Hello! Welcome to episode 116 of I’d Rather Stay In. This week, we’re talking all about road trips.

Episode transcript

Megan
Welcome to I’d rather stay in with your hosts Megan Myers and Stephie Predmore. This week we’re talking about road trips. Stay tuned.

Stephie
Do you love listening to I’d rather stay in and want to support the podcast? Well now you can visit our website or the link in our Instagram profile and click Buy me a coffee or visit buy me a coffee.com/irsipodcast for the price of a cup of coffee you can help us cover the costs of creating this podcast. There are no monthly memberships and you can support us at whatever level you’d like whenever you like. Whether you buy us one coffee, many coffees or simply continue listening as always, we’re so grateful for your support Hello,

Megan
hi Stephie how’s it going? I feel like I deserve an award because I did so many administrative things yesterday and this morning I made an appointment for my son

Stephie
for the doctor did you actually pick up the phone call? Yeah, you have to I guess you could do it

Megan
online but I called once you very rarely hate calling on the phone but I made an appointment for my son for the doctor he has to have a physical before school starts in the fall so I did that I made an appointment for the dog to get her shots. I tried to call the IRS

Stephie
and they were like we don’t have a phone number goodbye.

Megan
Like you have to use a different browser by and they just like it just disconnected me get didn’t even give me like a short like if you you know sometimes if you stay on the line long enough like there will be a leader someone will pick up because they realized someone’s there. Yeah, didn’t happen. And this morning, I made an appointment at the dermatologist. Wow. And also last week when I was at my regular at my gynecologist appointment. I got them to like send a referral for my mammogram and so what day Thursday? Yeah, Thursday, they called me for the appointment and so I made that appointment, which is this coming Thursday. So I have like,

Stephie
good to have your boo things. Yeah, lots of things. I’m very proud of all things taken

Megan
care of and did my budgeting stuff yesterday. Okay, you didn’t get like a lot of work work done.

Stephie
I know your admin did a

Megan
lot of admin personal admin. So I feel very proud of myself very proud of you, especially for

Stephie
picking up the phone that money for you. Very won’t pick up the phone for the next six months. But

Megan
yeah, and the the thing that was annoying me about it though, I thought of this last week is that like I’m making all these appointments for myself and I’m a I’m like a generally healthy person. Like I don’t I don’t have an autoimmune disease. I don’t have a disability, I don’t get sick very often to be on right. And I have to make all these appointments. Because I’m a grown adult. And you have to make all of these specialist appointments apparently when you get to a certain age. And it just made me think about like all the people who don’t have the ability to make all those appointments. Yeah, me mad.

Stephie
I think about it a lot. Yeah, about a lot especially and then like when I’m fighting with insurance, I think about it. Oh, I rant about this sometimes to myself sometimes to Alex sometimes to you various times, quite often because it is just like you have to have the time you have to have a phone you have to sometimes at the Internet you have to have like there’s like resources involved and like doing all these things like to just make the appointments not even just like having appointments or pay for the appointments. Yeah, so yes, yes, a whole thing.

Megan
Also just the fact that like as a grown adult, 42 year old woman I have to have my primary care appointment every year. I have to have my gynecology appointment every year. I have to have a mammogram every year. I’m starting to go see a dermatologist which will probably also be every year I soon in I don’t know when they haven’t recommended yet I will have to start having colonoscopies which I don’t know how often those are. The cool thing

Stephie
when if you have a clean one you don’t have to have another one for like 10 years, good five or 10 years.

Megan
But that’s just like a lot of appointments. It is a lot plus the dentist twice a year.

Stephie
Yes. Yeah. This is reminding me that I really need to make my gynecologist about for like two years and I’m really not supposed to do that.

Megan
No.

Stephie
Well no, I especially am not supposed to because of the meds that I’m on. I am definitely supposed to have a PAP every year I just just died. So okay, I will call this afternoon I will call make a call this afternoon. I will make my gynecologist appointment.

Megan
We have the same clinic. Just call them up and be like oh My friend needs an appointment.

Stephie
Hello? Yes, my name is Stephie Predmore

Megan
I know I do not have my insurance card in front of me right now. No, I

Stephie
mean, I rarely do either. Be like yeah, that’s stuffy. All right.

Megan
You don’t know who you are?

Stephie
Oh, yeah, I feel that. Well, I am very, very proud of you. Goldstar yay, you get a cookie for that. I’ll have one to give you. But, man, so we just said we just had new neighbors take possession of the house next door to us. And they’re like, starting to move their stuff in. Like, I had made a cake yesterday. And there’s like a lot of left. And like all the neighbors are like starting with their stuff. Do you think they want some strawberry cake?

