You know that saying, there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes? Well, I think it also applies to road tripping with children. There is no such thing as a bad passenger, only bad preparation. Okay, okay, if you have a car puker (which we did, for a while) that does sort of constitute as a bad passenger. But still. Barf bags in seat pockets pretty much eliminate the worst of it.
Probably not the best way to amp you up for a road trip-- talking about puke and all.
So how about we focus on this?
Smiling faces
uninterrupted family time
better for the planet (and your wallet) then flying on a jetplane
I just noticed that none of these photos were actually taken in a car.
Ah! Here's one: children who are securely strapped in. As in, cannot run. Or get into stuff. For hours on end.
Yes, I will proudly proclaim my absolute love of the road trip. Ever since my teenage and collegiate years, when, as a dreadlock-loving, handmade dress wearing wild child I criss-crossed the countryside with friends and boyfriends in cars and Greyhounds and the like, the white and yellow lines of smooth highway pavement have been embedded in my heart.
There is something about the endlessness of the road, the forward motion of the drive, that sparks all sorts of wonder and adventure. I stick my feet on the dash (did I mention my husband loves to drive-- bonus), crank the radio up, and just soak in the sunshine. Because it is always sunny on my roadtrips. Do you hear me weatherman-predicting-thunderstorms-through-Ohio-today? Always. Sunny.
When Noah was four, Justin and I took a two-plus week road trip along the East Coast. It was the kind of road trip I love most-- no agenda, no destination, go where ever the mood strikes. It was so easy, traveling with one little guy in the backseat.
(Because I am a freak about this stuff, I must add here that this was taken in an old Volvo wagon, and it had a built in booster seat. The whole five-point harness for four year-olds really wasn't the rage yet. Honest. Ahem.)
He was content to look at books, to jabber in his pre-school way, to take pictures of his feet and the backs of our heads with my camera.
When Max was three months old, we packed both boys up and drove the 30-plus hours to Big Sky, Montana.
It was another pretty easy trip. Stuff was a bit of a problem (as in, we could barley see the boys because I packed an insane amount of baby equipment that all proved to be unnecessary). We got better, though, trip after trip. The boys became road warriors (after Max stopped ralphing every time we went more than 45 miles, that is). Fast forward to last year. We packed a three month old Lizzie and the two boys into our newly christened mini-van. Oh, the room! Oh, the DVD players! It was the first time Justin and I had ever worried about a road trip. We were officially outnumbered. Would mutiny occur?
Nope.
It was great. And here's why: we take travel packing seriously. As in: we make sure every kid has enough stuff to do to stay busy exactly 85-percent of the trip (and only 85-percent, because hey, they have to learn to appease themselves too, right?)
Here's the breakdown of key items we keep handy:
Books a plenty. Unless your kid gets carsick reading-- okay, even if your kid gets carsick reading-- have them pick a few books for the road. Also, audio books are a huge must. We take enough for double the amount of time we're in the car, just in case one of the books doesn't pass muster. With a portable CD player, or with cars that come with earphones, you have the option of listening to the books with your child, or if they aren't appropriate for younger ears (or you just want to rock out with your feet on the dash), your child can get lost in a story without having to read/vomit.
Small toys. My boys love little tech deck skateboards and lego packs-- but beware, these things are easily dropped and fall into the "mama, can you reach back and get that..." category. I love the little Playmobile magnetic travel sets, and sticker books for the toddler crowd are always a hit. Just be prepared to have stickers cover the inside of said toddler's window.
Crayons/dry erase marker boards. We bring our schooling dry erase boards and markers along, in case Max gets an urge "to do homework" (he's still at that age), and also to just draw, erase, and draw some more. With Lizzie suddenly having a huge interest in coloring, I'll start packing our Stockmar crayons too. These all natural beeswax crayons are great, well, just because they are great, but also because if they happen to wind up in her mouth and no one in the backseat happens to notify me for a few minutes, they are also safe. I like the block variety for little hands.
DVDs. This one is a bit tricky in our house. While our fancy schmancy mini-van did come with two drop down DVD players, I really, really don't like the idea of an 18-hour screen fest. That being said, um, we do have two DVD players, and there is nothing-- I mean nothing-- that will keep wee ones quieter and more content than being glued to the ol' tele. And so, we compromise. I bring a slug of their favorite movies and save them for when it is too dark to read or draw, or when they are just plain losing the plot. I also netflix some fun stuff that I know they would never watch unless they are, well, hog-tied and strapped down. Last year, they plowed through the entire first season of the Brady Bunch. And loved it. With golden oldies like Gilligan's Island, the Andy Griffith Show, and musicals like The Sound of Music to pick from, there are plenty of options that make me feel a little better about what they are watching (as in no Diego or Star Wars cartoons blasting from the back. Pretty please).
Snacks. Oh, I cannot stress enough the importance of the all-accessible snack bag. We load up so that no one starts bonking from starvation. I'll admit, we don't neccessairly do "keep the car tidy" snacks (i.e. crackers galore) but we do vacuum up the majority of the mess between the going there and coming home trips. We also keep a small cooler with juice, milk, water and lunch fixin's (like turkey and cheese and fruit) so that on the off chance we're in a groove, we can eat and keep driving, and if not, we can eat at a rest stop and save both money and our stomachs from fast food gut rot.
Good old-fashioned car game fun. We actually still love, despite all the technology we have available, to play the games Justin and I played as kids-- the I Spy, the license plate game, the name-something-you-see-that-starts-with-this-letter game, or be as silent as a statue (which unfortunately never lasts very long for more than three seconds). Unless your kid is doing this:
We also play "make up a story," in which the person who is "it" gets to start a story about whatever they want, and then we all take turns adding to it until we get back to the person who started the story, and they get to put the ending on it. Here's an online resource for these kinds of games and more ideas: www.minivanmom.com (seriously).
And then, there's always talking. Because that's what family trip is all about, right? Seriously. Because they grow so fast. They go from this, to that, in like, under 10 seconds.
A word to the wise: never, ever teach your children the song "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall." Also, in our car, the kids get three free "are we there yet's" and after that, we start docking that coveted DVD time. Amazing how fast those words disappear from their sweet little vocabularies.
Adios folks-- as you read this, we are in the car, heading to Asheville, North Carolina. I'll post when I get there. From a grocery store. A very, very lovely grocery store.




