Do you Know any Backseat Drivers?

I used to hang out with a group of friends and we would go places together. We would go out to eat all the time and even went on vacation once. It was a lot of fun most of the time, however one of my friends was a horrible back seat driver. He always would say he knew the best way to get somewhere. I sometimes wondered if he was listening to a police scanner or if he was tapped in to the traffic report around town. This was before apps and most smart phones. Sometimes he was right, but other times we would end up in construction or stuck in traffic. He really thought he was always right. It was pretty annoying to go places when he would start driving from the backseat. Sometimes we would have him drive because it was just plain easier. It was his fault if the traffic was heavy since he picked the route. He wasn’t really that bad, and he was a great guy so we put up with it. If he wasn’t driving he was in charge of the directions. However that wasn’t a perfect plan either, as we got lost a few times. Honestly it was fun though. I miss hanging out with them and even hearing the backseat driver chime in with his opinions about the best way there. I remember being excited once when I knew there was only one way to get somewhere.  

Through this experience I learned ways to deal with backseatdrivers and I can’t wait for you to check out my post.

The Dangers of Road Rage

Have you ever experienced road rage? It's really scary. It makes me think of the movie Joyride. That's like the ultimate road rage movie. It's about three kids that play a trick on a truck driver and he uses the road to get his revenge. People get so angry at other drivers sometimes. It's crazy. There's different degrees of road rage. Some are mild where you yell and cuss. Other times it can turn violent. It seems to be worse in those with anger issues.

My ex-husband had really bad rage and not just on the road. It can be frightening when you look over and see someone speeding up and resembling Cruella DeVil. Depending on the type of day you are having it can be easy to get angry too. It's extremely dangerous to deal with road rage because you never know what the other person will do. You may not know how to deal with it. Some of it is geographical. When I lived in south Florida, you had to drive the moment the light turned green or there would be a bunch of people honking. Everyone was always in a hurry. I witnessed some mild road rage down there. It wasn't anything really dangerous but it could have turned at any moment. There was a lot of cussing and an elderly woman shaking her cane at a car. It was funny for a few minutes but then it seemed serious. It's important to share your feelings and stay calm while driving so you don't turn in to an angry driver.

Here's a post about Road Rage and what to do. Hopefully you will never deal with it.

My Travel Bucket List

I want to create a travel bucket list because traveling is one of my greatest passions. There are so many places I want to visit. I thought it would be fun to share it and have a place where it won't get lost or deleted.

Sheila's Bucket List (in no order):
England
Ireland
Hawaii
Italy
New Zealand
Australia
Japan
Greece
Costa Rica
A spa somewhere
Another cruise
Scotland

I would also love to go to all 50 states just because it would be fun.

I would like to visit the following places again:
New Hampshire
Vermont
Aruba
California
Texas
Florida
Virginia Beach
Grenada

Where do you want to travel?  Do you have a travel bucket list?

Here's some tips to create your dream travel bucket list.

They Named the Town What?

Sometimes I can be immature when it comes to humor. I love laughing at silly things that someone my age probably shouldn't. It's not anything hurtful. I don't make fun of people. I remember when I visited my friend Logan in North Carolina. We were going on an adventure and we stopped at a gas station in the town of Blowing Rock. I am not sure why I thought it was such a funny name for a town. I think it may have been because it was in the mountains. The town was really cool. I really enjoyed it. I miss my friend Logan a lot. We were really close up until his death. He always had a smile and a kind word for a friend. He was so amazing and such a sweet soul. Except for the time he made me eat livermush. Maybe I wasn't so bright not realizing it was actually liver and not just a cute southern name.

I am always reading signs and usually telling Noah where we are when we travel. Some town names are odd. It can be fun to take turns calling out town names. It's also great for when you are playing the city alphabet game. I will warn you that you may have to whip out Google to prove it's really a town name. You could also see who can come up with the funniest or strangest town name. Have you ever visited a town with a funny name?

Here's an article I wrote about funny town names.

Teaching Noah in the Car

I love to travel so much. It's definitely a passion of mine. If I won the lottery, I would travel extensively with Noah. I am always looking for ways to teach him new things and share experiences. He's older and really smart, he doesn't like being quizzed on things. When he was younger, I could just ask him questions. He just gets annoyed at me now. He is really curious about things. I want to take him to Williamsburg again, we went when he was two months old. We didn't really do much but go to Yankee Candle.  He's learning about Paul Revere in school and that would be a fun trip or Washington DC. He seems to be very interested in history. I asked him about who Paul Revere was. He told me that it was a guy who told the people that the British are coming.  After that he was talking about different wars today. He wanted to know if any of our family was in either the Civil War or the Vietnam war. My mom explained that our family on her side wasn't in the United States yet. I also told him that  his grandpa side wasn't either. I told him how I am the first generation born in America. He is the second.

When I named him Noah, I didn't know how fitting his name would really be.  He loves aquariums and zoos. We want to go to every major aquarium in the U.S. some day. He has been to quite a few already.  He loves to learn and experience new things. I have discovered that you can make anything a learning experience.  It doesn't have to be complex, it can be as simple as just counting miles or shouting out different colors of cars. Starting young is a great idea. It helps build a foundation and a love for learning.

For more ideas check out my post about educating in the car.

Road Trip to Random Places in the US

I want to take a road trip with my friends and go out and see the strangest and most unique things that the United States has to offer. I think it would be so much fun to plan an entire trip and start an album of photos next to all the strange things we find. It would not only be fun to do but it would be so much fun to plan. It would be best if it were kind of spur of the moment. I went to Florida with some friends after a memorial service.  We talked about going at like 3 pm and that night we left for Florida for ten days. The trip was just what I needed. I like the randomness of these things. It really doesn’t matter where you live or where you want to go, you can find many different things to see in any state. If you want to make it a themed trip across the US like in the movie Kalifornia you could definitely do that too.

I try to see strange things while traveling already. When we were visiting my cousin’s family in Chicago, several years ago, on the way home we saw signs for a candy factory. I love candy so much and we ended up stopping and buying some gummy bears. Noah doesn’t remember it and I don’t think I let him have any candy because he was only two but I would love to take him again so he can remember it. There have been many times I would coax my mom to stop so we could see some random oddity while traveling in the car. We never went too far off course but I really want to plan a road trip to visit some strange things in the Midwest. There are some pretty cool things, interesting things and just plain strange things.  Two of the things on my list I have heard them mentioned on different TV shows. It made me smile because they were both in the Midwest. 

Here is my list of unique places to visit in the Midwest