Megan
Probably. One strawberry cake. Come on. Here we are neighbors. Here’s your first batch of desserts. You’ll

Stephie
start running away from me at some point. You need to

Megan
establish early and often they will be free food coming their way.

Stephie
hiding from me crazy, because early. You guys know.

Megan
Hey, I got some Okay.

Stephie
Well, we thought we were talking about road trips this week because Meghan just took one.

Megan
I did. I just took our I guess it is annual now. Road trip, second annual road trip to Arkansas for the weekend with some friends. And also we have moved across the country multiple times. So we have that? Yes, in our pockets. So we thought we’d like maybe share some tips and things that are annoying on road trips and various other stuff.

Stephie
Well, there’s a lot of things that are annoying on road trips,

Megan
there are a lot

Stephie
of things I actually find having to stop and be extremely annoying.

Megan
We it is a very inconvenient but also, I remember when nice when you and I went on a road trip to North Carolina and the stark difference. Oh my god, between you and I’m going on a road trip and us separately with our families going anywhere literally.

Stephie
Like five minutes down the road. Yes. No, because our our trip it was like a solid 12 or 13 hours. It was like 12 hours. Like it would be like 12 hours non stop. Yeah, from point A to point B. And we did the whole thing in like 12 and a half hours like something insane. And our friends were like, how did you do that? Like, well, we stopped three times to switch drivers and P get snacks because you had bought a bunch of snacks for the drive down. And so we pretty much just at the end like we just stopped at a couple gas stations and got some snacks. So after that one gas station in West Virginia, where they like ignored us because we were wearing masks. We were like Hello. Will you please take our money for these cokes that we’re trying to buy? Please help me. And then we just like just pedal to the metal. There we were.

Megan
I mean when you don’t have to pee 4600 times on the way it’s a lot better. We stopped so many times on our drive back from Arkansas this time. I thought it was going to die. We had to stop, like 20 minutes outside of Bloomington because Max had to pee again. And he said he couldn’t hold it was like we’re almost home. It’s like I can’t hold it. Oh my god.

Stephie
As a worse I don’t know. Like there’s the so okay. That I don’t know if that’s the worst? Or if it’s like you have just gotten on the road. You’re like less than 30 minutes into the drive. And you have to stop for someone to pee. Yeah, they’re both really fucking irritating. And like you were supposed to leave pee before we left the house. My dad was famous for that growing up. I know it was two dads. And yes, we would like be 30 minute look 20 minutes into the drive. If you’d be like pulling over and my mom would be like, you we just left when we left school or

Megan
dude, I’d have to go again.

Stephie
Also, my dad would do this thing where he would like be driving. And he would be getting sleepy. But he wouldn’t just like come out and ask my mom if she would like take over and drive. He would just like yawn a lot. Just like be really dramatic about until she was like pull the car over and let me drive. But he also knew that that came at a cost because he also knew that she would not stop. Yeah, he was like,

Megan
once I’m driving when I’m driving. That’s it. Here’s a bottle you

Stephie
I pee in the bottle goodbye. Yeah, especially this like most of the time we didn’t take long road trip. So it’d be like, three hours to go see your family in Indiana or whatever is usually particularly like long. It was like six or more hours. And yes, she was like, Who baby should be like, take your fucking nap? We’re not stopping. I’m putting on the music I want to listen to. That’s it.

Megan
Yeah, we when I was a kid, we generally would only go to my grandparents house, which is two hours away, or to my aunt’s house was just three hours away, and there would still be like so many stops. And it was partially also because my brother used to throw up a lot in the car. Oh, like we had to mitigate that situation. But oh, man. So like you said one of the things that we did, which I always do when I go on a trip is pack snacks. Yes. Because it’s not that I don’t love a gas station. Snack Hall. Like I mean there is do there’s just something about like a gas station snack situation.

Stephie
I will buy snacks. I haven’t eaten in decades.

Megan
You know what snack I bought this weekend combos. potato skins.

Stephie
Oh,

Megan
like sour cream and onion. potato skin.

Stephie
Nice. And you know what Alex and I were talking about? Those little crispy shoe stringy fry things?

Megan
Oh, yeah, I haven’t had those in like, two years. We were talking about

Stephie
for some reason. We were talking about road trip snacks and how like, because I can’t remember. Oh, I know. We were we were talking about bugles.

