Road Trip Strategies

Our family has been on many roadtrips. We've developed several strategies over the years:

-We drive in two hour chunks. We do our best to stick to this. The only time we exempt ourselves from this rule is if we have a sleeping child. Happy kids is not reason enough. Happy kids can quickly become grumpy kids. If a little one has to pee before the two hours are up, we’ve on occasion just handed them a diaper. Usually a child can last for two hour chunks when they use the bathroom at each stop.  We tell our kids our daily driving goals based on our ‘chunks’ (i.e. “Today we would like to do four chunks of driving”).  That's more manageable for them than the idea of eight hours.

-When we stop driving, we move our bodies. At a rest area, we play a quick game of hide-and-seek or tag or who-can-touch-all-the-trees. At a gas station, we do a family aerobics class in the parking lot. Sometimes Jon drops the children and I off at a local park to run around while he gets the gas.

-Our stops are short. A stop usually lasts only five to ten minute, with a refill on gas, a visit to the bathrooms, a dumping out of our garbage and a chance for us all to move around.  This is also a good time to exchange toys/activities.  A quick stop seems to provide what we need, and the troop is ready to go again.  (Sometimes it's harder to get back in the van after a long stop.)  We do not stop to eat meals. If you’re going to have kids sitting to eat, they might as well be sitting in the van. Therefore…

-We do almost all of our eating in the van. Yep, it can get a little messy, but there are ways to keep the mess to a minimum. Eating takes lots of time and gives you many, many, happy miles. As I prepare the food, the children see that I’m working on lunch and they tend to be less antsy. We have a cooler that plugs into our cigarette lighter, which we highly recommend.  I pull out the food we need (the children are often helping me by holding different parts of the meal.  It's tedious sometimes, to make the meal in the van, but the goal is to pass the time cheerfully, and with that in mind I can spend an hour putting together the food).  I assemble each meal on my lap (I use a cutting board as my table).  I take along plastic dishes, so I can hand out food on a plate/in a bowl to each child.  Meal and snack ideas include: tortilla roll-ups (cheese and tuna salad, pb&j, luncheon meat and lettuce, etc.), sandwiches, trail mixes, instant oatmeal (using hot water in our thermos), granola with yogurt, applesauce, cheese and crackers, cucumber slices, apple slices (I slice these as we drive, adding more minutes and therefore miles!), pasta salad or any leftovers made at home.  Don’t forget a bag for dirty dishes (they can be washed in hotels or at your destination), a little zip-lock bag for scraps from your apples/cukes, a little bag with a wet cloth in it (or wet wipes), and a larger garbage bag.  (Bring several garbage bags and throw them out at each stop.)  The little travel knives that come with covers are perfect tools. 

-We have a hotel bag packed with all the clothes and toiletries we’ll need at stops. This is the first thing I pack while yet at home; sometimes for a multi-day trek, I put each day’s outfit into a labeled ziplock so everyone knows what to wear when and the clothes last us until we get to our destination. We're always thankful later to have pajamas and toothbrushes easy to find. I usually put those together in a noticeable bag, so everyone can get tucked into bed easily at the end of the day.

-I keep several of my Road Trip Entertainment ideas a secret! Don’t show all your playing options at the beginning!  I often pack things to do in several bags and I pull out a new bag each day.  Save the best toys for later in the day.  Often the first two hour chunk doesn't need any toy - don't entertain until you need to!  Save your strength.  :)  Little toys from the dollar store are great investments – sometimes I wrap them up so that they last even longer (i.e. the time it takes to open it!). I pull out a new one each day (or on a shorter drive, with a more impatient child, every hour). Our Favourite Road Trip Entertainment Toys for young kids: toy cars, finger puppets (after they've played with them for a while, you can give a puppet show from the front seat!), light-up toys if driving at night, toy cell phones, a few big Lego blocks, Crayola no-mess-markers, stickers, photos the kids haven’t seen in a while in a little photo album, a box to put things in and take things out of, favourite books that I’ve hidden for the last two weeks, flashy necklaces to put on and off, a rattle or puppet that goes on their feet, etch-a-sketch, magni-doodles.  For older kids: magnet building sets, silly putty (be careful), doodling books (we especially like the ones that have been started for you to give you ideas), window markers, lacing boards, necklace kits with big beads, workbooks, Playmobil (we take along a little tray for Playmobil set ups), magnets on the tray, activity books (Star Wars paper starfighters, info books with stickers, etc.), crosswords, sudoko, family car games like “Snitch” etc. Lately, with older kids, we've had many hours fly by thanks to audio books. We especially loved the original Peter Pan, How to Train Your Dragon, the BBC version of the Narnia books, Septimus Heap, and Harry Potter.  Snacks can take lots of time, too.  Those lollipop rings last a while, as do boxes of raisins if you have a little one who picks out one raisin at a time. 

This trip, we took a few longer stops to explore National Parks. Owning a National Park Passport is pretty cool - we highly recommend it!