Every summer I fly up with the boys to NJ to spend a week visiting family. We’ll usually do some day trips or an overnight somewhere nearby. We’ve explored NYC, Philadelphia, and Hershey PA just to name a few. This summer I decided to change it up a little and turn it into a week-long road trip. Our final destination was Newport RI, largely because I had visited there in the fall with some girlfriends and absolutely loved it. But also because my youngest was devastated that I had visited “the world’s smallest state” without him.
We’ve taken 8+ hour car rides before – a few times to visit family in NJ or MD and a few times to FL to go to Disney. But I define a true “road trip” as a trip where the stops along the way are as much a part of the trip as the final destination. This was our first real road trip and it was a blast to plan.
My parent’s house in central NJ was the main stop along the way to Rhode Island. The most direct route from Charlotte to central NJ is 85N to 95N. That means driving through Richmond, DC, and Baltimore. And it means traffic and lots of it. Since this trip was focusing on the journey, I decided to seek out an alternate, more scenic route.
Route 81 through the mountains was the perfect alternative. Largely paralleling 85 and 95 but with less traffic and more scenery, it was an easy choice. I wanted to break up the trip from Charlotte to NJ with an overnight somewhere along the way since I was driving by myself. So I immediately started scouring the map for something interesting roughly half way between us on that route.
Two stops jumped out at me between NC and NJ – the Luray Caverns in Virginia and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. I decided it would be best to get the slightly longer trip over with on the first day of driving so I decided to stop for an overnight at Harpers Ferry on the way up and Luray Caverns on the way back.
With our major stops laid out, all that was left was finding a few smaller stops along the way. Sites like roadsideamerica.com and roadtrippers.com were really helpful in coming up with ideas.
Our final trip included the following stops:
- Big Walker Lookout (Wytheville, VA)
- Harpers Ferry, West Virgina
- Jersey shore to visit family
- Newport, Rhode Island
- Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk
- back to NJ to visit family
- Luray Caverns
- Natural Bridge
By and large the road trip was a huge success. We loved our ultimate destination, saw some places along the way that we would never have otherwise visited, and just generally enjoyed taking the scenic route.
But there were definitely moments along the way when I just wanted to be out of the car and at our destination. Unexpected construction traffic in western Pennsylvania that cost us 2+ hours. The super long wait to cross the George Washington Bridge where I wondered aloud if our EasyPass was getting charged over and over while we sat there for 15 minutes directly under the scanner at the toll booth. And one weary boy who was done with traveling by the time we got to Natural Bridge.
But the challenging times make the amazing times feel even more amazing. Travel is not always going to be easy. Sometimes you need to push yourself to experience new and different things. And when you look back on a trip like this, more often than not the rough times will end up being just as good memories as the smooth times (and can make even better stories).