When you stop in the next town or city, buy a local newspaper. Some smaller towns have newspapers that only come out weekly, but most have “dailies.” If you find a weekly, it probably won't be a thick paper.

To find out more about where you are visiting, skip over the national stories (about the president and such) and the international stories (on Pakistan, England, or China). Look for articles about the area. Read the little stuff about the little league, or the high school principal who's retiring. The gardening or cooking column might be focused on local festivals, or food that's popular in that area. Even read about the crimes. Is there more or less crime than you hear about at home?

On road trips, ask the “rulers of the front seat” to flip around the radio dial until you find a local radio station. As you go along, the number and quality of available stations will change as you get nearer to different towns or cities. Listen to one station until you hear the local news report. What kinds of problems does the mayor have? What are people disagreeing about? What are they celebrating?

Now think: In what ways is this town or city different from where you live? You may want to talk this all over with the grownups. After a while, you might not see a new place as weird — just different.

Word Search

In this word grid, see if you can find thirteen things you might spot when driving through the mountains. The words can go backwards, forwards, up, down, and diagonally.

DEER

EAGLE

FIREWOOD

HIKER

LOG CABIN

MOOSE

PINE CONE

PINE TREE

ROCKS

SKI AREA

SNOW

TRAIL

WATERFALL

Extra puzzle points: After you have circled all the listed words, read the leftover letters from left to right, and top to bottom. You will find a fast fact about Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain!