Welcome to Rosses on the Road!

We live in New Jersey (near where I grew up).  My wife hails from Saint Louis, Missouri.  As a two-teacher couple, we would spend a week or two each summer with my in-laws, a destination that required us to travel by plane.  Child #1 was followed a year later by #2, and a year-and-a-half later by child #3.  As the prospect of having to buy additional plane tickets (there are no 12-and-under discounts on airplanes) started to weigh heavily on my mind, I said a colossally ridiculous thing to my wife:

"Dear, what if we drove to Saint Louis this summer?"

She then replied with an even more colossally ridiculous response:

"Sure!"

So, not fully aware of what we were getting ourselves into, and armed with our Mapquest (remember them?) map book of the entire country and countless toys, books, and videos, we set out with our three kids aged three and under for the 1,000-mile trek to the banks of the Mississippi.  We stayed in an interesting motel, we changed diapers in the shoulders of interstate highways, and we even allowed ourselves to drive home (and for some bizarre reason, we stayed in the same interesting motel).

That was almost 15 years ago.  Those three kids are now in high school and have been joined by two others.  The Mapquest book has been joined by Waze and Google Maps.  Other friends and family members have moved out to other cities in the midwest, and thus our trips have expanded the map in many directions.  We have developed better taste in hotels.  Smaller vacations have turned into mini-road trips.  And, interestingly enough, the vast expanses of the United States don't look so vast anymore.

And so, after sharing our tales from the road and itineraries with countless friends, and after being told more times than we can count that we should write this all down, we are finally caving in and doing just that.  This blog will aim to provide a mix of useful tips for road-tripping, as well as some reviews of places we have visited.  The wordcloud on the side of the page will allow you, the reader, to search for topics that we cover repeatedly.  Comments will be moderated, but will hopefully be responded to quickly, and requests for topics will be honored to the extent that we feel we can do a decent job.

Are you planning a road trip?  You have made a wise choice.  Hopefully our experiences will help your experiences be as wonderful and memorable as our have been.