The Road Trip

It’s time for summer vacation and you’ve decided that you are going to drive, do you immediately reach for the wine in anticipation of screaming, crying kids, a million “Are we there yets?”, a million potty breaks and start to rethink even going on vacation?? If this is you, then I’m here to save you!!  Growing up, we went on a ton of road trips, my parents are the ones who taught me that road trips can be fun and enjoyable. My mom is the one who packed a full picnic basket, including the tablecloth and dinnerware, and even games to play while we were at the rest stops to get our energy out of us. My dad was the one who, when we were very little, recorded books on cassette tape (yes, i’m dating myself) so that we would have something to do in the car. We even had the portable tv/vcr combo that plugged into the cigarette lighter, balancing on a milk crate, just so we could watch our favorite movies that my dad recorded for us. And even more old school, he recorded them off of HBO!! Kids have it so easy these days!!

So here is what I have packed in the car for every road trip that we go on and these things have literally saved my sanity!! My husband still thinks I’m crazy for some of the things that I pack for them to do, however, he does appreciate them when the kids are entertained!! Now, if I could only invent seats that rotate 180 degrees so that I don’t have to reach over and twist and turn my body, I’ll be golden!!!

Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? How many times do we hear that in a car ride?? I wanted to help the kids and my sanity, so I make a map of where we are going, so they can see exactly where we are.  I had my hubby, who is the techie one in the family, do the state outlines. I made a couple of copies and laminated them, and then with one copy I cut out the individual states. Now, I want to know why when states boundary lines were created, why in the world did they make them so curvy?!?! Because when you are cutting them out, the scissors get a workout!!!  I put velcro on the maps and then as you pass through each state, you take one off and then on the return trip home, you put them back on. I have done a couple variations on this too. For younger kids, I do each state in a different color, so it makes it easier for matching. The older kids can do just black outlined ones. I’ve made a big one that is the size of legal paper and smaller ones on letter size paper.  And no, I’m not a crazy person making 10 variations of everything, but we typically go to the same places or states and we have been going for years now, so I have been able to vary it up over the years. And as the kids get older you can add in the state capitals too. From the map came the idea of coming up with some fun easy crafts and snacks that go with each state. I would go online and find some fun or interesting things about each state we were going to be going through and then make something simple. I’m talking SIMPLE here people – like post-it notes and cupcake goldfish for Kentucky – why do you ask? Well the “Happy Birthday” song was written by a person who was from Kentucky and post-it notes are exclusively manufactured there. I’ve also made matching boards for the younger kids with the fun state facts. And the final activity to do with the state fun facts is to bust them out when the kids are all yelling and screaming and fighting with each other and you need a whole bottle of wine, you simply start talking about all the fun facts and it gets them immediately to stop!! Trust me!! And sometimes they even want to know more information about a certain fun fact and we end up looking it up and have more conversations. So enough about maps and state facts, onto the carbags!

Each kid has their own car basket/bag/tub etc. and it’s filled with things that are geared towards their age level and their interests. There are some common things that I keep in each one of their baskets though.  The first thing that is a must is a plastic tray!! The tray basically becomes a table for them, so they can do the crafty type things, like play-dough, color, play with pipe cleaners, elastic string and pony beads.   And my son loves legos so it provides a surface for him to build on. For the little ones they can string pony beads onto the pipe cleaners and make all kinds of things like bracelets or they can just string them and take them off and repeat!   The older kids can use the elastic string and make bracelets and necklaces. The other item I have used a lot is the lunch meat tubs or other small plastic containers to store things in, like the pipe cleaners and beads. For the younger kids, you can cut holes of various sizes in the top of a lunch meat tub with an exacto knife and then give them some pom-poms and they figure out which hole it’ll go in; trust me this keeps them busier than you think!!

 Any type of magnetic activity works great in the car. I’ve found magnetic books, dress up dolls, cars, etc. and they are usually small so they go in the car bag easily. Another really versatile thing to pack is a small white board and markers, now, I would not recommend this for the little ones as they tend to color on themselves. I may or may have learned this the hard way!! You live and you learn, right? Depending on what your kiddo is into at the time, I’ve also packed the little coloring packs that I’ve found in the dollar bins at Target or at the Dollar Tree. And usually I have them pack some little toys or stuffed animals that they are really attached to so that makes it more comforting for them too.  My son was very into cars when he was little and didn’t have a lot of stuffed animals or anything that he was attached to, so I had to really think how I could get that into something that would fit in the carbag. Then it came to me – make a race track!! I took a dollar store cookie sheet and made him a race track where he could take his little match box cars around it. And when his baby sister came around, she even wanted to play with it. If you think about some of their favorite things that would be a coloring page, you can turn it into a velcro activity. My oldest loves cupcakes and cooking so I took a picture of a cupcake and made several copies and colored each part different and then laminated and cut them out.  So now, she could “make” her own cupcake. And anytime you can give them free draw/play is also a plus! I’ve used post-it notes (Kentucky – fun fact!) and found just cardstock on a ring at Wal-Mart, give them stickers and crayons and they are good to go!!

The last thing I wanted to touch on was food and eating in the car.  DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT go on a road trip without snacks!!! Someone is always hungry or thirsty.  Now, I do have one rule, NO fruity drinks or gatorade in the car. I mean you can give them a juice box and you’ll be stopping 20 minutes later to go to the bathroom.  So we only pack water for them to drink in the car. I know, I’m the mean mom when it comes to this one, but trust me, you’ll thank me later. I also pack plenty of snacks for each kid – including dad!!! I pack snacks that they don’t typically get so that its special.  My mom used to make this trail mix that is amazing!! She still makes it for us and I’m in my 30’s. Its honey nut Cheerios, m&m’s, raisins and honey roasted peanuts. Ugh – heaven!! I usually pack at least one meal for them to eat in the car – we call it a car-nic – a picnic in the car. Then we usually stop for one meal at a restaurant – sometimes fast food, sometimes sit down, just depending on what we are feeling and needing at the moment. When we are eating in the car I give the kids trays to eat on. Mine are the 90’s mauve Tupperware trays, but I have seen divided dishes that would also work in the stores. You want them bigger and deeper so that when you go around turns and stop suddenly the food doesn’t come spilling out. These trays work for packed meals or fast food.  The reason I say do divided is that you sometimes need to separate food and drink (like sometimes you need ketchup and it can’t touch the fruit).

So I hope you’ve gotten some ideas that you can take away and help save your sanity as you prepare for your next road trip!! I will say the more you can take road trips the better and easier they become. So take to the roads and enjoy!!!