There are two definitions for car sick. The first definition is the one you find in the dictionary. To get physically ill due to the motion of the car. The second is the definition that only parents would know when riding in a car with small children for an extended time. The desire to put up a physical divide, such as a wall in the car so the kids can not look at, bother, or talk to each other to avoid fighting kids and screaming from the parents. There are only a few ways to avoid the second type of car sickness. Invest in a DVD player for the car, travel when the kids are asleep, or wear earplugs. Well Friday afternoon we found one more solution. Stop at a park and let them run themselves out and then watch them curl up and go to sleep, while the sun is still out (yeah!!!!).
With that solution in mind we decided to stop at Occoneechee State Park. It is about 20 minutes off of I-85 and believe me the extra time out of our way was well worth it. I just have to remember that the season park pass doesn't do a lot of good if you leave it in the other car, but it was only $2 to get in. We started this adventure by geo-caching. If you are geo-caching, I would skip to the next paragraph because I am probably going to give some spoilers. The cache is located at the Terrace Gardens. This location screams to be a wedding site, with the arbors and flowers it was lovely. There were remains of the old house stone foundation as well as a chimney off in the woods. Following our GPS (which was fully charged this time) we found the family graveyard. Well we searched and walked and searched and walked, while the kids ran everywhere (pinging off trees like pinballs) until my husband removed his sunglasses and caught a glimpse of plastic hidden in a tree. The kids posed for their pictures with the "treasure box". And we signed the book and left a token and returned the cache.
Then we were off to find the playground. It was a really nice facility. Large with a castle like feel to it. So it was no surprise when our kids decided they were knights and princesses. We met another family there and their little dog became the dragon keeping them in the castle. So two princesses laughed and squealed as a knight braved the dragon who chased him around the playground. While the two oldest played with the other family's little girl, our youngest (2-year old) proceeded to give me multiple heart attacks by climbing up rope ladders and monkey bars that were far outside her age group. After an hour of full force playing we decided it was time to get back on the road to see grandma and grandpa.
The park is definitely a "fun in the sun" park. It is right along Buggs Island Lake (no I am not kidding) and has a lot of neat facilities including a nice public bathroom (we checked that out ourselves), a shower facility, cabins, campsites, trails, including ones for horses and bike, and HORSE STALLS. There were also an Indian hut and other historic landmarks around the park. A short drive away is North Carolina and a strawberry picking farm. I want to plan a return trip in strawberry season when we can play at the park and pick strawberries. I believe the park also has a Native American festival and other events. Definitely worth checking out and a great cure for car sickness.