by "Jerry Harding" (jerrylh3)
Published 04/11/2017 at 12:56
by "Jerry Harding" (jerrylh3)
Published 04/11/2017 at 12:56
Tags: Road Trip
STARS: 0
So, my wife and I have decided to subject our children to a cross country drive next month. It’s about a 2,000 mile trip and 28-29 hours straight through, but we plan on stopping for a half day in the middle. Our boys are six and three, so I expect plenty of the “I have to pee” stops. They both are electronics literate, so we will bring their tablets and gaming devices along with us. We also plan on driving through the night, so hopefully that’s around 9-10 hours they can sleep through. Does Oppo have any tips and advice on how to keep the little ones entertained? Other than “dont do this, you are clearly insane”? We will be driving my wife’s CX-5, pictured here.
"BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo" (bluemazda2)
04/11/2017 at 13:06, STARS: 0
Wait a minute. Where do you live? That neighborhood looks very familiar.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
04/11/2017 at 13:13, STARS: 0
Drugs, lots of drugs. But otherwise, any reason to not take at least another day to make it a little more bearable? I am looking to do a cross country trek but I cannot even imagine doing it in a week, let alone 2 days! Sure I will be using my Miata so maybe that’s why I dont want to drive more than 8 hours in a day but there is so much to see everywhere.
"Jerry Harding" (jerrylh3)
04/11/2017 at 13:15, STARS: 0
Outer suburbs of Tampa in a small town called Ruskin.
"BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo" (bluemazda2)
04/11/2017 at 13:15, STARS: 0
Hmm. It looks exactly like a neighborhood in Boca Raton. At least I got the Florida part right.
"Aremmes" (aremmes)
04/11/2017 at 13:18, STARS: 0
Plan on roughly ~4-6 hours between stops so that you can time fuel stops with food/ex-food stops. At 60 mph average that’s around 300 miles per leg. That means filling up with roughly 10 gallons at a time instead of the CX-5's 15 gallons or so. It’ll make the trip longer time-wise but a lot less tiring for everyone.
"Jerry Harding" (jerrylh3)
04/11/2017 at 13:21, STARS: 0
I figured drugs would be mentioned. But for myself or my kids? On second thought, don’t answer.
Anyhow, we are trying to maximize our time at the destination (Arizona), thus we are trying to get out there as quick as possible. There’s definitely plenty to see, but we can’t turn it into a full two week vacation.
"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
04/11/2017 at 13:30, STARS: 0
As far as pee stops go... dehydrate them slightly before and during the trip. Seriously. And ZERO sweet drinks (including juice) the day before and during, only water. A good trick is to give them both a water bottle, but fill it only with ice. As it melts, they’ll get water to drink, but they’ll only get enough for a few sips here and there.
And I’m fully on board with letting my kids enter full zombie mode during road trips with iPads and DVDs. You might also consider books on CD that they’d actually be interested in. “I Spy” is always a winner.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
04/11/2017 at 13:52, STARS: 0
Well yeah but the only value in driving really is to see stuff. And driving straight through the night on the interstates as quickly as possible, ends up seeming pointless. This is of course due to flying being relatively cheap and insanely quick. Sure there are lots of hassles with that, especially when transporting a family, but I feel like anything is worth avoiding 24+ hours of driving in such a short time! Flights costing over $1k for the family plus rental car and other expenses definitely are more expensive but the value of time is important to consider.
I dont think you could pay me to deal with children in a car for 24 hours. Its bad enough dealing with it for 5 hours on the plane. But then again I dont ever have to deal with children so maybe its not as bad as I think.
"Jerry Harding" (jerrylh3)
04/11/2017 at 14:14, STARS: 0
When we made the decision to drive, airfare was going to be around $1600 for the family. We calculated gas at less than $400, even factoring in a surge in gas prices. As you mentioned, there would still be rental car costs while out there. Plus, we would either have to travel with the car seats or rent those as well. While we will lose about a full 24 hours over flying, the costs were too hard to ignore. We do plan on spending half a day in San Antonio to break up the driving, so there will be a little we get to see other than endless miles of interstate.