Build Your Relationship with a Road Trip

There’s nothing like a good road trip for chatting while traveling to build and strengthen your personal relationships.

As we approach the July 4th holiday and it’s weekend I’m reminded of my experiences over Memorial Day weekend, which was the start of the summer time vacation season here in New England. My bride and I went on a road trip to the Hudson Valley in New York State that weekend. I know…I know you’re thinking: Sarge, how did you… manage to get one of the busiest holiday weekends off? Well, you could say some work schedule luck and taking advantage of our earned benefit: vacation days.

My wife and I watched a movie recently during one of our date nights, “Hyde Park on the Hudson”, a movie about President Franklin D. Roosevelt at his family summer retreat located in the Hudson Valley of New York. This stirred our curiosity to check out this location which is now open to the public and allow us the time to spend together on another road trip.

My wife and I have been blessed with many opportunities over the past several years of driving many road trips (kid free) to beautiful places such as the Canadian Maritimes, the Mid Atlantic coast, Northern New England, New York City (o.k. we did the Greyhound bus for this one). These trips gave us a chance to relax and open up to the real deep art of open and intimate communication. Road trips are great for our relationship building.
RELAXNEWS reported on a recent survey titled “Love on the Road” by yourtango.com and Ford which discovered:

90% of the surveyed claimed taking a road trip with their partner had proved that it was beneficial.

77% of these couples claim they look forward to spending time together when driving.

44% of the couples claim that a road trip is a great way of ensuring quality time together.

65% of these couples state that some of the best, intimate conversations and discussions were during the road trips.

This gives us the opportunity to plan out our leisure time with our loved ones. We work hard as LEOs and First Responders, taking care of our families and our communities and we need to plan some rest and relaxation into our schedules as well. Planning your relaxation and rejuvenation is part of an overall health and wellness strategy and a major part of our CopsAlive.com concept of Tactical Resilience.

We need to take advantage of down time that we have earned. Yes, I have kids too. Some trips are great as a family (with lots of patience) but sometimes we need to our alone time with our spouse, honey, loved one and partner. Get creative with your extended family, co-workers and friends by planning and swapping off child care even if it is for a day or two. This really works. Plan a trip to “get out of Dodge” to help clear your head from the work stress and daily responsibilities.

As we remember the birth of our nation and those who have scarified for our freedoms let us also remember this weekend our departed military and war veterans. GOD BLESS YOU and THANK YOU!

To my brothers and sisters who are working this weekend, STAY ALERT and STAY SAFE!

REMEMBER: WE ARE THE HONORABLE PROFESSION!

Stay safe and be well!

Sgt. Mark St.Hilaire is a 28 year police veteran working in a Metro-west suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. He is a contributing wellness writer for CopsAlive.com and L.E.T. He is a volunteer police peer with a regional CISM team. You can read his new blog at www.rescueteamwellness.com. You can contact Mark by confidential email: . Follow Mark on Linked-In and Twitter: @NPD3306. This article was also published on Law Enforcement Today at http://lawenforcementtoday.com/.

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