Remember taking road trips with your family as a kid?

Chad Campbell, one of the leads Fountain Hills Theater’s production, Leaving Iowa, has great memories of such trips.

“I grew up in California,” Campbell said. “We took lots of trips in our station wagon up and down the coast. I was the middle kid, so I always had to sit in the middle. I never got a window seat.”

Campbell’s memories reflect the story of Leaving Iowa, the tale of a family returning to the place their father grew up to scatter his ashes at their old home.

“But sadly, the home had been razed and is now a supermarket,” according to the publicity about the production. The story revolves around the car trip, complete with Mom and Dad in the front seat and the brother and sister in the back.

“About the only thing not captured in the play,” Campbell said, “Is the first 15 minutes when a road trip seems really fun. But in reality, it’s pretty much torture in the backseat.”

He said the playwrights (Tim Clue and Spike Manton) did a “wonderful job” with the scenes with the backseat fights. And the descriptions of falling asleep then waking up in the middle of the night and having no idea where you are are “spot on.”

Campbell said everyone will find parts of the production they can relate to.

“There are just these universal memories of taking a car trip with the family that are so well done in the play,” he said.

Leaving Iowa opened Aug. 11 and continues through Aug. 27 Show times are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets are available through the box office or online. Call 480-837-9661, ext. 3, or visit fhtaz.org.