QOTW: Most Memorable Roadtrip

This is Ruth typing. Lori asks about memorable roadtrips.

In 1971 I was 12. Dad and Mom piled all 7 of us kids into the station wagon and hauled us and a Scamper Camper (popup) from Detroit to Washington DC, our first big trip as a family.
Mom gave each of us a notepad to draw/write things in, about the trip-- this is the first sketchjournal I remember getting.
I didn't take it seriously. I wrote a few sentences, drew a couple things, and fought with my siblings instead of concentrating on the notepad.
We saw wondrous things.
I loved the Smithsonian, especially the amazing dollhouses and jewelry.
Loved the wax museum, the various monuments and memorials. We took side trips to Pennsylvania -- Hershey (loved the chocolate kiss streetlights), Amish country (Bird-In-Hand -- I loved the apparent peace and history) and Philadelphia (loved-loved-loved seeing the house where Lincoln was treated before he died, Independence Hall,
the Liberty Bell,The Betsy Ross house, Christ Church, and the burial sites of many early patriots including our great-great-many-greats uncle, Robert Morris, who signed the Declaration of Independence and helped finance the Revolutionary War).
Lovely trip, loved it all, the history and culture.
Lots of photos which Mom snapped. Very sparse art/journaling from me.

Later that year Dad died suddenly.
I deeply regretted not having more of a record of what he meant to me, personally. Mom remarried and life changed. Two years later my art teacher pulled me out of class one day to give me a blank book to record my perceptions of life in. Somehow she recognized I was a very troubled 15-year-old, though I sure didn't tell anyone what was going on at our house.
Ever since then I have sketch-journaled, not every day, but most of the important stuff, and certainly all of our roadtrips.
I believe it saved my life.

I want to go back to Washington DC, introducing my own family to its wonders. Maybe next summer. Of course I will sketchjournal it.