Road Trip Bingo: A Truck-Spotting Game for the Whole Family

On a recent cross-country road trip, my son and I passed the time with one of our favorite games: spotting Swift Transportation trucks. The rule is simple—whoever sees one first gets to punch the other in the arm (gently, of course). It’s surprisingly entertaining and definitely helps the miles go by faster. And believe me, there are a lot of Swift trucks out there.

While scanning the highways, I had a fun idea: Truck Bingo. Instead of calling out numbers and letters, players watch the road for trucks that match the ones on their bingo cards. It’s a great way to keep kids engaged during long stretches of driving.

Want to take it up a notch? Try playing blackout bingo, where the goal is to mark off every square. Or keep a running tally on each type of truck you spot—see which one dominates the highway.

You can print the cards on regular paper for one-time use, but I recommend laminating them and using dry-erase markers so you can reuse them for future trips. Add your own fun twist: maybe the first person to get blackout picks the music, or chooses the next lunch stop.

I’ve created five unique Truck Bingo cards that you’re welcome to use for your own road trip adventures. Each card features a different truck brand or company logo at the top and in the center “free space.” You can keep it simple and use that square as a traditional free space—or make it more challenging by requiring players to spot five of that specific truck before they can mark it off. It’s a fun way to add variety and competition to your drive!

Be creative—and let the miles roll by with a little friendly competition!

Wings of Love

Wow! We spent an amazing morning at the library, and all I can say now is, I'm so sad my daughter is out of town. She would have loved the show we just watched. It was full of birds! There were birds of all different feathers, and all different tricks. I'm not a huge fan of birds, in fact I'm afraid of them. However, I still really enjoyed the show. The room was filled with spellbound children. You could see the awe on their faces, and it was beautiful.

Today was Blockbuster Wednesday at the library, and the show was called Wings of Love. It featured different birds of the rainforest, including Tiki Toco toucan. This was the first time I've ever seen a real live toucan. He was such a beautiful bird and a little ornery as he kept being put back in his cage. There were a few parrots in the show, the main one Uala. He did lots of tricks from bowling, to playing basketball, to riding a bike. All were extremely entertaining and funny to watch. What amazed me the most was the personality that the birds each exhibited. It was such a fun morning!



Milonga, the lory, break-danced and drove a fire truck for us.

The show featured lots of audience participation. All the kids wanted a chance to pass the red barrier line on the floor to be a part of the tricks. This one below was a contest between two of the parrots to see which one could pull off the hat first. The blue macaw won!



Uala (pronounced U-ala) is a boy cockatoo who stole the show away. He was full of tricks and kept trying to get away with things. He constantly was getting off of his perch, and disobeying Yvonne. She would kindly tell him to get back up, and he would obey. But a little later, he would get down again. It was like witnessing a conversation between a two year old and their parent.


My favorite part of the show was the owls. They are such beautiful birds. I might be a bit prejudice as they symbolize my favorite music artist, Owl City. Each owl took a turn flying back to their perch. They have such a large wingspan; it was easy to be impressed by them.


The second owl didn't make it back to his perch right away. The crowd must have been too large, or he couldn't pick his perch out well enough because he circled the crowd and then flew out into the hallway of the library. Can you imagine being out there and suddenly have an enormous owl flying straight at you? Terrifying.

It was frightening enough having the owl fly over our heads, but at the same time it was quite thrilling. They are such magnificent creatures.



After Swoop flew out into the hallway, he was able to try the trick again, and this time he made it back to his perch without any trouble.


After leaving the show, I couldn't help but look up online to see where they would be appearing next. Since Ariel is out of town this week at church camp, I was extremely sad that she missed out. I highly recommend checking out the Wings of Love schedule to see when they will be in your area. You won't be disappointed!


Just for fun, I had to make a Owl City picture. I really couldn't pass up the opportunity, Swoop posed beautifully for my photo. It's less than one week and I will be partying at Owl City's concert. I can't wait! The new CD All Things Bright and Beautiful is wonderful.

I wanted to include Adam's explanation for his newest song, my favorite, Galaxies. And just in case you've never heard Galaxies on Air1...

David Traylor Zoo

Sometimes you take a chance and it doesn't quite work out, and then there are other times it works out beautifully. We love to take road trips to places we've never been before. It's most fun when it can be done all in a day too. Early last fall we took a chance on Double Dino's Pizza; that chance didn't turn out at all like we had planned, but we kept our sense of humor about us. They had boasted about two fun dinosaurs for the kids to play on, and even a fun house mirror amongst other special amenities like chalkboard walls, TVs at some of the tables. The dinosaurs turned out to be about the size of Zech and the mirror was broken. We could not hide our disappointment as we ran in the door and Gabe yelled out, "Where's the big dinosaur slides?" Needless to say it was an adventure, and something we've always laughed about as we remembered that rainy day fun.

This time our chance we took turned out to be a delightful choice. We wanted to find something fun and new to do, so we searched the internet until we ended up choosing the zoo in Emporia. The best part about the David Traylor Zoo is that it's completely FREE.

David Traylor Zoo

75 Soden Road
Emporia, Kansas 66801
Phone: (620) 341-4365

Hours: 10 AM - 4:30 PM
Open until 8 PM Sundays & Wednesdays from Mother's Day through the first Sunday in October

As we made our way through all the exhibits we were so impressed by the beauty that surrounded us. There were flowers everywhere and it looked like a wonderful spot for the animals to live. It's relatively small, but very fun to see each of the animals up close. They have several different types of birds there, from an eagle to swans, to vultures. It was the perfect place for Ariel.





It was so colorful and green there, and several of the exhibits greenery provided some nice shade to walk through. I couldn't believe how pretty everything was.

Just gorgeous there!

These Tamarin monkeys were adorable, and very tiny!

They had a couple of prairie dogs to see. They were also so little and cute.

The vultures were very interesting to watch, and just a little bit creepy too!

The large animals are all kept in a separate area behind the main part of the zoo. You have to cross a street, but I believe the only traffic they get there is from the zoo. This part is viewable at any time of day, and can even be done from your car.

I found this rather funny, the Longhorn sticking out his tongue.

The bison were trying to keep cool in their small pond when we visited.

I really enjoyed the zoo, and will definitely be back for another visit sometime in the future.

We stopped at Braum's ... wonderful ice cream!