They say taking a long road trip with your spouse is suicidal – I think that’s rubbish.

My wife and I are gearing up to drive to mid-state Illinois this coming week and I have to admit as coincidental as it might seem, I have come across a number of articles online that talk about taking long road trips with a spouse or significant other. These articles mostly speak to avoiding meltdowns and arguments and sadly they almost all advised to wear headphones to block your spouse out on the journey.

I found every single one of them to be trite and inconsequential. I can understand advice for the lovelorn or sexual dysfunction or whatever – but driving in a car with the person you’re supposed to want to spend the rest of your life with? Why should that simple task be so difficult? It would seem to me that it would be the perfect time to talk about life in general, the reason for the journey, hopes and dreams…all good things.

I told my wife a long time ago that I would always want to spend time talking to her – enjoying what she has to say, getting to know her better every day – and every time we have taken a journey together, including twice outside the country, we have maximized our time together, talking and having fun. Life should be about the journey, not just where you’re going, right?

In this particular case, our journey will take us to see my daughter Kaitlin and her newborn baby Naomi – and I am so excited that I am literally counting down the hours and minutes – it’s going to be a lot of fun seeing them. The other part is that we will be bringing with us an entire SUV full of baby clothes, shoes, outfits, diapers and toys to disperse when we get there. So much fun it’s almost criminal.

Getting back to my point, I am looking forward to the 17 hour drive there – and back – and my wife is too. I think that’s super cute and indicative of our relationship, which is cute at the worst of times and amazeballs the rest of the time. #GMK