Naptime advice?

SLOmama

Let me just start by saying I am totally to blame for this issue. We have gotten into the bad habit of having to drive Nora (almost 27 monthsold) around in the car to get her to fall asleep for her nap. She used to go down with no problem, but as she has gotten a bit older when we go through our usual routine of a story and back rub, it is like she becomes more energized and refuses to go to sleep. If I leave her alone, she just trashes her room and never naps. If I stay with her, she just crawls all over me and wants to talk, sing, etc...never napping. Either way, we both end up frustrated and she is still napless. I usually end up putting her in the car, driving around for 15 minutes and once she is asleep, I transfer her to the bed, where she stays asleep for 2 hours and wakes up such a happy camper. The really funny thing is, she goes down at night with out any fuss. Two stories, a kiss to mommy and daddy and she crawls into her own bed and goes to sleep on her own. But naps are a nightmare. Another kicker, her sitter at our house and her day care where she is 2 afternoons a week get her down without a fight. This lovely problem is just something she has become conditioned to with my DH and myself. It is really not the hugest problem in the world, because ultimately she gets a nap, I get a break, story over...but I just hate wasting the gas. Any ideas?