Long Road Trip... - Chesterfield,MO

Since no one wants to go, I would start dri king now lol. The kids are certainly old enough to occupy themselves. Do what works best for you. Leave early if you want or later. Only you can decide. With kid this age just go with the flow. You would need more of a plan with little ones. Hope it goes well!

We drive out to Massachusetts from Michigan and back again a couple of times a year, it's about an 11 hour trip. DD is 5. We keep her occupied with a DVD player for movies and her DS to play games. At some point she will usually sack out for a nap. We leave as early in the morning as possible (usually between 5:30 and 6am) because we plan to do it all in one day. Obviously with you guys, it depends on how long you think it will take and how many hours a day you are willing to drive. We've never been too picky about hotels - as long as it's a clean, comfortable room, that's all that matters to us.

At those ages, your kids should be able to entertain themselves. We did a road trip from MA to Myrtle Beach 5 years ago - DD was a baby, and my stepsons were 13 and 14. They just took their iPods along as well as portable video game players. That trip took 15 hours. We left around 4 am and drive straight through. The boys whined about the car ride a little, but we just reminded them about where we were going and told them to basically suck it up!

Definitely get each child their own DVD player w/movies they each like.
This is a lifesaver!!!

I buy a new little fun item for each child on every trip so they have something new & exciting to open. It can be a toy, gadget, gift or whatever.

Stop often to stretch their legs.

Map out driving 8 hrs a day.

Bring a small gift for hubby to open so he knows how happy you are that
he is taking this trip with you.

Play games on the way. The best one is a visual scavenger hunt you play for 15 mins at a time. Look for certain big items from the car that the kids check off (red big rig, yellow car, orange construction cone etc). The first one to get all 15 items gets a prize, the other child gets a smaller consolation prize.

I am w/the poster that said get takeout & eat at a local park.

Bring an ice chest w/bottle water, drinks etc.

Bring plenty of snacks to eat in the car.

Pack magazines, books, ipods w/earphones etc.

Bring blankets.

Stretch your legs often.

Yellowstone. The Black Hills. Mt Rushmore.

There is a wood carving museum in the Black hills that I thought would be really boring, but it ended up being fascinating.

They serve buffalo in restaurants in the Dakotas and Montana.

Good luck to you and yours.

I've done and survived a few long road trips with my kids over the years. Best $80 I ever spent was on dual portable DVD players from Craigslist. I think we would have had blood on our New York trip without them.

One thing I learned on my very first extended road trip was to never eat in restaurants. Instead we'd find a nice town to stop in, get some take out deli (or whatever) and go to the local park to eat. It didn't add any more time to our drive than sitting in a restaurant and the kids appreciated the chance to stretch their legs. We also made better food choices going deli style. Heck, you could even pack a cooler full of sandwich stuff to take along and skip the deli stops.

We never pre-arrange hotels before a trip. Instead, we set a destination on the map we'd ideally like to get to. If we don't make it there because of bad traffic or car issues or we wanted to stop along the way, we didn't have to worry about blowing a reservation. About an hour before we were ready to stop for the night I'd jump on Hotwire on my phone and book a reservation for something close by. We never had an issue getting a room.

As for what time to leave, that's all personal preference. DH and I are NOT morning people, so a 5 am departure would be a very bad choice for us. We usually shoot for 7 am. Years ago we could drive for 24 hours non-stop, but these days we have to stop to sleep. So we usually drive from about 7 am to 7 pm, stopping for a lunch along the way. If the hotel had a pool the kids would still have time to enjoy it.

How long of a drive is that? My kids did a 19 hour car trip at 2, 4, and 6 and were great! Most of it was overnight :).

Now I take them on trips alone all the time that average about 8 hours one way. That's to my sister's house in SC. They sleep, have snacks, bring their electronics, and they are good. I also print out a list of the states and we see how many different states we can find license plates for. Luckiyl, I85 is a major travel road for trucks - so we get a lot!

I don't prefer to stop overnight - I always feel like that takes a day away from our vacation. If you do, I ditto FC_Mommmy with Drury hotels. They are not the most up -to-date (I prefer Marriott and Wyndham), but the staff has always been amazing and the free dinner, breakfasts, and snacks save a LOT of money.

At that age, they should be fine. I took several cross-country trips as a kiddo (starting around 7yo) with my 3 older brothers (ranging from 8 to 11yo when we started making these trips). This was way before any sort of portable entertainment devices (ipods, walkmans, dvds all came wayyyy later), so we relied on books and our wits. We were fine.

Make fun stops. Stay at motels with pools. Give yourself enough time to do it comfortably.

I'd check Tripadvisor and post your question there too. I've had great response. We've been traveling quite a bit lately and going early to get to destination in afternoon
or late In evening (leave 2 hours beforeand getting there at bed time has worked for us). It depends what works for your . I'd break it up into 5-6 hour trips.

No tips specific for your trip as I've never been to that part of the country, just some words of encouragement. We did a road trip in Australia last summer with our then 22 month old. It was 12 days of 8+ hours a day driving. It can be done.

I remember my parents would "force" us to make use of the bathroom at every pit stop and gas stop and force us to run laps before we were allowed back into the car. It helped to get our wriggles out and make us more docile in the car. Not sure if that sort of thing would work with a 12 or 9 year old if you haven't done it already. Another option is to pack a soccer ball and make a makeshift goal and have them take turns taking shots against you or hubs, or each other. They aren't allowed back into the car until they've landed XXX goals.

You'll have a great time.
F. B.

For Hotels....check out Drury Inns... if they are on the way use them!!!! Just make sure you get there by 5:30pm for the FREE "Kickback" aka Dinner
Plus tons of freebies & it is a great place

Here is their website www.druryhotels.com
best rates is through their esavers https://www.druryhotels.com/esavercode.aspx

You don't need to book ahead but can if you want

Activitys for the car, electronics!!!!!!!! My kids would drive eachother crazy if they did't have them. We have a car charger that will charge stuff when it gets low. We will play road trip bingo some but they have grown out of that for the most part. Mine are 14 and 11 (next week).

IF hubby is a good night time driver I would probably leave in the evening after dinner. I'd put the kids in the car with movies or electronic stuff with ear phones but with strict rules that if "I" can hear it then it's too loud.

Then we'd head north. Plan on stopping around 9 or so for a snack and everyone to get into jammies. When hubby gets tired stop at a hotel for the night. Eat a big breakfast at the hotel, it actually saves money if you eat there instead of staying cheap then buying breakfast out.

Get back on the road by 9 or so. If they kids have some snack foods and don't pee often I'd wait until lunch to stop again. But if they are antsy or need to stop and run around plan a mid morning snack.

After some running around and working off energy get back on the road. I'd say you should be able to make it there in one day if you drive steady but I'm not looking at a map and how many hours it takes.

The trip WILL be more enjoyable for everyone if daddy gets to sleep well at night and the kids get to use up their energy at least 3 times per day.

If the trip is 2 full days then I'd leave in the morning after breakfast. Same plan as before for breaks. Kids need time out of the seatbelt.