We wanted to take a trip Spring Break this year. We thought we might visit Grandma and Papa, and then maybe take a surprise side trip to DisneyLand. We had looked into flights, but the cheapest one we could find was $800 per seat. Even though we could have flown with the twins on our laps, the older kids still needed seats. Plus, we still would have needed a car once we got down there. So, we decided to drive to central coast California, skipping the DisneyLand part, with 15 month old twins, a 4 1/2 year old and an 8 1/2 year old. Not only that, but my husband wanted to stay in crappy motels so that the kids could learn to appreciate the value of a dollar. He stays in nice hotels for his work travel, and therefore accumulates hotel points, which enable us to stay in pretty nice hotels when we do travel. The kids are used to having amenities and sleeping in Heavenly Beds, which is a far cry from the bare bones but clean places I stayed when I was a kid. He did some research and found a Motel 6 for $50 per night about halfway down. We figured we could make it in 2 days.
I decided to combat my anxiety about the trip by planning to completely overpack. We borrowed one of those Thule overhead cargo containers to free up space in the car. I had Pandora radio on my phone. We packed a DVD player, but my kids are readers, and generally pretty good travellers. I hoped that their example would rub off on the twins, but not wanting to take any chances, I also planned to pack plenty of snacks, spare binkies, sippy cups, diapers, wipes, washcloths, and an assortment of toys. I also decided to bring our pack and plays, because I was a little nervous about the baby bed/floor situation in the crappy motel. I know bed bugs aren't supposed to be harmful, and luxury hotels can have them too, but that's mainly the mental image I had burned into my brain.
My husband, whose biggest fear is always that I will overpack, figured we could just all pack one big family duffel bag. and that will be enough. My feeling on that was that he was smoking crack and obviously didn't appreciate the anount of planning (toys, snacks, games, etc) that would need to be done in order for this undertaking to succeed.... In fairness to my husband, at some point during trip preparations, he visibly resigns himself to the inevitability that I will overpack, and does his best to help me get everything in the car. Maybe it's because we've had enough trips where he looks at me, panic-stricken with a blown-out diaper, and asks if we have an extra onesie, and I ask him, "What color?" and pull one out of pocket number 8, bag number 4, followed by a Ziploc baggie for the yucky onesie.
We managed to get everything packed, and hit the road. We drove over 2000 miles with four children. It was long, but we stopped every couple of hours to change diapers and stretch our legs. I had the older kids do jumping jacks, push-ups and sit-ups at our stops. We visited the Jelly Belly Factory, and after we arrived, we drove some more to visit an ostrich farm, a luffa farm, Costco, and a Dutch village. It was, all things considered, wildly successful. The olders just read in the back of the car most of the time. When it was too dark to read, we set up the DVD player for them. The twins did really well also, considering their ages. It's not like they never cried, but no prolonged wailing. We kept them fed and entertained. They napped. Pandora radio was a godsend- we played the Raffi and Sesame Street channel quite a bit, then more adult music once they fell asleep. We would absolutely do it again. Maybe next time we'll drive to Mexico.Laura M., FHM Member
See more pictures from their roadtrip at:
http://lomoma.blogspot.com/2011/04/road-trip.html
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25 hour day
Now I totally want to do a road trip!
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