My cousin, Marc, got a really nice how-to piece on traveling with a family published in the online edition of Newsday recently.

He writes…

Several years ago my children and I ventured off an our first of many long-distance adventures across the country. Madeline, who loved Laura Ingalls Wilder and had read all of her books, was eight and Benjamin was five. We decided to visit Wilder’s home in Mansfield, MO, where she wrote her well-known series, and stop at Daniel Boone’s Missouri homestead for Ben. The entire trip took 10 days and covered nearly 2,500 miles. It wasn’t without challenges, but we enjoyed the experience enough to plan others. In fact, I highly recommend tying a trip to a literary or historical theme. This makes both richer in unimaginable ways. Early one morning we unexpectedly visited Wilder’s gravesite and placed a gift of a stone on the morning dew there. It was a connection my daughter will never forget.