Backtime Road Trip Day 5: Easy Riders

The world is out there. But you have to leave your comfort zone to experience it.

Through years working on the road, I have lots of madcap stories to tell. Like many of us in the industry, I live "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" for several months out of the year. There are no situations that shock me anymore. It's all within the comfort zone.

But when you do it as the solo honcho for a 3 and 6 year old, that would fall outside the protective bubble. What with the tummy aches and the potty breaks, fighting over snacks and DVDs, and generally tugging in opposite directions. But all in all, they're major troopers.

We started this morning outside Louisville and drove 2+ hours to Indy, where we hung out at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We spent two hours there and could easily have spent two more at the multi-level facility.

The theme this summer was Rock Stars: Cars & Guitars. It features equipment through the years, automobiles from vintage movies and music videos, and the original Kiss costumes. Pictured below is the collection of Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen, featuring guitars owned by B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and of course Rick Nielsen (see if you can spot that one).

There were a million other things to do there as interactives as well as some of the current exhibits: miniature houses (I was looking for Lester Freamon's signature), the 50th anniversary of the Etch-A-Sketch, the typical Indiana black community of the 1960s, and a trip to Egypt. The kids sat first class and landed in Cairo without incident.

The museum also has a pretty good food court. Another thing to beware of on these type of hit-and-run family trips is the food. I've eaten tacos, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs in just the past two days.

The next order of business was the 3 hour and 30 minute ride to Kalamazoo, Michigan - where we lived for three years, and where our daughter was born. Mercifully, one-third of Backtime's editorial department snoozed much of the way - and it wasn't the one who was driving.

When we arrived at our destination, we jogged the young man's memory by hitting Jungle Joe's for an hour of bounce time.

That got them good and exhausted before hitting another favorite joint. The dog lovers ate it up.

We've got a few more memory cells to unearth in our man. He was three-and-a-half when we left here.

So tomorrow we're gonna party like it's 2007.