Megan
Oh, man,

Stephie
and then that devolved into?

Megan
I’m always surprised they still make beautiful. Yes.

Stephie
Anything that I can find in a gas station? I’m like, I didn’t know they still made them. I haven’t eaten this in literally decades. And yes, I think I need this

Megan
right. They had it was funny because the kids like bought the same things like both well Reese got like, he got the same kind of Doritos on the way there and the way back. Like did not deviate from time snack which okay. But they had so little Debbie makes like the oatmeal cream pie, right. And the only one you can get at the grocery store usually is the oatmeal cream pie. Right. But they have other cream pies. What? So they have a they have a chocolate chip cream pie, which obviously I know you’re not interested in. But they also have a peanut butter cream pie, which is peanut butter cookies with peanut butter fillings in it is amazing. And I’ve only seen it at gas stations. I’ve never seen it in a grocery store. I had no idea. They’re so good. Yeah, yeah.

Stephie
So interesting.

Megan
We were looking at the little like display of all the little snack cakes. And Max was like, why are these names so weird? Ding dong. holos zing, like, why are they so I’m like, I don’t know. But I’m

Unknown Speaker
not telling you just get your snacks.

Megan
Like a snack. We also I always pack drinks as well. But then we always end up having to buy drinks. Yeah. Because either nobody wants. They don’t want the drink that I’ve backed

Stephie
bottled water that you packed.

Megan
Well usually I packed like, like spindrift or like I will buy whatever drink everyone wants, like ahead of time like one bottle of it. Yeah. At but then drink all of it. And then they have to buy more. And then it might go Oh, great. Sure. Fine. It’s fine. It’s whatever. But then also that obviously contributes to them having to pee like 1600

Stephie
Yes, that is that well, I always struggle. I struggle with this on planes to pretty much any travel I’m doing where I’m like, thirsty and I’m like if I drink a lot of water or tea or Coke or whenever I’m gonna have to stop and pee. I’ve discussed I find that annoying. So I get to my little my destination. Maybe a little bit dehydrated sometimes because I’m just like, I didn’t want to have to pee. Because gas station gas station bathrooms are iffy at best. They

Megan
are super iffy. I was really spoiled when we lived in Texas and the gas station of choice was buches Yeah, and those are exceedingly clean bathrooms. They pride themselves on clean bathrooms but also there’s like 100 of them yes in in the building. So they’re always one available. We try to stop at actual rest ups because sometimes the rest stop is cleaner than a gas station bathroom emphasis on sometimes sometimes. There is really the

Stephie
right time of day for rest stop. Yes as a woman And

Megan
absolutely, yeah, I mean, I will say we don’t. I don’t like to do a road trip, like at night. But yeah, try to try to drive during daylight hours. Um, yeah, so we chose like a, like a welcome center, I guess like on the Arkansas border, the Arkansas Welcome Center and they have bathrooms that are like, usually clean like they have to have each one. Yeah. And so they’ll close one shirt and leave the other one open. I guess the one that’s open is supposed to be cleaner. But not always cleaner in those restaurants because you don’t always have like the one in Arkansas. They have people there because it’s also like a little shop where you can buy like, yes, guidebooks and things. Yeah, but the other ones that are just on the side of the highway that there’s not someone there cleaning? No. So there’s always people on road trips. I feel that like, you know, you have bathroom issues. Yes. Or they’re just like really sloppy people. And like, like, I know a lot of people say like, men’s bathrooms are disgusting. Oh, women’s women’s bathrooms are awful. atrocious. Like, I don’t know what these people do. Sometimes. It’s

Stephie
bizarre.

Megan
I don’t get it. It’s also half the time. It’s just that people don’t flush. Which is like, you flush at your own house.

Stephie
I mean, you would think

Megan
right, like you don’t just continuously go to the bathroom without without flushing. I don’t know. It’s weird. It’s just disgusting. If you are a person that does not take care of yourself in the bathroom, which includes flushing. Be courteous to other people, like come up

Stephie
here, especially in public and decency. That’s weird.

Megan
It’s your hover. No,

Stephie
I’m not either. Too much like coordination. It’s like don’t have

Megan
it’s a lot of effort. Also, like I have short legs. So like, it depends on the toilet. Sometimes my feet don’t always like reach. Usually at restaurants, it’s fine. But I’ve been at like some restaurants where I’m like, this toilet is unusually high. I feel like um, yeah, I don’t think it’s worth the effort. I don’t think that like, unless you have like, I don’t know, like an open sore on your ass.

