014\u2013for about three minutes and then started up
\nagain. Mumbling, Honey rolled the window down and knocked on the camper again. Things got quiet for just a brief time then started up again. This time,
\nHoney pulled the truck over to the side of the freeway and opened the back of the camper. On the floor was a toy rubber snake that he picked up and
\nproceeded to pull the children outside one at a time and paddle their tushies with the snake. It was rush hour traffic and the drivers going by were
\nhonking, waving, laughing and in general enjoying the show. By the time Honey pulled the last kid (child #1) out of the camper, the snake had broken
\nand all he had in his hand was about 4″ of the snake\u2019s tail. He continued to wail on the kid. I started laughing so hard that the other kids joined in
\nthe laughter. Everyone thought it was hysterical, except Honey. His face was beet-red and his blood pressure was off the charts.<\/p>\n

Would you believe on our way home we started planning our next campout?<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright, 2015, Sharon Van Lieu<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Great story, right? As I said at the top, it sparked a lot of conversation among my friends. I hope it got you thinking and reminiscing. I\u2019d like you
\nto send me your memories of travel with kids and we\u2019ll put them together and put them in our next issue.<\/p>\n

Also, in our group, there was a lively conversation around disciplining children. Everyone in our group had stories of parental discipline and most
\neveryone felt that in the generations since, parents have become too soft on their kids. Do you agree?<\/p>\n

Were you better off because of the discipline you received as a child?<\/p>\n

Have your children and\/or grandchildren had it too hard or too easy?<\/p>\n

There is wisdom floating around in our parks… send some my way and I\u2019ll write about your stories and your thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere are two classes of travel in America\u2014first class and with children.\u201d Robert Benchley \u201cA journey of a thousand miles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}