We hit the road at 3 am on the dot with hopes the kids would sleep for a few hours while it was still dark. The truck was packed about as full as it would get and everything (and I mean everything) had its place. I recreated two of my favorite road trip hacks from our last big road trip and added a third. They were all hits and made the ride fast and fun.
1. I had a small surprise for them to open every 100 miles. Instead of just giving them a busy bag with a bunch of things that would get old within the first hour, this approach not only brought a lot of anticipation, but spread out their car entertainment throughout the ride. Every June, Target's dollar bins are filled with wonderful road trip games and activity books that I always stock up on. I keep a drawer in a basement dresser with these kinds of things and pull them out only when we're going on a trip. It was a fun way to count down the miles of our trip and it was amazing how fast 100 miles went by! And, it gave us a good reason to put the screens away from time to time.
2. Snack tackle boxes! They each had one at their feet and could pull it out whenever they wanted. A little bit of a lot of variety keeps it fun and interesting for them. And the leftover snacks were in a reusable grocery bag in the back. I refilled at rest stops and used the rest for great poolside snacks.
3. I got this idea from a friend and it was maybe the kids' favorite part. One post-it note for every 100 miles. Some of the post-its had messages on them - notes to stop for ice cream, get a semi driver to honk his horn, or make a song request. This one was our favorite! We spent the last hour of our first day taking turns making requests. We listened to everything from Alabama's Song of the South to Rend Collective's My Lighthouse. :) Then Beau and I jammed to Reba's Fancy and embarrassed our kids big time.
We were a little nervous about this road trip because Mila can be pretty hot or cold in her seat. She complains about tummy aches pretty often and we have yet to confirm whether it's a bout of car sick or attention. But girlfriend did amazing in the car! And she didn't ask her first "Are you there yet?" until mile 238. ;)
Cruz loved reading the "Stump Your Parents" section in his road trip atlas. We also loved the Melissa and Doug license plate tracker, it was fun he was old enough this year to read the states and find them on the map. We found 28 out of 50 and decided East Coasters must prefer to fly instead of drive. :)
Other highlights of our trip included eating cereal and sliced bananas out of styrofoam cups from a gas station somewhere in Missouri, our picnic lunch somewhere in Kentucky, chocolate shakes and boiled peanuts in Alabama, and listening to Harry Potter audio book (with character voices and everything). Cruz would doze off and Beau and I were disappointed that we had to shut it off so he didn't miss anything!
We could have kept plugging and made it to Destin around 10 at night, but decided to stop in Montgomery, Alabama, about three hours from our final destination. This is one of my favorite parts of a road trip! We found a random hotel for pennies on Expedia, made sure it had an outdoor pool and a free breakfast, and ordered amazing barbecue poolside from Shane's Barbecue. We all swam until the stars came out and it felt so good and refreshing in the sweltering South. And so did stretching our legs in a bed for the night!
Not far now!
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