When Life Hands Us Lemons, We Find a Playground! – The Importance of Going with the Flow While Traveling with Children

We had a bad situation recently. We drove almost five hours to look at a potential towing vehicle. We had spoken to them multiple times and asked many questions. They really misrepresented the vehicle. We were all far from home, upset, had been trapped in the car for hours, and needed to get home that night. What did I do next? I did what I always do when we find ourselves in these kinds of situations, I looked for a nearby playground.

I found Boettler Park in North Canton, Ohio and GPS said it was less than 10 minutes away. We made our way there and set our kids free. To some parents and the non-traveling families, this might sound crazy. We were wasting time that could be spent driving home. If you have been on long car rides with grumpy kids, you know why we needed to do this but there’s even more to it. My husband and I needed a few minutes to decompress and mentally deal with the disappointment of the situation. I can’t stress this enough, if you’re in a bad mood, if your kids are going crazy in the car, stop somewhere! Take the break. It will make the trip more enjoyable. Everybody will appreciate it, especially if you are lucky enough to find a park as cool as this one.

This was a great playground and definitely did its job of cheering us all up! I was really impressed with this park. There was a music button-pushing game, many things to climb on, swings, slides, diggers, and a pirate ship. The bathrooms were clean and there was ample parking. There was plenty of space to run. They even had an AED. The playground was huge and had loads for the kids to do.

We stayed for an hour before hitting the road for the long trip back home. We stopped for dinner at Cracker Barrel. The whole trip was a bust but at least we made the best of it.