Stephie
Like, okay,

Megan
thank you what’s gonna happen? I have

Stephie
the same theory. But I know a lot

Megan
of people that are I know a lot of

Stephie
dodge hovers, and they’re like, grossed out by the thought of not hovering. And I’m like,

Megan
also, like,

Stephie
I mean, I don’t want to sit on a seat that just says like, pee all over it. Right? But like, if the seat seems fairly wiped down and clean, right?

Megan
Put over by it. And also like, you touch the handle of the thing. Place Where You Are you touched like the stall handle the lock the sink, right? The hair, the air dryer thing that just like spits germs up into the air. You handle money and your phone, which should they’ve proven your phone is like one of the most disgusting things you could ever have. Yes. So like,

Stephie
yeah, at that point, I’m like, I don’t also like I’m so uncoordinated. If I tried to hover, I would probably just end up like breaking my nose.

Megan
And sure, I would just like peed on my leg. And then I would have like wet pants. So like, I have been my shoe. Why, like what at what cost? Right? Great. I guess I didn’t get someone else’s germs. But now I have PML

Stephie
Yeah, this is my this is my theory as well. So thank you for

Megan
the other thing that I really hate about road trips is navigating for certain people, which will include my husband because like, or it’s not even necessarily navigating it would be like a situation where like, we needed to stop somewhere for lunch. And so we get close to a town and then you know, there’s the signs were say like, this is what’s here in the town,

Stephie
or you pull up your phone and see what’s there,

Megan
whatever. And so like, we were in, we’re outside some town and like the first exit was like one thing and it was like, it seemed to be like the business you know, the business alternate, which would be like mostly just skirts around. And so then got up to like the next one. And he’s like, I’m like, should I use it for like food and he’s like, Yo, I’m gonna exit here and I’m like, yeah, he’s like, You should like this is where you want me to like, yes, like where So we’re gonna eat if you don’t like exit and so then we exit and the, the way that this town is situated, is that like, it’s a weird part in the road in Missouri, where like you’re going up the highway, and then you have to make like this weird turn. Uh huh. Does like stay on their highway that you need. And so the town is just like, sort of off to the side of that. Yeah. But if you don’t stop at this town, then like, the next town is like an hour away. Yes. And so I was like, because he would get off and he’s like, it’s two miles to the restaurants. I’m like, so what? We need to eat food? Yes.

Stephie
And then like, that’s like two minutes. It’s not like 20 hours do just go.

Megan
Like, they need to go to the bathroom. And they need food. Like, we need to, like what we need to stop. So my favorite

Stephie
is when we’re like, I’ll have like, Siri will be telling us where to go. Yeah. And Alex will just like, only kind of be listening to her. And I’ll be like, You need to turn here. But yeah, I know. Mike. Okay. And then since he like snapped at me, I won’t say anything again. And I’ll just watch him go in circles. The next because he’ll be like, Yeah, I know. I’m listening. But oh, but then he’s like, not listening. So then he misses something. Sure. And she has to take him and like you turns, but I’m like, such a petty bitch that I’m like, Well, you snapped on me before, so I’m just gonna let you go in circles until you fucking figure it out. Even though she’s literally telling you what to do.

Megan
Yeah. Not gonna help you, man. Yeah, yeah, it’s super annoying. That’s

Stephie
Enos. It’s

Megan
I think it’s like something about their brains where they just like, they’re like on the road. And they’re focused on like, driving on the road. And like thinking about turning off the road is just like too much, because I don’t understand. Like, there was one point we were. We were driving back home, and we were outside St. Louis, or driving through St. Louis, basically, and which we all know is Bob’s favorite cat as he was. So he was on the far left lane is he always is. And all of a sudden, he goes, Oh, should we take 255? And I’m like, Oh, I don’t know. And like it was he’s saying it. Like as we were driving past the exit exit for 255. He’s like, Well, I guess it’s too late. I’m like, Oh, okay. I’m like, We’ve never taken 255 and say it because it’s always been closed before. And he’s like, Well, what did what did the map say? I’m like, we’re in St. Louis. If you can’t get home from St. Louis, I can’t help you

Stephie
literally straight shot in 55. It’s literally the easiest drive. You don’t even have to there’s there’s literally no diversion between St. Louis and Bloomington. The whole way?

