When my grandma passed away a few weeks ago, the memorial service was set for a few weeks later. Many of our family members had to travel from far away to get there, but we had a choice to make; buy six plane tickets or commit to a 7 1/2 hour drive with the four kids. It was a tough choice. Six plane tickets is ridiculously expensive, especially for a weekend trip, but a road trip with kids means a bunch of stops, finding meals on the road, and making sure they have packed enough entertainment to keep them busy and not driving me nuts the whole ride. A road trip meant the 7 1/2 hours would be at least 9-10 hours of traveling.
We chose the road trip.
We’ve done road trips for vacations before, and they’ve generally gone well. My husband thinks it’s because the kids are just good travelers. They are, for the most part. But I also know that the preparation and work that I put in before we get in that car make a huge difference in how the trip goes. Still, I’m not a huge fan of road trips, at least with the kids. I’ve always said I want the Star Trek days to hurry up and come so I can “beam myself” to wherever I’m going. That’s probably a reflection of my destination oriented mindset and my lack of appreciation for the journey, but we all have flaws. I’m working on that one!
Even with all the preparations and plans, this trip taught me a few things that made it even better, so I’m going to share them here with you. Hopefully, your next road trip will be even better because of it!
Sometimes, you have to stop for squishies.
I was the driver for the first leg of the trip. We left at 6 am, thinking we’d get ahead of most of the Atlanta traffic. Now, I don’t like to drive, especially in the dark, but I volunteered to drive that morning. Actually, I insisted. My honey had stayed up very late the night before and I wanted him to sleep for a few more hours before he got behind the wheel. I felt that was best for everyone, so I was in the driver’s seat when he came outside. We got the kids in and took off. My husband grabbed one of the kid’s squishy stuffed animal pillows and conked out.
Two hours later, we got caught in construction traffic on the other side of the city, and as we neared the more rural part of the drive, I decided we’d better get gas and stop for a bathroom break before we had fewer options. I saw a Walmart supercenter with a gas station ahead and drove up to the pumps. When my husband woke up, he told the kids how much he liked the squishy pillow and asked where it had come from. When they said Walmart, he grabbed his electric one wheeled scooter and made to take off to buy one for himself.
He almost started a riot.
The kids who didn’t have a big squishy immediately clamored to get one too. Now, we were already behind schedule, most of the trip was ahead, and this was supposed to be a quick bathroom break. I was tempted to be annoyed. But then I decided, Hey – get me one too! That was it. He took off, I gassed up the car and drove around to park so everyone could go in to the potty. When we got inside, he was standing in the stuffed animal aisle with couple hundred choices around. The kids jumped in to “help”, everyone negotiated for which squishie they wanted, and as providence would have it, they had exactly six different varieties. Everyone got one!
Now, did it make us later than planned? Yep. We were planning to get to my mother-in-law’s house for lunch, and we had to switch up the plan so they could eat when they were actually hungry instead of late afternoon. But you know what? We still visited with the family, we got a good lunch on the road anyway, and every time we look at those squishies, each of us smile and remember how we got them. Now, those squishies are part of our family memories and the delay in our trip was definitely worth that!
Bring too much to do.
I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before, but I’m not a fan of screens. Especially kids and screens. So even though the van has a TV, I try hard not to use it except on the tail end of road trips when everyone is just about over it. So before any road trip, we go to the library and load up on books and maybe a couple of DVDs. This time, I neglected to communicate a limit on the number of books that the kids could check out to the friend who had them on the library trip day.
These jokers came home with TWO of these.
I’m pretty sure they checked out books to the limit of my library card. We usually take one bag of books, mostly because we need room for packing other things. But here’s the messed up part: They left the books in the van and I didn’t see them until the morning we left. Yeah, they knew exactly what they were doing. They were packed in the back like sardines and it was too late for me to sort out what could be left behind. So the back seats were a hot mess the whole trip, because they had no room to maneuver and pens and notebooks and gifts from Nana and stuffies and blankies and squishy pillows were everywhere. I couldn’t even look in the back seat, and it was my job to manage them while he was driving.
But they didn’t complain that they were bored. And that, my friends, is the lesson. Next time they might want a little more room and may limit themselves, but they knew what they needed to be entertained. I had my books and work and things to keep me busy up front, so we did just fine. Was it a hot mess when we got home? Yep. And I made them clean it all out. All good!
No yelling in a metal box.
This is their rule. And I so appreciate it, because just like every other hyperactive sense I have (lights are too bright, the TV is too loud, something stinks, don’t you smell that?), my hearing is also on overdrive. Kids hollering in the backseat is a no-go. And even though they seem not to notice how loud they can be in the house, they do seem to get it in the car. So they remind each other when their volumes gets above a certain threshold, and I am so thankful for their rule.
Remember why you’re together.
This one is the simplest, but it’s easy to miss. Going on a road trip can be tedious, exhausting and just plain boring. It can fray your every last nerve and if you don’t watch out, everyone is crabby and snapping at each other by the end and all you want to do is make sure that you never, EVER do this again. But when I get close to thinking that way, I remind myself what we’re doing. We were going to say goodbye to my grandmother, to celebrate her life, and to gather her family close. One day, we won’t all be together this way. This time, even a road trip, is our life together. I can choose to be irritated and short tempered, or I can choose to cherish this time that I have all six of us together. I choose to be grateful. It makes all the difference!
Do you road trip with your family? What’s the most memorable thing that happened to you on a road trip? Please share in the comments below!