This post is to share our tips with others who may be looking for information on how to do the same thing. So here goes nothing:
Our cross country road trip with 3 kids, 2 food allergies, 1 dog, no DVD, and no fast food.
Yes, you did read that correct. We took this trip pretty old school. We did have a few tricks and a little bit of technology. Before beginning this trip we had been dealing with pretty harsh allergies. Our oldest has a dairy allergy which by the time of this trip we were pretty well versed in the world of avoiding dairy. However, our youngest was not quite 2 years old and was only able to eat rice and chicken with sea salt. OOOOHHHH man, talk about interesting. We had doctors telling us she had food allergies so stop giving her X foods, then when not cleared up stop giving her Y foods, then we think it might be Z foods, then we think it's pollen so don't give any uncooked fruits and vegetables....... I use X, Y, and Z because I can't remember the order in which we eliminated foods but basically we just kept eliminating, and eliminating with no relief for her at all and also without being given the go ahead to add foods back. When she (finally) got her allergist appointment the office couldn't see her until after we moved, so little help there. All we could do was continue on with what we had been advised to do until we reached our destination. So before our trip we stocked up on a brand of rice cakes that are literally just puffed rice.... and so our trip began.
When faced with the reality of planning the road trip, we decided to go ahead and purchase a Leap Pad for the older girls to share. They were going to each get a maximum of 1 hour per day, after lunch and it was all dependent upon their behavior. We bought the pad about 1 week before our departure and set everything up on the computer, changed the batteries and had extras in the glove box..... on day 1 of the trip after lunch we decided to let the girls have their play time. A quick game of rock, paper, scissors decided the lucky 1st player..... then we get a notification on the screen: "Please have your parent connect this device to a computer for updates" SERIOUSLY?! We don't have a laptop so this great little toy ended up just taking up space on the trip. Then I remembered in the emergency fun drawer I had a backup plan. I hadn't planned on breaking it out until halfway through the trip but a very good friend had sent a MobiGo for the kids =) They played it that first day then we stayed so busy that they didn't play again until day 4 or 5...... but it was worth it and I will explain that one later! The big girls each had a backpack that I had packed for them and they had NO idea what was in it. This is what kept them occupied for 90% of the trip. In the backpacks I had several small toys (I had gotten bags of little toys from the thrift store) and we had some great friends who contributed to the bags with goodies like toys, sticker sheets, snacks, and coloring activities. Those were great but the pièce de résistance were the BINDERS!
Both of the big girls had their own binder. Inside of the binders were all sorts of goodies. I had a printed map of the trip in it's entirety with our highlighted route, then sections broken down by state. Each state had a map, again with our route highlighted, then several sheets for each state (below are some of the sites that I used) everything from coloring sheets with state flags and facts, word searches, information about historic sites, etc. Each state had a sheet protector for them to put in small things like ticket stubs or smooshed pennies (I know that fellow parents know what I am talking about HAHA our kids can spot those machines at 100 paces) Behind the state info was a section of random paper, mostly rejects from the printer where it may have printed a line or just a web address and I don't like to waste them, then a bunch of color wonder sheets removed from their original packages them hole punched to fit in the binder. Each binder had a pencil pouch that held twistable crayons (they don't get crushed), colored pencils, etc. Also in the pouches were several car BINGO cards. In addition to the sites below that I used for the majority of the printing, I did sometimes just google for specific terms and found worksheets that way too.
Maps
Coloring State Sheets
TONS of printables
BINGO
Now that the entertainment has been taken care of how about food? We carried a cooler with us for the trip and opted to go grocery shopping every few days instead of eating out or grabbing expensive snacks at a gas station. Lunches were easy, we ate a LOT of peanut butter roll ups. Peanut butter and jelly on a flour tortilla. I will be the first to admit that I do not enjoy peanut butter but for us it was important to save as much money as possible. On more than 1 day we were able to eat while sitting in heavy traffic due to accidents because everything was handy and easy to pass around. We did have a few days with lunch meat roll ups and usually with a side of popcorn. Dinners took a lot more planning. We purchased a thermal cooker specifically for this trip. On the very first morning before leaving our old house in NC, I cooked our dinner and added it to our thermal cooker. When we arrived at our first hotel we checked in, carried in our luggage and had a wonderful chicken and rice dinner. The way that the cooker is set up we cooked ours in the bottom big pot and plain chicken in the top smaller pot. The 2nd day we traveled to visit my mom, we stayed there for a few days sight seeing and spending time with family. When it was time to get back on the road, I once again used the thermal cooker on my mom's stove and once again had a lovely hot meal! In addition to the thermal cooker alone, we also had a small one burner cook top that we took to use when we didn't have access to a stove. In lieu of ice, for the 1st leg of the trip we used containers of frozen chili and frozen bottles of water. Once we reached our 1st stop we put them all back in the freezer (they hadn't thawed since we never opened the cooler on the 1st day) then let them thaw once we started back on our journey after our stop, so chili heated up in a hotel microwave was also great one night mid way through the trip! Another tip with water we used our reusable bottles and just bought gallons of water when we needed to refill. Whenever possible we would freeze large bottles of water instead of using ice in the cooler. I don't think we paid over $1 for a gallon of water which filled all of our cups versus buying tons of individual bottles. Plus, it's just better for the environment. =)
Saratoga Jacks Thermal Cooker
My Pinterest for thermal cooking recipes
So, the biggest sanity saver of the trip was probably our attitude.... we had a 'why not' attitude. We made a few unscheduled stops because well, why not, and those ended up being some of our best memories!! Hotel has a pool? Why not! Just put suits in the dryer before bed. I suggest taking a roll of quarters on any trip!!
