When I was young, my mom would take me and my cousin on long road trips to South Carolina. The two of us would fill the back seat of the car with pillows, blankets, books and games. This was back in the late 70s when cars were as big as boats, so we had a lot of room.

We spent much of the 14 hour drive (the speed limit was only 55mph) giggling about whatever it is that young girls giggle about; which is to say that we giggled about everything. We wrote notes back and forth to each other, snacked on junk food and we’d try to see who could make my mom mad enough to give us a “don’t make me come back there” look.

To be honest, the pool and beach in Hilton Head were really nice, but the journey there was half the fun.

We have such great memories of the time we spent in the car even though it was long before DVD players, or even walkmans. We did have an 8-track player so we listened to Roger Miller sing “King of the Road” over and over, but that would just make us giggle more.

There is something about a road trip that brings people together like nothing else really can. When you’re thrown into a confined space with the people who know the best and worst about you, you have to make the best of it and that’s just what we did. And, it was great.

My advice for your next road trip is to turn off the DVD player, pull out the earbuds and actually talk to each other. You never know how much giggling you might do.

Now it’s your turn; what is your best road trip advice?

Content and/or other value provided by our partner, Kia Motors

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Back in 1979, when I was eight years old, my cousins and I piled into my aunt’s station wagon with a cooler full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a half-dozen flavors of Faygo. It wasn’t our first trip to Kings Island, also known as the largest amusement park in the Midwest, but it was the first time we were going to ride THE BEAST–the longest, and arguably to this day, one of the best wooden roller coasters in the world.

I remember the anticipation lasting for the entire drive and during our ride on the “warm-up” coaster called The Racer. By the time we were finally in line for The Beast, our excitement was almost unbearable. We were terrified, we were giddy, our emotions were up and down like…well, like a roller coaster. The mood of everyone in line was positively electric.

And, that ride lived up to every bit of our expectations.

For over four minutes, we were sent screeching along the wooden track, hurled into the woods, thrown around deep banks and into underground tunnels. The fact that we were moving at a speed of 65 miles per hour on the track you see in this picture, made the ride all the more exciting. That’s not steel, folks.

It was a thrill-ride like no other. And, thirty-three years later, it still is.

Now, I take my own kids to Kings Island and this year my son was finally tall enough to ride some of the bigger coasters, including The Beast. Kings Island has an amazing area for young kids (and I’m not just saying that; Camp Snoopy has been rated the “Best Kids Area in the World” for 11 consecutive years by Amusement Today), but my son is ten years old and has been mentally preparing to move on to the big rides for at least three years.

But that didn’t mean there wasn’t fear in the air when he finally got in line for The Beast.

Don’t let him fool you. He loved it.

Not only did my little 48-incher ride The Beast, but also Vortex, which contains two vertical loops, one corkscrew, one boomerang turn, and a 360-degree helix. He rode that one three times. We were extra grateful for the wristband which identified that he had been measured at Guest Services, so we didn’t have to wait for them to check his height on every ride.

Then there was Drop Tower .

That’s my daughter sitting in unlucky seat #13 and our friends, on either side, who were brave enough to ride 315 feet up, only to be dropped down the tower at 67 miles per hour. I took pictures. With my feet on the ground

Fortunately, Kings Island has a rating system in place to help any visitor choose their park adventure, grading rides on a scale from Low Thrills (1) to Aggressive Thrills (5), so if you think that rides like Drop Tower (5) seem too adventurous, you can ride Scrambler (3) or take a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower (2).

I love that Kings Island has been bringing me decade upon decade of fun and laughter. I love that my kids can experience and appreciate the same things I did when I was their age. I love that despite the generational gap, my teenage daughter and I both speak the same language when we’re on a roller coaster. But mostly, I just love The Beast.

And, I’m pretty sure I always will.

Are you a Aggressive Thrills rider or a Aggressive Thrills photographer when you go to amusement parks?

