Mommy Blog

How To Survive a Car Trip

in Giggles on July 13, 2016

Hello Travelers!  Well, are you SURVIVING?  I hope so.  This week we are going to tackle HOW TO SURVIVE A CAR TRIP.  If your family is anything like my family, then driving is your best option for vacationing.  There are five people and two dogs in our household, which makes air travel a bit more difficult.

Now, with that said, driving across the country with five people and two dogs brings challenges of its own!  Here are my Top Five Tips for Surviving a Car Trip…

1. Plan AHEAD!!  This sounds incredibly obvious, I get that.  But, hear me out.  I don’t know too many people who wake up one morning, throw everyone in the vehicle, and strike out on a cross-country trek.  It just doesn’t usually work that way.  You must plan ahead.  Look at your route, and plan for scheduled stops (i.e. lunch) but also, buffer your arrival time for unscheduled stops (i.e. bathroom breaks because Junior dipped into the cooler for one to many juice boxes or an emergency gas station stop because Sister Sue got car sick going over a really tall bridge).  Plan ahead and realize before your journey begins that road trips are an adventure all to themselves, and the destination is only half the fun—-getting there is the real trick.

2. Travel Binders— Buy 1.5 inch three-ring binders and a zipper pencil pouch for each one of your children, plus one extra for the non-driving adult.  Print out crossword puzzles, word searches, soduko, and scores of other travel games that are age-appropriate for your children.  Get new pencils and colored pens that are especially for this trip, and load them into the pencil bag.  Travel games such as the license plate game which list out all 50 states, and see if y’all can find all fifty.  The alphabet game—start with A, and find things that begin with each letter of the alphabet.  I Spy…the list of car games is endless.  A couple of years ago, my family rented an RV and drove from Houston, TX to Jackson Hole, WY.  We played every game imaginable.  It was awesome…these games work!

3. Bring SNACKS!!  Do NOT, under any circumstances, forget to pack travel snacks!!  If this item is forgotten, you will have drastically increased your drive time and consequential STOP time for bullet point #1.  My parents are long-haul-over-the-road truckers.  They drive 18-wheelers back and forth across the country.  My dad is the ultimate snacker.  His favorite road snack is POPCORN.  Think about this for a minute…it is cheap and you can pop a TON of it!  There are loads of different sprinkle seasonings for popcorn.  Pop a bunch of unflavored popcorn before you leave your house, put it in snack-sized ziploc bags, and add flavored toppings…viola! Nifty snacks.  Also, consider buying “treats” for the road trip that you would not normally buy.  This makes the trip more special.  Don’t forget the cooler with drinks…however, try to limit the fluid intake slightly for the little ones…the more liquid that goes in…the more often you stop!

4.  Wrap and Stash— All kids love surprises.  This tip was given to me by a friend of mine just before our trip up to Wyoming.  Find your local Dollar Store, and buy several prizes for your kids.  Wrap them up and hide them somewhere…but don’t forget to bring them!!  Hand them out at various intervals on your driving trip.  The first kiddo to finish a car game gets a prize…or you made it to your first scheduled stop with NO FIGHTING, so everyone gets a prize.  Just be sure to get an equal number of prizes for the children.

5.  Redbox— Many vehicles now have built-in entertainment systems…if yours does not…beg, borrow or steal one!!  Just kidding, don’t steal one, but do whatever else it takes to procure a DVD player for your trip.  Redbox will be your best friend along your journey.  Many gas stations, Walgreens and McDonalds locations have Redbox machines on their premises.  You will have to stop for gas and food; that is a fact.  As a reward for good behavior, let the kiddos pick out a movie, then the next time you need to stop, return it, and replace it with a different one.  Boom!  Happy and quiet kids.  Be sure and grab your cell phone, tablet and chargers as well…that way you have happy parents to match your happy kids.

Now, this list is not exhaustive, but it is my Top Five.  I have personally tried all of these and they have worked for me.  Do ALL of my car trips turn out well?  Of course not!  We are constantly bombarded with, “Are we there yet?” and “He’s touching me!”  However, with some effort and ingenuity, the time does go by a bit faster.  And by using these tips, you too, can Survive a Car Trip!

Here’s hoping your day is survivable!
-Dallas

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