A Made in America Road Trip: Pretrip

A Made in America road trip: Pretrip

Cast of characters:

Me: 28 years old, school-based speech language pathologist, Disney enthusiast, hockey fan and travel lover

Kim: 50-something, Nick's mom, middle school para educator, loves taking silly pictures and scrapbooking

Kathy: also 50-something, Kim's sister, mother to Hannah (and 3 others that didn't make an appearance in this trip). She's a medical assistant and also loves scrapbooking

Hannah: 18, brand new high school grad, kind of a surly teenager that loves her phone. She's Kathy's baby. Everyone has trouble reading Hannah but we did figure out she enjoys thrill rides.

And guest appearances by family members of Kim and Kathy.

I'm a trip planner. I like to know and be involved in every detail. This trip did not follow my typical pattern of trips. Roughly a week before the trip, Nick and I were having ice cream with his parents and his mom said she and her sister were talking about a trip to Hershey and she'd keep me posted because they'd love it if I went with them. I kind of pushed the thought to the side because it didn't sound like this trip would get off the ground and I wasn't sure how I felt about traveling with Nick's family without Nick.

Two days later, Nick showed me trip details his mom had sent him. I debated the trip heavily and finally, with some persuasion from Nick, agreed to go.

The plan was for Kim and I to leave on Wednesday June 24. We would drive to Connecticut and spend the night at either her parents' house or at Kathy's before picking up Kathy and Hannah the next morning to drive to Pennsylvania. The main goal was Hersheypark, but as the trip grew closer, some additional destinations got added to the mix, all of which were made-in-the-USA places.