In college, I drove with friends from Indiana to Texas three times. The first couple of trips were to Killeen to visit a friend whose husband was stationed there. The third time was for spring break in South Padre. I loved all of those road trips, just seeing different places and having fun with girlfriends along the way. The trip to South Padre was the best. We stayed with friends in Houston on the way there and back, and also spent a day in Galveston. We ended up taking an extra day in Houston so had to drive straight through to Evansville, IN (about 18 hours) so we could get to class the next day. The best part was also the stupidest thing we did: Buying a six pack when we stopped for lunch in Arkansas and finishing it off while we drove. I think the only way to experience Arkansas is while semi-intoxicated. I don’t remember what we packed, other than lots of music (the good old days of making your own mix tapes!), soda, and snacks.
More recently, we drove from CT to SC this past spring with our kids. That was about 18 hours as well. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We filled the center console of the Suburban we rented with snacks and juice boxes and packed a bag of toys, crayons, sketch pads, and books for each of the kids. We took along the portable DVD player but ended up using it only once or twice for the entire trip. It was great because now we won’t hesitate to make a trip like that again, and driving was much cheaper than buying plane tickets for five people.