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I had this great big post planned because I have been gone so long (I’m pretty sure my advertisers think my colonoscopy killed me). I typed it out at the airport in New York yesterday and thought it sounded awesome, but when I looked at it again today, it was just a giant rambling mess.

There is too much, just TOO MUCH, to say and when I try to put it all together it looks like verbal vomit on my computer screen. So, instead, I will share the very few pictures I took, and a few that I stole from my friends without asking. Without further ado, here is my last week in pictures.

I visited the 9/11 Memorial. It’s beautiful and well-designed. I ran my fingers over random names and had goosebumps the entire time.

I hung out with friends.

photo courtesy of Dresden from creatingmotherhood.com. Food courtesy of Ree from The Pioneer Woman.

photo courtesy of Angie from awholelotofnothing.net

In some photos, I appeared more greasy than others. NYC in August, holla!

photo courtesy of melisa of suburbanscrawl.com. photobomb courtesy of Jenn from mommyneedscoffee.com

And, for geeks like me, the fun and games continued in the panel rooms where I spoke at a day-long workshop on how blogging can change your life and then at a session on how to leverage Twitter and Facebook. The Twitter and Facebook panel was standing-room only and was a highlight of my short, but amazing, social media career thus far. I took a picture from the front of the room before we got started.

And, my friend Angie, snapped this picture from the audience.

That’s me on the right. This was insane fun for me. Geeks, unite!

I fulfilled my AV dreams. This is where I sat during keynotes by Martha Stewart and Katie Couric as I fed questions to the interviewers. It’s a long way from the cable access show that I worked on in high school.

Yes, I just wrote about how awesome it was to sit with the tech crew. At least I own my level of geekdom.

An impromptu dinner with the hilarious Jessica Bernturned into a quick tour of the Upper West Side and I got to see The Dakota and Lincoln Center and eat a vegan burrito in a hole-in-the-wall, which made it all the more delicious.

The gate John Lennon walked through just before he was shot.

I went to mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, I walked along the plaza outside of 30 Rock, strolled past the entrance of the Museum of Modern Art, and I bought an I <3 NY shirt from a street vendor. I peered into Gray’s Papaya and Carnegie Deli, but couldn’t resist the food at the Famous Halal Guys’ cart on the corner of 6th Avenue and 53rd Street.

The best falafel. Period.

I did SO much, but I didn’t scratch the surface of what NYC has to offer; yet my heart and mind are full.

And, more than anything, my feet hurt really, really bad.

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I flew to Seattle yesterday morning for the BlogHer Food Conference. I started to write this post at the airport before I left Ohio, but because I hate to fly and I was going to talk about flying, I thought it would end up being one of those prophetic posts. You know, after the crash and all.

First of all I hate to fly, as evidenced by the time I took a Xanax and had two vodka cranberries. That flight? I liked. We hit turbulence and I may as well have had a cowboy hat and a lasso. Yee haw!

But, for the times I don’t have medication and I’m on the way to another city to actually work, I have to tough it out and because nothing takes my mind off of the world around me quite like being online, I ordered myself an upgrade to an exit row seat so I could work on the web from 25,000 feet. This is what I was going to tell you about when I started to write in Ohio; that I am a genius for thinking far enough ahead to get that seat.

What I didn’t consider is that exit rows give you more leg room, but you don’t get any more arm room. Lest you forget, I once held the prestigious nickname of “orangutan arms.”

I don’t know if you know this, but exit row seats have tray tables that come out of the arm of the seat. Some people might consider that before paying extra.

Said tray table is exactly 5 inches deep and sits, roughly, in the vicinity of your belly button. This is not an ideal position for typing. Sure, you could put your laptop directly on your lap, but when the plane is the temperature of roasting AND you are peri-menopausal, a hot computer on your thighs isn’t the better option. Trust me.

However, there was an upside, with the laptop sitting on the zipper of my jeans and with me being lucky enough to score the middle seat, I found that upgrading finally rid me of that “Orangutan Arms” moniker.

All it took was a swipe of my credit card and now you may call me, “T-Rex.”

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