Each holiday starts with a drive straight north on I-35 in my family. The fridge temperatures and mounds of bright white snow of Minnesota our destination. This place holds some of my nearest and dearest memories of growing up: some of the happiest, too. The drive, however, is the dreaded 7-9 hours of near misery that separates me from joy, family, and love.

I've become accustomed to these road trips over the years, and all the stages that come with. While each trip may vary, these 11 stages will remain tried and true for each journey we embark on.

1. The excitement when you first leave your house.

2. When that one sibling starts to get on your nerves.

3. And decides to play you their new favorite playlist that is actually terrible.

4. When the confined space becomes too much to handle.

But you made the mistake of not packing ahead of time and had to stay up late doing so, thus are running on three hours of sleep

7. When the lack of sleep starts to kick in.

8. When you and your sibling successfully convince your mom to stop at the fast food place you’ve been craving.

Making this whole trip worth it.

9. When the post-fast-food energy rush hits.

*Drinks 3 cups of Dr. Pepper within the 30 minutes you were there*

10. When your sibling says they need to stop to go to the bathroom.

15 minutes after you had just stopped.

11. When you pull into Grandma’s driveway.

*Tears of joy*

And thus the trek is over... at least for a few days until you have to drive back home.