Beach Vacation 2010 - Prolog

So, after having some very unhappy kids for the latter half of our trip to the beach last year, Lea decided that we should get a portable DVD player to entertain the kids this time around. Given that Colin is currently beyond obsessed with Play with Me Sesame, this plan was bound to work out well. I have to say that I'm kind of against the whole TV in the car thing as when I was a child we didn't have this and yet we were able to survive long car trips. There's also a part of me that believes that things like portable DVD players in cars are contributing to a lack of patience and constant need for entertainment in todays kids... however, I do value a little peace and quite, so we bought a DVD player. The thinking being that this would become the entertainment of last resort.

Our kids are pretty good travelers, and they do very well (for almost 2 year-olds) on the 2.5-hour trip between Pittsburgh and Brockway. However, because Lea wanted to test out the whole DVD player strategy, we did a dry run on the trip up to Brockway/Beechwoods for the Smith Family Reunion - which happened to be the weekend before we left for the beach.

Having purchased a DVD player of our very own and having borrowed one from Uncle David and Aunt Mercedes, we forgot one very important thing - a way to mount them! So, at about 8:00 on the night before we were going to drive up to the family reunion, I set about to make car mounts for the DVD players. We had obtained two players with the thought that we would put one in front of each kid. Lacking any visible attachment points, I decided that the best way to attach the players to the seats was to construct sleeves that could be attached to the seat backs and into which the players could be inserted. The construction materials available on hand were relatively limited: some 2x4's, other misc. large pieces of woods, diaper boxes (which are omnipresent in our house), duct tape, and some synthetic twine. Figuring that the 2x4's were going to be of relatively little use, I focused on the diaper boxes, duct tape, and twine. The results were functional, but not high on the glamor scale:



This setup had several significant drawbacks:

1. The DVD players had to be removed from the sleeves in order to change DVDs - Not a huge problem, but annoying none-the-less.


2. We had to listen to two different DVDs at the same time - Neither DVD player had a video-in port, so we were stuck having two different programs playing. You don't know annoying until you have two different Elmos screeching at you.


3. It was kinda hard to get the players into and out of the sleeves - I wanted the sleeves to fit tightly so that the players were held securely. However, since both players had switches, wheels, and jacks on the sides, the tight fit proved to be a real pain.


4. You have to remove the players from the sleeves to change DVDs - not a big deal, but still a pain.

Having learned/borne the drawbacks on the way up to Brockway, I spent a good part of the trip thinking about possible solutions.

Upon arriving in Brockway, I sketched out a new mounting system and showed it to Grandpa Frank. (I scanned the sketch before we left for the beach, but I forgot to bring the image along with us, so you'll have to wait to see it.) I believe that Grandpa Frank probably thought to himself, "you could do it that way," but he kept it to himself. He did, however, offer several alternative design suggestions: we could build a mount that attached to the sun roof of the car using quarter-inch steel rods... or we could build something vaguely similar to what I had wanted out of sheet metal... in the end we built what I had wanted:



It's not perfect, but it worked pretty well. One screen, One Elmo, Sane Parents.