Megan
I don’t think I was I don’t think it would have mattered. It’s not. It’s fine to just drive on regular 55. I don’t think I’m 55 is any faster? I don’t think so either. Like, it’s the same route, like we’re on the right road, just stay on the road. But it happened the same way. On the way back, I told you where like, when you’re driving through downtown St. Louis, just that weird split over the river. And you have to get over to go on the Tulsa exit. And it’s weird, because the map always tells you to stay to the left. But it’s so much easier if you took the right side because the highway like splits and then comes back together but it never tells you to take the right side of the split ever. So I was like, why didn’t the map tell us to take that and like I don’t know. It never does. But you know what’s going to be the tell to exit because it’s always the Tulsa exit.

Stephie
It hasn’t changed. God bless him. Oh, help you? Yes. i It’s.

Megan
It’s a joy. And it’s so light. It’s truly a

Stephie
joy. What do you what are your road trip activities?

Megan
The kids really like playing the alphabet game. Okay, which is where you look for signs that have words that start with the letter, the next letter of the alphabet. They like playing that one. Sometimes they do the license plate one, depending on how far we’re going. They don’t they haven’t done it. We went to Arkansas, but they’ve done it a few times when we’ve done like the Texas Midwest. Trip. That’s a few days worth of travel. Right. When when the kids were little, we had a DVD player and we would let them watch movies. And then I don’t know like we still have the DVD player. But for some reason, like we just stopped taking it. We just stopped taking it and they’ve never heard that asked about it so time the kids also sleep a lot. Yeah. The trip reflex look at his phone, which is what he does not in a car. So you know, looks at Instagram videos the entire time. Sometimes I like to read. I can’t read in the car. It’s hard to like concentrate. I don’t get nauseous, but it’s hard to concentrate on what I’m reading. Yeah. I don’t like to take naps. Also because I have to navigate. Yeah, just to like just drive.

Stephie
Really, he doesn’t listen to me anyway, so I might as well nap right as he’s not gonna listen either way. i Should

Megan
I just get like nervous about it. Also, because he like, he doesn’t like the kids to talk to him because he’s focused on driving. And so like, he starts to get like really worried about like, they start shouting at him from backs and the only way they can hear each other just like gets me yell. Yes, basically. So I have to be like, you know, the translator and like the one paying attention to the children. So we actually don’t do a lot of car activities. Kind of just look out the window a lot.

Stephie
Yeah, we aren’t really like activity people. I mean, we aren’t activity people on like our everyday lives either. You know, that scan

Megan
recently bring crayons and coloring pages and stuff for the kids that I mean, they’re a lot older now obviously. Yeah. They’re just seemed content to just like to not even do anything.

Stephie
Yeah, I yeah, I remember as a kid, I would just surf like make myself a little nest in the backseat. Because I was the only so I had the whole backseat to myself. So just like make myself a little nest and like, sleep had a little Walkman and I listen to my music or whatever. Um, but yeah, like, Alex and I will just like, chill, we’ll listen to music.

Megan
Yeah, he Oh my god.

Stephie
But this was this was before we had the satellite radio, just like had regular like FM radio. He will like put the radio on scan. And then like, stop on the song. And he’ll listen to it for like that station for like a song. And then the next song will come on, like knit and then I’ll like scan again. And I’m like, I’m gonna do a murder. I do a murder I like because also he’s usually the one driving because I am a road trip snapper. And so like, he always jokes about the fact that like you can put if like, we’re going to be on a road trip. We’re going to be in the car for longer than an hour. You put me in that car. I’ll be asleep within five minutes. Yeah, I’ll be asleep before we’ve left the town. Like so he’s like, Oh, destroyed and I always will offer I don’t really love to drive, but I will usually offer but like when we did that trip to New Jersey, that 14 hour stretch, just like straight through. And part of that was stress for him. But like, he he drove the whole way. I did offer to drive and he was like, No, that’s good. Good. Like, okay, well, then I’ll just, I actually I don’t think I have too much on that because I did want to stay awake with him. But we just like, I don’t know, I even if I’m like scrolling on my phone again. I have to like careful like, I’m not like reading too many posts on Facebook or Instagram because again, then I like feel like I’m gonna barf. Like, watch stories or whatever. But sometimes we listen to podcasts. But yeah, I don’t know. We’re just not like bank roadtrip activity people.

Megan
Yeah. You did miss all of Asheville because you fell asleep. When you drove back through

Stephie
all the beautiful trees.

Megan
We did listen to a lot of podcasts. We went on a North Carolina trip. Yeah.

