I’m not a big Black Friday shopper. Mostly because I’m not a morning person at all. I did get up once for Black Friday, at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m., to go to Kohl’s when my kids were little, but it wasn’t to get the trendy toy of the year. I went to get a portable DVD player for the car, so whenever we did travel I had a little something extra to keep three young ones occupied. At the time, the portable DVD players were going for about $250, but on Black Friday I knocked down three old ladies and a pregnant woman to get my DVD player for $88 (LOL only kidding…nobody was hurt in the making of this blog post. It was nothing like I thought Black Friday was going to be). I ended up with a great deal, especially for a single mom on a budget!

This year was my second Black Friday trip to buy a Canon PowerShot for only $99. I can finally stop using my phone (which has a really good camera though) and look like a real travel writer with a cool looking camera.

Writing about this reminds me of one of the first overnight trips I ever took with just the kids when they used the DVD player. I remember telling my friends that I was taking the kids to Vermont with no additional adult to help me and I was told, ‘you’re crazy,’ ‘I would never do it,’ and ‘you need someone to help you.’ I was crazy. The kids were little — I think they were around 8, 6 and 4.

Now I used to take my mom with me when we would go to Atlantic City, because I like to play a little slot machine and, of course, I can’t bring the kids with me onto the casino floor. I never thought I would do a trip like this alone though, but I wasn’t going to let my circumstances stop me (not so funny that I’ve let it stop me as they got older, but that’s changing!).

I wanted to take the kids to see The Vermont Teddy Bear Co. and Ben & Jerry’s factory tour. When I planned it out, the drive was only supposed to take about 2-3 hours from my house. WRONG! I didn’t have a GPS (were they invented yet??) and I kept having to stop and ask ‘how much longer until …’. I have no idea where I went wrong, but a three hour trip (great, I can’t get Gilligan’s theme song out of my mind now, so you shouldn’t either…) turned into a SIX-HOUR ride!

I was getting frustrated because I keep wondering how long I can keep these kids entertained before one of them has a meltdown that will completely throw me into one of my ‘that’s it, I’m going home” moods.

So I started telling the kids that I felt bad that the ride was taking so long, but they’ll have so much fun when we get there. Then, they surprised ME. My oldest yelled out, “Mom, it’s okay, it’s an ADVENTURE!” and the younger two chime in “an ADVENTURE, an ADVENTURE!” I busted out laughing at their young optimism, just kept driving and we got there.

I don’t remember every detail of that trip, but I can tell you that both factory tours are well worth it. I like those kind of tours, but then again I like watching Unwrapped on the Food Network and I used to love watching Mr. Rogers when I was little (and again when the kids were little) when he would go behind the scenes and show viewers how guitars or toothbrushes or something else was made. The kids had a blast, brought home bear souvenirs and had a chance to try Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (at the time my oldest said that when she grew up she wanted to be the ‘next Ben & Jerry’s, so this trip was even more special for her) and we ALL had an adventure!

Have you ever had a trip that was supposed to go one way and went in another, unexpected, direction?