Dear Chevy Traverse, I Miss You.

We're leaving today for Wisconsin this morning and I'm going through Chevy Traverse withdrawal. HELP! My sedan-driving world will never be the same and neither will long car trips.

You see, for William's 2nd birthday we had to travel to DesMoines, Iowa for a friend's wedding. We decided to bring the little guy along since another friend who happens to live there offered her guest room and her babysitting services. (Yup, we're lucky like that.)

Des Moines is a good five hour drive from Chicago and I'm not a big fan of long drives. Long drives with a little guy are even harder. It doesn't help that we have a sedan. This is where the good people at Chevy come in...

The kind people at Chevy lent us a 2011 Chevy Traverse for a weekend test drive and let me tell you... It. Was. Spectacular.

I've always been an anti-minivan kinda mom. My mom rocked the minivan for years. It was good to our family and I totally get why they are a great addition to family life, but the minivan and mom jeans became a symbol for all that is uncool. Call it marketing, stigma, mom backlash... Whatever it is, I fell for it.

So, we tried out the Traverse. It was delivered to our house on Thursday and coming home to shiny, new navy blue car in our driveway was awesome. (How did they know navy blue is my favorite car color?)

We shared the news with William that his birthday present this year was going to be really exciting: A movie in the car! He squealed. (Yes, my kid is pretty easy to please.) We packed Cars, Sesame Street, Thomas, and Toy Story. We reminded him it would only be for this trip and only in this special car for his birthday and he totally got it. All the time reminding him that Chevy was sharing this car with us, a concept he struggles with these days.


We filled the I-Pod with all of our favorites. Matt packed the car with ease, which is usually is stressful for us with a pack-and-play, stroller, toys, and bags of clothes. Then we hit the road basking in the new car smell.

There were plenty of things to get excited about: the dvd player, the I-Pod hook-up that allows you to then control the I-Pod through the radio controls, the air conditioned seats, the ability to comfortably change a diaper out the back, the reverse video (probably not the technical term), smooth ride, and the ROOM. I made sport of climbing from the front seat to the back when William needed all sorts of things and to catch a couple of movies with him. It was like a vacation. I could have driven across the country.

And now we're planning to leave for Wisconsin tomorrow and it brings a tear to my eye.

Disclosure: We enjoyed a complimentary five day test drive compliments of Chevy. They did not compensate me in any other way to write this post, nor did they request that I do so. We currently own an Acura.