Stephie
And that worked for us because you and I have the same taste and many, many, many things. Yeah. So it worked well that we could just like, listen to the 90s radio station or listen to the same because we like the same podcasts. So that worked really well. Yeah, like I feel like it’s a little harder with Alex and I just we have differ different tastes in music and podcasts. So like, but sometimes I’ll be like, oh, there’s just a podcast episode. I do think he would enjoy it. Yeah, hold it up for him. But he’s definitely a little bit more of a music on the road kind of guy which I respect.

Megan
We listen to there’s a station on satellite that is called it’s called Road Trip radio. Oh Ha and so we listened to that. When we went blue when we did our move. We listen to that and we listen to it again this time. And I will say in the past two years, it has improved a lot because it was Have a lot of like there’s like a it’s a good mix I will say so there’s like 80s hits and there’s like yacht rock and there’s like Backstreet Boys and like there’s a whole like wide variety of stuff. But it would definitely leaned more toward like the yacht rocky type. Like, you’re gonna listen to life as a highway.

Stephie
Life as a highway.

Megan
I’m not here life is a highway one time. Very happy the only song that I think I heard her two songs multiple times. Beat it. Okay. And holiday Road, which is the song from national influence vacation. Okay, heard those songs twice. But everything else we got like a wide variety. I was very impressed about how much they had improved that station. But when we moved, obviously, we had two cars and so the other cards not have sunlight. Yeah. And it was definitely like a scan situation where you had to like, well, because then try and find somebody something

Stephie
too. And you’re like just listening to like FM radio on a road trip. It’s like you start off with like your radio stations and your presets. And then at some point you get out of rage and then you have to scan find then you like find something and you’re good for like half an hour. Maybe an hour.

Megan
Yeah, depending on like what what error Yeah, I

Stephie
mean, then you lose it again. And then you got to start all over. Like Oh, no. Dammit.

Megan
The worst. I love singing in the car too. So but also like the kids don’t like it when I sing in the car, which is very annoying.

Stephie
Eden has taken to telling me that I can’t say more dance. Yes. Very. Like, excuse me. When I think

Megan
maybe they don’t care as much now also because like Reese likes to sing along to things sometimes. But definitely when they were little, they’d be like, Mom, you are not allowed to sing. Don’t sing. I was like, Don’t sing.

Stephie
I was like, she was making me watch it. She’s making this watch the Hakuna Matata scene and Lion King over and over the five times in a row the other day. And since and we were like in the kitchen. And so at some point, I was just like bopping along and she looks at me. She goes, Mom, I know. Yeah. And I was like,

Megan
why it’s mess. It’s just like a weird kid thing where they’re like, no only only to demote, improve, I can dance to the song Not

Stephie
you. You are like she was like dancing, the kind of singing but I was not allowed to

Megan
write. This is my jam only.

Stephie
Yeah, it’s like sometimes sometimes if we’re like listening to something in the car, like, I’ll like hum quietly myself, so she can’t hear me and tell me to stop because if I sing louder, she tells me no, she tells me to stop. Rude.

Megan
So both of you both you and I have traveled with our pets. Your car? Yes. Do you have tips to share? Because, yeah, my dog was like insane the whole time? Yeah, so,

Stephie
um, when we used to travel with our beagles. We because I’ve had, like, from the time I was a kid until like, I moved out of my parents house. We had three different beagles. And the one I grew up with, like Heidi would just like sit in my mom’s lap the whole time. And then me she would like sit like a cat on the center console thing like between the driver’s seat and like watch my dad drive. Like she would just sit there and like watch the road and like she’d start to fall asleep and she like took herself away like I have to watch the road I don’t trust dad driving. And so we actually finally got little seatbelts for her and sign back. And that helps a lot and so I definitely like especially if you do have a dog that I mean it is technically safer for them if you do have a dog that is just like up in your shit. Getting those little doggy seat belts if you have a spot to clip them in is actually really helpful because like it does kind of I also felt like it kind of helped calm them down like oh I’m like secure Yeah, and they like and they just like clip into the usual like hook onto their harness or whatever and then then it’s just like clip into like the regular seatbelt thing our dogs now because we have a third row SUV we just put down the third row and then we like lay out one of their beds and they just like stay in the back. But like I do find that like if you’re traveling with dogs that like having them like a space for them or like keeping them like secure a seatbelt is a safer and safer for them but also less makes them less annoying because otherwise they do just like try to sit in your lap the whole fucking time. I

Megan
oh yeah, that’s what mystery did. Most of the time. She, on the way there, the kids sat in the back and she basically had to sit on Reese like the whole time until she would finally fall asleep. But even though we’re like, you can sit in the middle of there’s plenty of room in the middle and you can still see out the window that she’s like, No, I’m gonna sit right here. Yeah. And that she that I switched with race partway through on the way back and she did the same thing to me where she just like, go sit on you. I’m just gonna send an email. I’m gonna dig all of my foot bones into your leg. It’s gonna be super comfortable.