Here's a cool site for finding interesting stops! Roadside America however, I couldn't bring myself to pay for their app but we searched their site on our phones when we had WiFi.
COFFEE!! A definite MUST when traveling for us but we managed to only buy coffee one time. Opting to fill our cup at hotels before checking out.
And last but not least, SAFETY!! BE PREPARED!! Check out my post about vehicle preparedness! Plus I added lots of things to the van just for the trip. Backup entertainment, glow sticks, suckers, hand sanitizer, stamps for postcards, roll of quarters, extra sunglasses, sunscreen, and jackets for bad weather. Speaking of bad weather the day I was super glad we had the MobiGo is the day we ran into a tornado/storm. Our oldest had her blanket over her head and played the game to keep her mind off of what was going on all around us. I know we were super close to the confirmed tornado because of the gusts, hail, and the dreaded pressure change that makes your ears pop and feel sick to your stomach. Yes, we seem to have a target on our backs!!
So it is possible to travel over 3,000 miles with 3 kids and no DVD or fast food. It does take a little more planning and whole lot of patience but it was worth every minute and we won't be going back to the way we used to travel.
Both of the big girls had their own binder. Inside of the binders were all sorts of goodies. I had a printed map of the trip in it's entirety with our highlighted route, then sections broken down by state. Each state had a map, again with our route highlighted, then several sheets for each state (below are some of the sites that I used) everything from coloring sheets with state flags and facts, word searches, information about historic sites, etc. Each state had a sheet protector for them to put in small things like ticket stubs or smooshed pennies (I know that fellow parents know what I am talking about HAHA our kids can spot those machines at 100 paces) Behind the state info was a section of random paper, mostly rejects from the printer where it may have printed a line or just a web address and I don't like to waste them, then a bunch of color wonder sheets removed from their original packages them hole punched to fit in the binder. Each binder had a pencil pouch that held twistable crayons (they don't get crushed), colored pencils, etc. Also in the pouches were several car BINGO cards. In addition to the sites below that I used for the majority of the printing, I did sometimes just google for specific terms and found worksheets that way too.
Maps
Coloring State Sheets
TONS of printables
BINGO
Now that the entertainment has been taken care of how about food? We carried a cooler with us for the trip and opted to go grocery shopping every few days instead of eating out or grabbing expensive snacks at a gas station. Lunches were easy, we ate a LOT of peanut butter roll ups. Peanut butter and jelly on a flour tortilla. I will be the first to admit that I do not enjoy peanut butter but for us it was important to save as much money as possible. On more than 1 day we were able to eat while sitting in heavy traffic due to accidents because everything was handy and easy to pass around. We did have a few days with lunch meat roll ups and usually with a side of popcorn. Dinners took a lot more planning. We purchased a thermal cooker specifically for this trip. On the very first morning before leaving our old house in NC, I cooked our dinner and added it to our thermal cooker. When we arrived at our first hotel we checked in, carried in our luggage and had a wonderful chicken and rice dinner. The way that the cooker is set up we cooked ours in the bottom big pot and plain chicken in the top smaller pot. The 2nd day we traveled to visit my mom, we stayed there for a few days sight seeing and spending time with family. When it was time to get back on the road, I once again used the thermal cooker on my mom's stove and once again had a lovely hot meal! In addition to the thermal cooker alone, we also had a small one burner cook top that we took to use when we didn't have access to a stove. In lieu of ice, for the 1st leg of the trip we used containers of frozen chili and frozen bottles of water. Once we reached our 1st stop we put them all back in the freezer (they hadn't thawed since we never opened the cooler on the 1st day) then let them thaw once we started back on our journey after our stop, so chili heated up in a hotel microwave was also great one night mid way through the trip! Another tip with water we used our reusable bottles and just bought gallons of water when we needed to refill. Whenever possible we would freeze large bottles of water instead of using ice in the cooler. I don't think we paid over $1 for a gallon of water which filled all of our cups versus buying tons of individual bottles. Plus, it's just better for the environment. =)
Saratoga Jacks Thermal Cooker
My Pinterest for thermal cooking recipes
So, the biggest sanity saver of the trip was probably our attitude.... we had a 'why not' attitude. We made a few unscheduled stops because well, why not, and those ended up being some of our best memories!! Hotel has a pool? Why not! Just put suits in the dryer before bed. I suggest taking a roll of quarters on any trip!!
Here's a cool site for finding interesting stops! Roadside America however, I couldn't bring myself to pay for their app but we searched their site on our phones when we had WiFi.
COFFEE!! A definite MUST when traveling for us but we managed to only buy coffee one time. Opting to fill our cup at hotels before checking out.
And last but not least, SAFETY!! BE PREPARED!! Check out my post about vehicle preparedness! Plus I added lots of things to the van just for the trip. Backup entertainment, glow sticks, suckers, hand sanitizer, stamps for postcards, roll of quarters, extra sunglasses, sunscreen, and jackets for bad weather. Speaking of bad weather the day I was super glad we had the MobiGo is the day we ran into a tornado/storm. Our oldest had her blanket over her head and played the game to keep her mind off of what was going on all around us. I know we were super close to the confirmed tornado because of the gusts, hail, and the dreaded pressure change that makes your ears pop and feel sick to your stomach. Yes, we seem to have a target on our backs!!
So it is possible to travel over 3,000 miles with 3 kids and no DVD or fast food. It does take a little more planning and whole lot of patience but it was worth every minute and we won't be going back to the way we used to travel.
