18.5 hour road trip with children, any tricks of the trade?

Mrs. Tico and our little Ticos did the drive from Kansas to Idaho several times, when they were about the same ages as yours, CL. We had a mini van, and one time we did the drive straight through ... 24 hours, portal to portal. That, I don't recommend. We did not have a portable DVD player! Driving at night was the best. Lots of stops, and as had been suggested, bring some brand new toys for the kids.

One thing that I dont think has been mentioned is that driving at night allows you to get through the cities much faster. I always pay attention to what time my proposed schedule gets me to cites known for congestion. In my sierra vista- San Antonio trip hitting Las Cruses/ El Paso at the wrong time could easily lengthen the trip by an hour. This is a big deal on a long drive with kids. We cant plan for everything, but doing good planning makes the trip much more likely to go well.

Another point is that everything that you forget to bring takes time to get. It might not seem like a big deal, but making an unscheduled and normally unneeded stop into Safeway will cost at least 15 minutes (getting to the parking lot, walking, picking, waiting in line, walking back to the car, dealing with the kids, getting back on the highway) even if you are as fast as you can be in the store. . Every time you need to pull off the highway you are losing time. Sometimes you have no choice, but 15-30 minute chunks of time add up fast, and unscheduled stops to get something that you forgot are not relaxing like a 1 hour long breakfast is.

Try what my dear mom used to do in such long distance driving trips to her youngens.....cough syrup in the coca cola.

I am sure that you know that is child abuse now....one that gets me is that until recently we could give our pets sedatives when they fly but I think that call that in as pet abuse now.

These are really good tips. Another person who should have a good perspective on this is mysteryman -- he's a long-haul trucker by trade.

I think novelty is at least a part of the key while the kids are awake - new toys, look, you're seeing new things! etc. Go to Oak Ridge, say hi to my cousins and the nuke plant (er, my cousins don't actually live at the nuke plant).

You ought to have yourself checked out. Apparently, you are one of America's 3 million humor-impaired.

Leapster

Angry Birds

We drove from Chicago to NW Idaho with a 14 month old. We did it in 5 days, stopping early enough each day that she'd have plenty of time to play hard before bedtime. We also stopped for lunch each day by going to a local grocery store, buying sandwiches or sandwich fixings and picnic foods and asking directions to a local playground where we could picnic and play (i.e., run around) for a while before getting back on the road.

Sitting in the car meant that she slept a lot during the ride. We made sure she had plenty of opportunity to run around so she wouldn't be awake all night once we got to the hotel and wanted to sleep ourselves.

Thanks everyone.. def. gonna invest in a leapster, we actually have games for one but not the system.

I am going to look for any type of toy that will keep them engrossed as much as possible.. the baby should hopefully sleep most of the time, it's my 3 year old that I can already hear whining!

Hit up the dollar store for a bag of toys. If they get lost/left behind it won't matter. Don't present them all at once. Bring out a new one every 2 or 3 hours. Tuck away the ones they're done with to bring out again later.

Have baggies with different types of treats ready. Chex mix, toasted O's, pretzel twists, apple slices ... don't forget fruit cups, yogurt cups, water, juice boxes ... try to stay away from sugar treats other than as a tiny addition to the cereal or pretzels. Have enough baggies pre-bagged so you're good for the trip. Pack the snacks into a small bag with little bowls. Handi-wipes in that bag as well. Also wet washcloths in baggies are handy - easier for small kids to use on their own than handi-wipes. Have a couple of giant baggies to put dirty/nasty stuff in.

We did that, too. Even wrapped them up in giftwrap. Handed one out each hour if they had behaved.

dollar store, great idea!

I love driving at night. On some of my many solo drives from the Bay Area to Los Angeles or Bay Area to Reno, I would take a nap after work on a Friday and leave at midnight. I always felt safest following a semi's red lights, especially if there was some valley fog or rain. Truck drivers are some of the best drivers on the road. Driving at night, I was able to cut at least an hour out of a 7 hour trip.

Had good times on long summer nights with all the windows open, singing along at the top of my lungs with my favorite music tapes. More often than not, the drive was much more fun than the destination. No traffic, good music and warm weather....doesn't get any better than that. If I got too tired to drive, I'd just pull over at a rest stop for a quick nap before heading out again.

When I was growing up our family also enjoyed the long drive vacations. We'd do a lot of singing and playing games. Mom would come up with treasure hunt lists of things we needed to spot along the way, or we'd have a list of all the states and would compete to see who would be the first to spot a license plate from each state. There were plenty of coloring books and bingo games and endless games of War or Go Fish. We had counting games to see who could count the most cows or horses as we passed farms.

oof.
I didn't like those "I spy" and counting cows games when I was a kid. For some reason, I found that incredibly boring.

Of course not at 3 yrs old, but reading made the time pass faster than anything.

my favourite dollar store buy for travel is the sorta pockets made out of facecloths - mrs hamburger used to put a hotel soap bar in each one - put that in a baggie for each person - sort of a pre-cursor to handi-wipes, and still more useful in some situations

When the kids get older a great game is to find words that start with the next letter in the alphabet, normally on signs or trucks. The first person who calls it out is the only person who can use it. We have used a lot of hours on the road this way.

Shoot yourself in the foot so you have to fly .

This may be redundant but...

Heavy dosages of

1) Benedryl
2) Original formula Dramamine


It will save your sanity and save the little tykes from car-sickness. No guilt.

As someone who quite regularly made 14 hour trips with my three young kids, I can tell you that out of those 14 hours there were, perhaps, four during which I was very happy to have them aboard. There were probably another six during which they slept or kept quiet, but there were at least four where they drove me absolutely nuts.

Chemicals would have been a better solution than screaming and threatening to "stop this car!"

I hope you're joking, but considering that kids die every year from exactly that kind of thing, it's really in bad taste.

Of course, you seem to take pride in how much of your foot you can stick in your mouth.

drugging kids is highly frowned upon in some quarters , but it never went away. Talking about such things and assuming that everyone knows that you are not serious is irresponsible.