With gas prices likely to stay way above the $2 a gallon mark for the long-term, my family will be limiting its' out-of-town trips. This is unfortunate because trips away from home provide numerous learning opportunities not available in smaller communities.

True, my children have learned invaluable lessons living in the country such as how many bones from abandoned calves they can carry, how far they can "shoot" when they go to the bathroom outside.

On the other hand, new experiences such as visits with the ice-cream man and sitting through traffic jams is limited unless you leave town.

During a trip to Chicago this summer, my children and their cousins played for hours on end comparing the toys they had in common and exploring the toys that were new to each other. Yet, the major difference in their experiences didn't come to light until a little bell came beckoning from down the street.

As the ice-cream truck approached, my children continued to drive the toy trucks and dig in the sand as their cousins dashed into the house and then out to the sidewalk.

I was gathering change from my purse when I realized my children were not following us to the street.

They hadn't yet been conditioned to associate the ding-ding of the bell with the approach of the ice cream truck. Meanwhile, their cousins were already making a list of what they wanted from the Spider-Man fudge pop to a vanilla Sponge-Bob on a stick -- something I had never seen and have no intention of purchasing again.

Who knows when we'll encounter another bona fide ice-cream truck again, so I documented the moment with a corny picture of everyone standing in front of the truck, just to secure our status as out-of-towners. Plus, the picture can serve as an additional purpose. I captured the list of ice cream novelties on camera so next time we'll be prepared, even if we can't get a Dora the Explorer strawberry ice cream pop.

During those numerous trips this summer, our time planning was off more than once. In other words, we kept hitting rush hour. To our kids, this meant nothing more than additional time to read their books, watch another movie or pestering their sibling a little longer.

When I complained about sitting in a Chicago traffic jam, a voice from the back seat came: "What's a traffic jam?"

I realized my kids had never had the pleasure of sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, moving slower than pedestrian traffic. Living in a small community meant not knowing about rush hour, traffic jams and road rage.

But it also means our level of tolerance is lower. We get irritated if we have to wait for four cars to pass before pulling out onto the highway.

Sitting through three red lights before being allowed to pass is not uncommon in larger cities, whereas small-town drivers can get annoyed if the number of cars before them at the light is more than three.

Fortunately, as we slowly crawled across the suburbs -- fighting the urge to get out and walk because it would be faster -- I kept my calm for the most part and we turned our focus to a new topic, such as why you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway.

Kids from smaller communities do have an upper hand in one additional area -- days off from school. While everyone in colder climates can usually count on one or two snow days off from school, those schools with students living on country roads have an extra problem, muddy roads.

Until moving to the country, I had never heard of days off from school just because it rained. Now that I live on a dirt road that turns to mush after an inch of rain, I understand why school needs to be canceled after a drenching rain.

My kids get a thrill when we go "mudding" out of our driveway in our truck.

I can't imagine driving a bus full of kids, up and down mud-coated hills, without sliding into the ditch.

-- Ronda Graff, originally from the "big city," doesn't miss the traffic jams or the long commutes, and now considers the 10-minute drive to a neighboring town a long trip.