Many years ago while traveling from Utah to California and then up the coast to Oregon and then back to Utah via Nevada, I really got to thinking about how to entertain the kids.  You see, at the time the boys were about 8 and 10 years old and that is a tough age to keep their interests up in the travel.  Adults have a tough time staying focused on the sites as they pass by, but kids don’t have much of a good time, mostly because A: They don’t want to be there.  And B:  They want to be somewhere else.

So, knowing that in advance my wife and I decided we would play a game with them.  We were all on the look out for trash, animals or something we decided on when we started out.  The first to see the thing got to call out the next thing we would all look for and on and on the game went.

Well, that passed the time for several hundred miles and then it got boring and back to the “Are we there yet”, stuff.

Well, a year or two later one of my nephews and his family were about to embark on a long trip across country.  They had children ranging in age from  6 to 13 and that is quite a spread for a nice and comfy trip anywhere, yet alone a long hot summers drive to Aunt Tildas place.

So, I made him up some “Road Kill Bingo” cards.  Using card stock and my excel spreadsheet I came up with “most likely” things that they might encounter on their road trip.  Since they were heading toward Southern Utah and Northern Arizona (I just made that up), they needed animals like, coyotes, deer, elk, antelope, skunks, raccoons, mice, cougars, domestic cows etc.  You get my drift and if you are making up your own games, think about where your travelers are starting from and where they are going.  You won’t find any armadillos, alligators or possums in Idaho.

The game cards quickly filled up and still had spaces that needed filling.  So, I started filling them in with road side trash.  Empty cardboard box, milk jug, box springs, couch, lawn chair, bungee cord etc.  Pretty soon the cards were all filled up and ready to be printed.

I gave them the stack of cards and some bingo markers and off they went.  Later they told me the game had the kids all excited until about halfway to their destination and once one or two of the kids started to fall asleep from the constant looking for their next road kill item, the car got really quiet.  Not a bad thing in my opinion.  Suddenly after many, many miles of the car being so quiet, my nephews wife yelled out “DEAD COW”  BINGO”!!!!!  The vehicle came to an abrupt awakening and she won the game!

Sound like fun?  It is!

Bears Butt

July 2011…..enjoy your next trip with the children!