We, as a family, are GREAT roadtrippers. Not to toot our own horns, but, TOOT TOOT. As a matter of fact, we leave in 11 days for a 2200 mile round trip drive to PA. Home of brotherly love, mild summers, NOT mild winters, and my FAVORITE in laws (seriously I really adore my sister in law and her family, not in a weird way though)
You may not know me but my husband and I have 5 kids. Yes, you read that right, FIVE. Traveling by plane, train, or automobile takes careful planning, flexibility, and low expectations. I kid you not. I have found the downfall of many family activities to be over inflated expectations.
Currently I am in the throws of travel plans and wanted to share some of my tips for getting *almost* everything you need in the vehicle, thus avoiding approximately 462,834,100 trips to target, dollar tree, walmart, and the random corner gas station.
1. MAKE A LIST, maybe 3, possibly 4.
Make a list for each person that is traveling. It may seem redundant since everyone needs pants, underwear, and toiletries BUT I promise you that you will forget someone's pajamas if there isn't a separate list for everyone. I also make a family list for things like medication, snacks, pillows, activity packs, books. Really anything at all you can think of. I start my list 2 weeks before travel so I can add too it as I think of things.
***If you are anything like me, checking off a list gives a sense of order and calm in what can be a stressful situation***
2. PLAN YOUR STOPS.
I learned this from many years of roadtripping with my parents. Plan your stops. Try your hardest to make it at least 2 hour stretches at a time. With babies, that is about the max time you can go at a time. So I like to look at a map and plan where and approximately when we will stop. Maximize each stop. Bathrooms, food ( maybe just a snack that you brought if it isn't a meal time), gas at each stop.
My husband and I are AAA (AAA.com) members. Their website offers trip planners for members and it has really helped with this part of the planning.
3. CLEAN OUT YOUR PANTRY AND FRIDGE
For the 2 weeks before any trip I only buy the essential items to keep people fed while methodically planning meals that use up what we already have. This way we don't come home to rotten food and are ready for a "Pantry Reset".
This may produce some grumbling from the masses because meals are, shall we say, creative BUT I would rather deal with grumbling instead of mice, bugs, and moldy food upon return.
4. STOCKPILE BOOKS AND ACTIVITIES
We do have a mobile DVD player that we put in the van for road trips but 19 hours of TV is not recommended by anyone and the kids still get bored with it. So I start stockpiling activity books, coloring books, books for them to read, sticker books, audio books, road trip bingo boards, etc. They each get a bag that is next to them for the trip. I have started thinking through items for each child and putting them aside. My suggestion would be to get things they have either never seen or things they have not see for a while so they are new and special.
5. MENTALLY PREPARE FOR THINGS TO GO WRONG
I cannot begin to tell you all of the ways our different road trips have not gone to plan. One time my door just wouldn't open when we were about an hour away from our first desitination. So we had to spend our whole first day trying to find someone to fix it. We did and then my window wouldn't roll down for the rest of that van's life. BUT we were calm and just did what needed to be done so we could move on.
We have traveled with babies in diapers, potty training toddlers (I had a potty in the back of the van), we have sat for countless hours in traffic, had flat tires, etc. But these things never threw us for a loop or caused our trip to be stressful or horrible. We expect things to go awry. We expect a plot twist here and there. So prepare yourself for the unexpected. You won't be sorry.
You may not know me but my husband and I have 5 kids. Yes, you read that right, FIVE. Traveling by plane, train, or automobile takes careful planning, flexibility, and low expectations. I kid you not. I have found the downfall of many family activities to be over inflated expectations.
Currently I am in the throws of travel plans and wanted to share some of my tips for getting *almost* everything you need in the vehicle, thus avoiding approximately 462,834,100 trips to target, dollar tree, walmart, and the random corner gas station.
1. MAKE A LIST, maybe 3, possibly 4.
Make a list for each person that is traveling. It may seem redundant since everyone needs pants, underwear, and toiletries BUT I promise you that you will forget someone's pajamas if there isn't a separate list for everyone. I also make a family list for things like medication, snacks, pillows, activity packs, books. Really anything at all you can think of. I start my list 2 weeks before travel so I can add too it as I think of things.
***If you are anything like me, checking off a list gives a sense of order and calm in what can be a stressful situation***
2. PLAN YOUR STOPS.
I learned this from many years of roadtripping with my parents. Plan your stops. Try your hardest to make it at least 2 hour stretches at a time. With babies, that is about the max time you can go at a time. So I like to look at a map and plan where and approximately when we will stop. Maximize each stop. Bathrooms, food ( maybe just a snack that you brought if it isn't a meal time), gas at each stop.
My husband and I are AAA (AAA.com) members. Their website offers trip planners for members and it has really helped with this part of the planning.
3. CLEAN OUT YOUR PANTRY AND FRIDGE
For the 2 weeks before any trip I only buy the essential items to keep people fed while methodically planning meals that use up what we already have. This way we don't come home to rotten food and are ready for a "Pantry Reset".
This may produce some grumbling from the masses because meals are, shall we say, creative BUT I would rather deal with grumbling instead of mice, bugs, and moldy food upon return.
4. STOCKPILE BOOKS AND ACTIVITIES
We do have a mobile DVD player that we put in the van for road trips but 19 hours of TV is not recommended by anyone and the kids still get bored with it. So I start stockpiling activity books, coloring books, books for them to read, sticker books, audio books, road trip bingo boards, etc. They each get a bag that is next to them for the trip. I have started thinking through items for each child and putting them aside. My suggestion would be to get things they have either never seen or things they have not see for a while so they are new and special.
5. MENTALLY PREPARE FOR THINGS TO GO WRONG
I cannot begin to tell you all of the ways our different road trips have not gone to plan. One time my door just wouldn't open when we were about an hour away from our first desitination. So we had to spend our whole first day trying to find someone to fix it. We did and then my window wouldn't roll down for the rest of that van's life. BUT we were calm and just did what needed to be done so we could move on.
We have traveled with babies in diapers, potty training toddlers (I had a potty in the back of the van), we have sat for countless hours in traffic, had flat tires, etc. But these things never threw us for a loop or caused our trip to be stressful or horrible. We expect things to go awry. We expect a plot twist here and there. So prepare yourself for the unexpected. You won't be sorry.
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