Baby You Can Drive My Car

 

I love road trips. Period. There is nothing better than packing up your car, pulling out of the driveway and heading to a destination multiple states and hundreds of miles away from your zipcode. For years, I would drive my kids from upstate New York to North Carolina for some cousin time.  We termed it "Road Camp." The first year we read about this place called Wright's Dairy-Rite off of Exit 222 on I81 in Virginia in "Diners Drive-Ins and Dives." We had to stop. Moving forward, we couldn't drive south without pulling up and ordering lunch in Staunton, VA.

Ahhh...I am so looking forward to more long car rides in the future. Until then, I will have to be happy with reading about them.

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

Dan Gemeinhart's adventure of 12 year old Coyote, her dad, Rodeo, on the ultimate road trip from Florida to Boise in their bus, Yager, was a favorite of so many of us last year.  Since we've been quarantined, Dan started sharing Coyote's story aloud.  Here is chapter 1 but you can find more chapters as part of Dan's Coyote Sunrise Book Club on YouTube.

Thanks to Henry Holt for posting this guide on how to make a memory box/treasure chest.  Not only does it pair well with Coyote Sunrise and is perfect for today's world, it is also is a great segue into the next road trip book I am loving right now.

Clean Getaway

I listened to the audio of Nic Stone's book this week and loved it.  It made me want to grab my 95 year old Super Bubby in New Jersey and drive. Somewhere.  She always talks about living in Missouri before my grandfather went oversees.  That's where she learned to drive.  Or we could stay close take a short drive to the Jersey shore.  And then make a treasure chest. And drink hot chocolate.

Scoob and his G'ma are on the ultimate road trip through the south trying to retrace her steps with his grandfather back in the 60s when it wasn't even legal for the two of them to be together.  Even now dark skinned Scoob with his white grandmother get some looks. This book will inspire you to do some research when you are finished-Medgar Evans, Loving vs. Virginia, Emmett Till, the Green Book--are just a few. Here's a full discussion guide. And finally, you may even want to watch the 2018 movie (PG-13) "Green Book."

PS-Dion Graham has many accolades for his audio books. This one is going to get him another one.

Sign Off

Seriously, you will never be able to look at a road sign the same way after reading this book.  It is so good with a great surprising ending and I promise I would say all these wonderful things about this book even if Steve and I weren't friends.  Today, as we are quarantined to walks around our own neighborhoods, go on a hunt and check out the signs. What do you notice? What stories can you make up about the figures on the signs? Is there something about a sign that you never saw before? I'll be completely honest, there is a sign I passed all the time that I never knew was there until I saw it in Sign Off. And the school sign?! We can discuss that for hours.  Well, hours is what we have now so go check it out and let me know your thoughts!

Until then, I will continue to be positive and dream of my next road trip. We're not putting many miles on our vehicles these days so an extra 1500+ this summer or fall won't hurt. xo