Canadian World Traveller Spring 2019 Issue

58
“Let’s Drive til it’s Warm!”
Our Family’s Road Trip to the Florida Keys
Article and photography by Jennifer Merrick
TTake the kids out of school for a
vacation? Not anymore.
Exams, part-time jobs and school projects
mean it’s a high season family vacation or
stay at home. And winters are long. And
cold. But four flights during high season
for some fun under the sun is prohibitively
expensive.
Our solution? Let’s drive til it’s warm! We
had ten days, two teenagers, snorkeling
gear and a cooler filled with food. Time to
hit the road!
Racing Adventures
Four states (New York, Pennsylvania, West
Virginia and Virginia), 13 hours and 1086
km later, we were at our first destination:
Mooresville, North Carolina, 40 minutes
north of Charlotte.
Why Mooresville? Well, it’s about the
halfway point on our trip, accommodation
is right off the highway and most importantly,
it’s the heart of NASCAR racing.
And so if you’re a racing fan, like the two
y-chromosome members of my family definitely
are, it’s like being a kid in a candy
story. There are so many car treats to
choose from in the vicinity: high-speed
go-karting at GoPro MotorPlex, numerous
NASCAR shops and museums and the
hometown of the legendary Dale
Earnhardt.
What to do? We only had one day in the
area, but we squeezed in visits to Lake
Norman State Park, NASCAR Hall of
Fame, Charlotte Speedway (where we
drove along this famous track for the
Christmas Speedway light and sound
installation) and some of the best ribs ever
at Lancaster BBQ.
Our Fave? Not being racing fans ourselves,
my daughter and I thought we
were taking one for the team when we
agreed to this pit stop. But we ALL had a
blast at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, especially
at interactive exhibitions like the car
race simulation and the pit stop demo,
where my daughter’s hair was flying as
she raced to fill up the tank and change
the tire to beat her brother’s time.