When Kelsey was a baby my mom remarked, "I don't care if you never come back for Thanksgiving, if it means you'll come back every Christmas." So, we've made the commitment to travel to Iowa for Christmas almost every year since.
In the early years, it was an ordeal. I remember the year Drew was born, I was concered about making the trip with a six-week-old infant. I shouldn't have worried about him. Drew slept most of the way, but Kelsey, then not-quite-six, cried almost the whole entire way. "Stupid roads!" She raged. "Why can't you take us to Gramma's faster?!" The weather was wintery and the roads were icy, and Baird was doing his best to keep it between the lines.
Having three kids in five-and-a-half years, it seemed like we had at least one small child who needed car diversions forever. Over the years I came up with lots of ideas to keep the kids occupied. We'd play the Animal Alphabet Adventure Game - listing as many animals as we could think of that start with each letter of the alphabet. We'd play the store game, "I went to the store and bought an apple," the first person says. "I went to the store and bought an apple and a banana," the second person continues, and so on, all the way thru to Z. Remembering 26 things that were purchased at the "store" was always something of a badge of honor. And of course there was the license plate game.
But far and away the most popular game we've played is the alphabet game. As I've swapped war stories of car travels with my friends, I've come to realize that every family who does road trips has a version of this game. Our basic rules are:
Find each letter of the alphabet, in order, no skipping
License plates don't count, but lettering on vehicles does
Limit one letter per sign
The "one letter per sign" rule has been hotly debated in recent years with the advent of digital billboards that dissolve into new signs. If the sign changes, are the letters on the new screen (but same billboard) fair game? Depends on your point of view, but we try to establish a guideline before we start playing.
About ten miles east of Tipton, when the journey just seems like it well never, ever end, it's a good time to break out the alphabet game.
In Chicagoland speak, Tipton might possibly be considered far-suburban Iowa City, but I wouldn't ever describe Tipton that way to its residents. At any rate, the road signs become a bit more frequent, making the game a little easier to play. Restaurants like A&W, Subway, and Culvers help get us off to a good start. Then as we head into Iowa City, there's a bit of a mad rush to see how far we can get, the goal being to take advantage of the Q as we pass by Dubuque Street. There's a second chance for that coveted letter at the edge of town now that Quinton's Sandwich Shop has opened up, but if we miss that one, we're stuck until we get into Cedar Rapids and pass the Quaker plant (where they make Cap'n Crunch cereal). It then becomes a frantic scramble to finish up R thru Y (the Five Seasons Center helps!) before we get to the Czech Museum a few miles down the road. Sometimes it just doesn't come together, but we can always hold out for North Liberty to provide the Y, which allows us to include The Travel Plaza to finish up, but they don't always advertise on the billboard near Exit 13. Our last-ditch effort to finish up the game? Lazy Acres near Exit 41!
Phew! That scramble from Tipton thru Cedar Rapids (or as far as Exit 41) is a fantastic way to kill 30-45 minutes of the trip. Once we're at Exit 41, the billboards are fewer and farther between, the landscape is more rural, and it's less than an hour to Grandma and Grandpa's, and the waiting seems just a bit easier. For a few moments at least. Until someone says, "I went to the store and I bought an apple."
