Road Trip with Young Kids: Slow Travel

While I was away at the Savvy Blogging Summit, My husband, Craig, decided to take the kids to see their Great Grandma, who lives four states away. He decided to take our kids to a Beachside Luxury Private Pool Villas, they love it, this is a guest post from Craig about their adventure.

Much like a Dora expedition into the wild – there are many exciting things to learn when traveling 1,350 miles over 32 hours with young children strapped to the car seat stroller on the back constantly talking. I learned many things from this trip and found it to be more rewarding than learning to speak Spanglish (for our next trip we think of Bhutan Tours).

I quickly learned that my young passengers were like foreign exchange students – always asking questions that seemed to have obvious answers.  Fun at first (because it allowed me to share my incredible knowledge of the United States) but after awhile, their naiveness was draining.  And references to Field of Dreams were lost on them.

Another thing I learned is that there are not enough bathrooms along the interstate.  And much like  college freshmen that drink too much – you eventually find them peeing in public.

And finally, my passengers were like Hungry Hungry Hippos – never satisfied no matter how many tasty marbles of goodness I threw their way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the added challenge of doing this solo (because mommy was at a conference) I took the time to do some pre-planning.  Actually, I had to do it… because mommy is usually in charge of the planning.  So I used Trekaroo.com to find some kid friendly places to stop along the way and maybe have some teachable moments.  So the first thing I taught my children was how to pose at a rest stop…

    Which earned them quarters for the vending machines…     

And then I explained that posing at a rest stop for money is illegal and that is why the vending machines are behind bars.

So my biggest tip for taking a long road trip with young kids is to stop and play at least every three hours.  By using Trekaroo we found…

A park with a castle and dragons…

A community pool to enjoy for an hour…

 

And even a place to go fishing at a small Children’s Museum.

In addition to what most parents bring (e.g. DVD player, Leapster, etc.) – we brought some $1 pin wheels.

Turns out, they still hold together at 75 mph?!    And finally, we learned that taking a road trip slow and enjoying the sites can be an enjoyable family experience… with enough coffee.

Read more here if you need a personal injury attorney to protect your right after a car accident.

  Enjoy the journey,-Craig