Stephie
Royce is really famous for law when we had the Volvo. He would plank smash himself down like on the footboard in the backseat. This is a 70 pound German Shepherd. This is not a seven pound dog like he’s a big boy. And he would just like swish himself down on the footboard and then like it kind of gives up a little bit stuck and then be like, well, I guess so live here. Why you don’t want comfortable at all?

Megan
I mean, he does like to crawl inside of Eden’s play tent. So this doesn’t

Stephie
mean this is true. Yeah. And now that we have the SUV he does, they both do a lot better on the car. Because they just have space to lay down. Sometimes he’s just like, a little too far away. And so like, I’ll try to cut like crawl between the captain’s chairs and the second row and then like, he can’t go forward and he can’t go back. And none of us can help him because we are driving. He’s just like, well, I guess I’ll lay down here. Okay. Dude, you’re stuck until we stop. Like, that’s just how it is like, I don’t know what to tell you. But he’s they’re definitely getting better about that. It was like lay and take a nap. And you’re like, that’s what you’re supposed to do. Just lay down and take a nap. Yeah, and and there’s a lot less stress about the driving situation now that we have more space for her to just like lay down. And she’s She also used to like, be like, she’d be like sitting up in the backseat. And like, you could see her melting. Like, I’m gonna fall asleep. I’m gonna fall asleep. I’m gonna fall asleep. No, I gotta stay away. Now she just like lays down. But yeah, anxious dogs. I think do better if they have a space if they are like seat belt it in. For whatever reason. Just helps them

Megan
yeah, we thought about like putting her in the back. Like in a tailgate trunk area. But then I was like, well, we have too much stuff. Yeah, to like not like really have place for her to be so that’s not gonna work either. And then she probably would be like, Oh my god, I’m in the back. And you guys are up there. And she would probably like, fall down a million times. That was part of her problem, too. Is that like, every time we would turn? Yeah. Or like have to, like slow down a little she would like launch herself forward.

Stephie
Yeah. So that was that’s also one of the benefits of having the seatbelt thing is that they if you have a dog like that, that they don’t like just like the backseat. Yeah. So yeah, it’s definitely that’s, that’s probably one of the better purchases that my parents made because it made road trips. Much better. Just beagles so Yeah, cuz I mean like we’ve never I’m trying to think we’ve ever really taken like long enough trips with the dogs or we’ve had to like get out and like do like walk them and stuff walk them Yeah, but a potty or anything like that. Maybe a couple times with the beagles. I think we did. But the beagles are like they were pretty much fine like with if we just had to suffer like a gas station that just like a little grass or whatever. But I know to like one of our friends was moving from Atlanta to Chicago this last weekend or whatever. And she was moving along with her dog. She was like Coco cool love all these like restaurants that don’t have like the dog runs anywhere near where the actual like parking lot is. She’s like this is definitely safe for female humans.

Megan
I think it’s yeah, they always put them like behind the building. Super creepy. Also, like the layout, the one we were last at, was behind the building. And then like right next to the dog run is all this like unmowed field and like trees in places for your dog to basically like get lost into above that. And so like, No, I’m just gonna walk my dog wherever. Yeah, I clean up after her. Right. I pick it up. It’s fine. Yeah. Yeah, I don’t trust this sketchy place probably was like snakes in it. I don’t know.

Stephie
Yeah, Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Yeah, I don’t know. Thank you. I will do whatever whatever I want. I’m not going to get murdered behind a breast stop. Yeah, trying to let my dog go pee. Yeah, I mean, granted, I have a German Shepherd. So like maybe people won’t mess But also, he causes his ear infections I can’t hear so. But yeah, we also have not had to do super long road trip with the baby. Like the longest we did was I think the longest we’ve gone it’s like, four hours with her. And like that’s kind of her max that point she starts to get real crappy and you’re like, I don’t blame you.

Megan
Yeah, that’s when we definitely like, that’s what the the DVD like comes in handy. Yes.

