Special Mom’s blog

On a good day with no traffic traveling on a highway is so much fun. I remember taking my son a few exits away to Burger King for a fry for just the ride. The service plazas on toll roads and the Welcome Centers or the tourist information centers with the vending machines are our favorite pit stops. As he grew older, the rides just became longer. We used to cross the border in Ohio, eat at a service plaza and he would say “go home”. We have traveled most of the major highways in the Eastern portion of the country. I really started noticing that when my husband and my younger would remember all the route numbers. I am good at remembering stuff, but I think I have no interest in these routes specifically that I do not remember many.

The toll roads really pinch us. Pennsylvania tolls are really high compared to many states. When pandemic hit, all of them in Pennsylvania became electronic. The advantage you need not have cash with you but they are expensive. Last month, we traveled in Ohio and found they still had employees at toll booth and it was much less. One time in New Jersey, we did not have cash and we just were said, we will be sent a fine. Boy! That hurt. These are the tiny things we need to plan.

Hershey’s chocolate factory is on I 76. Pennsylvania Turnpike. It is not a big drive and we would love to visit often. But the toll we need to pay to be there is so much. We have done it only a handful of times. Just for your information. They hand out free kisses to everyone. Not physical ones but the candy ones.

I wrote we have visited Dallas and Galveston. So I just need to mention, we have been to NASA space center in Houston. As I said, I did not know the difference until I visited both the ones in Florida and Houston. The control center is in Houston and the actual launch happens in Florida. The first time my brother drove us to Houston and my younger one was too little. But the second time, we made it again so he could remember details.

Most of the temples built here try to replicate a temple in India. One such is the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. My husband had studied in Madurai for a few years and has a close bonding to the temple. So Meenakshi Temple in Houston is one spot we did not miss on both occasions. Most of the Indian food in the canteen (that my special one craves, spicy ones) are prepared by Mexicans.

So for A to Z Challenge

H is for Highways, Hershey and Houston.

The theme: The travel I have done. (or we have done).