Stephie
Yeah, there’s some times where I’ve just had like Hannah or my phone with like, YouTube pulled up on it or Netflix or something. We like hearing it go kid. Yeah, whatever. Cuz we don’t have like a tablet for her or anything. But yeah, I think I feel like there’s like, I feel like there’s like, an age gap where like, traveling with your child is a pain in the ass. Like when they’re little and they’re just like a little potato that sleeps all the time. Like, it’s fine. Like, yes, you have to stop every couple of hours, like feed them and change them. But you have to do that at home anyway. Right? And then like a guest, you got your every couple hours for you to pee too. And then when they’re older, and you can like explain, like, Okay, we’re going somewhere and it’s gonna be really fun.

Megan
Yeah, but now they need to do like activities. Yeah. It’s really just about keeping them busy. Yeah, like bringing, like new toys, new coloring books. Anything new like I would use to when we only had Reese. I would like sit in the back with him. Oh, like help entertain him. Just to make sure that like he didn’t get bored.

Stephie
Yeah, I know some people that will go to like the dollar store. And they’ll get like some new like activity books, especially if it’s a long a really long road trip and you have like something new to pull up each hour. Yeah, I know people that would do that on planes too. And they’ll just like spend like 10 bucks at the dollar store. Get a bunch of cheap shit. And they’re like, look, it’s then you have the new say the candy for the last hour. I think you’re gonna die. Right? I’ve also seen where people will get those like, like those little like, I think of them as crafting boxes, because it’s what my mom always put her under bergerie flossin. But apparently they’re supposed to be like tackle boxes. Oh fucking No. Anyway, those, you know, little plastic boxes that have a little dividers full somewhere. And they just put like a bunch of little snacks

Megan
in there. Yeah, my friends. Here’s your snack box that my friend just did that on her last flight with her son. And he ate like all the good snacks.

Stephie
Our friend Kathleen was like trying to figure out how to feed her six year old over the summer because he’s just like, constantly hungry and like always asking for snacks. And so she in like a Facebook group that we’re in and she was like, What do I do? Because I am not going to be snack bitch all summer. And they were like you put there like a bunch of people were like, put out a board of a bunch of stuff. And he has to eat all of it before he’ll put more out and she was like, Okay,

Megan
we’re like a, like a muffin tin was like the one solution because yeah, easily portioned.

Stephie
Yeah, something like that, where you’re just like, yeah, you have to also eat the carrots. And you have to eat the fun stuff. Yeah, for you have more stuff.

Megan
The fun part of being a parent was like, if you’re hungry and you’re not hungry enough to you Napal you’re not hungry.

Stephie
You’re hungry, right?

Megan
I do like road trips. I know. We just complained like a whole bunch. But

Stephie
I do enjoy them when I’m taking them with people that I really enjoy. Yeah, and I just does include my family and clear but I do think that there is a very different there’s a different dynamic between like taking like a girls road trip. Yeah. Girlfriends versus a road trip with your family. Oh, for sure. The prep is different. The dynamic is different, your mental state into it is different. It’s just a completely different experience. So

Megan
yeah, I do think that it’s definitely more fun if like you don’t have the pressure of like trying to get somewhere Yes, like if you have the ability to be like wareness stop at the world’s largest covered wagon, right which does exist nearby us you could stop and do that and it’s not just like go go go go go we gotta get to where we go and go go go go GO which is

Stephie
stresses me out when Kathleen and well moved from Chicago to California. They drove and they had their old cat Chester, who they had got hardest and a leash for and they just like planned to just kind of take it at whatever pace they want. Like they had a point at which they had to get to California but they had like a couple of days with a buffer time. And so they just would like stop at all these things and like there’s a picture we’ll holding Chester think We’re in Canyon. Like, like yeah, we’re just gonna stop and like see the sights and with our put our cat on a leash so that we can like, see the sights without having to worry about like him overheating in the car and they had a great time. Yeah. So I feel like that’s the way to do it if you’d like have the ability to just

Megan
take your time. Yeah, yeah.

Stephie
Yeah. So, you know, that’s those are our thoughts on road trips.

Megan
May you have a excellent road trip if you’re taking one this summer? Yes.

Stephie
And on that note, we are going to take a little bit of a summer break. We’re going to take a few weeks off because we do have some various vacations and whatnot planned, but we will be back mid July. So until then, listen to us. Wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review on Apple podcasts. You can follow us on social media at IRSIpodcast, or send us an email at idratherstayinpodc We’d love to hear from you. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai