On the road…again (Part 2: Tips for long distance travel with kids)

As with most family adventures, you can credit good planning, teamwork and patience for travel successes. One of our guiding principles is to minimize stops, thereby minimizing expense for overnight stays, and getting more time at our ultimate destination.  The key is to keep everyone as happy as possible for as long as possible, letting the fun happen and rolling with the punches.

Here are some tips for preparing for a long road trip with the kids:

Before you go

Make checklists. Start a working checklist well in advance, when you’re relaxed and have time to think through what you’ll need for clothes, food, entertainment and toiletries for each family member individually, to help avoid the last-minute panic packing, which often results in packing too much. Your first list will look ridiculously long on paper, but you can pare it down – look at each item, and decide whether you would rather “have and not need, or need and not have”. Set up a packing base of operations in a spare room and begin setting aside “must take” items early to make sure that they don’t go missing or wind up in a mud-puddle the day you leave. Consider weather at your destination, footwear for planned activities, what you may need doubles of to avoid daily laundry, whether you absolutely must take your salon-grade hair care products, or if the sample size Pantene will do.

Get a sitter or grandparent to watch the kids while you do your final packing. It’s difficult to concentrate with little people underfoot, redirecting your attention and throwing you off your packing game. This game can be especially precarious as the PTD (preferred time of departure) gets closer, and especially if you have someone in the family who stresses about time.

Check your cargo capacity. Contrary to flying, the only restriction on luggage for a car trip is the cargo capacity of your vehicle, which is usually more than 1 checked, 1 carry-on per person. If you’re getting hung up about whether to bring the blue rubber boots or the pink ones, bring both! If you’re concerned about having too little space, consider a roof-top carrier, which can easily double the capacity of a small car.  It may negatively impact your gas mileage, but it will positively impact your peace of mind. Just make sure that what you pack on the roof is balanced and rain-proof.  You can fit a lot more in everywhere by packing in more, smaller pieces of luggage rather than fewer large ones, then use soft bags for clothing and stuff them into crevices to take advantage of otherwise wasted space.

Safety First. It may go without saying, but double check to make sure that child safety seats are properly and securely installed. Nothing should block visibility through the rear or side windows (another good case for a roof-top carrier). Make sure your vehicle is in good working condition and you have all ownership, insurance documents and owner’s manuals with you. Check the weather forecasts along your route and be prepared to adjust your schedule to avoid severe weather. Learn the laws if you are travelling out of province. (For instance, you can’t turn right on red lights on the island of Montreal. In Ontario, you must move out of the right lane if a service vehicle is stopped roadside. The cell phone bans are relatively new in most provinces, but don’t exist in NB.) When in doubt, take the safe route and exaggerate your usual safe driving habits. Drive to arrive alive! Get travel medical insurance for the whole family, carry health cards with you and pack everyone’s medications as well as headache, allergy and cold remedies, boo boo balm, bandaids (which are a good cure for sadness), and After Bite itch stopper.

Prep the vehicle. Check tire pressure and make sure it is optimal for your vehicle model, top up your windshield washer fluid and make sure your wipers are in good shape. Join CAA for maps, tour books, Triptiks, travel discounts, travel insurance and roadside assistance. http://www.caasco.com/
Use a free mapping service or your GPS to map the route in advance. Even if you have a GPS, it’s a good idea to have maps as a back-up and for an easier zoom-out view of where you are. Always add a healthy buffer of time to the estimates to set more realistic expectations. It’s easy to forget how long it realistically takes for the whole family to make a pee stop, so be generous to avoid feeling rushed along the way.

• Getting better mileage. Tire pressure, cargo weight, air conditioning or defogging and speed can all affect gas mileage. See Transport Canada’s suggestions to improve gas mileage and reduce emissions. http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/mediaroom/backgrounders-b06-mm001e-5176.htm

Have the essentials handy. Anything you might need with some immediacy – snacks and drinks (for kids and adults), entertainment items, toys/books/activities, paper towel/wet wipes, garbage bag, hand sanitizer – should be easily accessible, preferably reachable by the passenger, so that the driver never needs to divide their attention. It’s kind of like camping in the car – you need food, sleeping comforts and something to keep busy minds occupied when Mr. Sandman is off-duty.

• Food. If you’re like me, you will want to make better time than a “three square meals at the table” plan will allow. Pack foods that are easy for your kids to eat with their hands and that stick to the ribs so you’re not twisting to the back seat every five minutes and hitting the drive-thru before lunch. Keep them eating familiar foods as long into the trip as you can, as their diet usually gets turned upside down while you’re away. School lunch guidelines can apply here too, except that you only have to worry about your own allergies (bring on the PB&J!). Aim for a variety of foods from all the groups, with roughly a protein source, a whole grain, and fruit or veggies in each serving (this is a good guideline even if you do hit the drive-thru), and plenty of carefully doled-out drinks. http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index-eng.php Pack a cooler with an ice pack for perishables, and replenish with ice from your gas stops as needed. Don’t bother packing things you can find easily on the road, like milk, juice and water. Try to stay healthy, but kids do get excited about a little change-up in the meal plan that comes with a road trip.
• Entertainment You don’t want kids (or the spouse, for that matter) getting bored before the half way point. When colouring, reading and I Spy aren’t cutting it, having multiple media options and headsets allows each family member to choose their own entertainment or sleep without being disturbed. On our trip, my husband caught up on podcasts while the girls slept and I kept peppy alt rock pumping energy into my driving. To help keep all options in play, get a power inverter that plugs into your lighter outlet – it basically gives you an extension cord for AC power adaptors and comes in VERY handy for cell phones, iPods, DVD players, satellite radio receivers, GPS units, laptops, cameras and anything else you want to keep running.
• Place an overnight bag with essentials like toothbrushes and clean underwear near the hatch or trunk in case you do have to stop for the night, in the night.
• We take our portable wireless modem everywhere, so we can get connected to the internet as easily as we do at home, as long as there’s service. It’s not mobile internet, but it does make life easier once we reach our destination, especially if we forgot to set the “out of office” alert on our e-mail.

 

Plan your route and check your schedule. Review where you’re going on a map briefly before you start driving – it’s amazing how much you will retain from that first mental picture and instinctively recognize what to do once you get to a decision point. If you have a driver who can do it, consider starting your trip at the children’s bedtime and driving into the night. You’ll get a much better head start when the kids are sleeping and sticking to their usual schedule. Speaking of schedule, think forward about what’s coming up during and immediately you RETURN from your trip. Life doesn’t stop when you’re on vacation. You don’t want to miss a bill payment or a birthday or a camp you signed up for because you didn’t see it coming like you normally would have if you were home. With a car trip you can easily extend the trip and forget what’s waiting for you.

Prep the house. Discontinue the paper and stop the mail or arrange to have someone pick them up for you. Paper piling up in your driveway or mailbox is a clear sign that your house is vacant and prime for the picking. Arrange for someone to cut the grass if that’s a concern. Put a couple of inside lamps on timers. Make sure your garbage and compost buckets are locked up so carousing raccoons don’t get any ideas.

Prep the kids. When they know what’s coming, they accept it better, get excited and may even help get ready. Tell them about the big adventure and maybe read some books together – story books about vacations for little kids, or travel books about your destination for older kids. Time the announcement it depending on how old they are too. Telling little kids too far in advance, they may burn out their enthusiasm early then get impatient for the departure. Some older kids like to plan and may need extra time to get themselves organized.
Are you still with me? Nevermind “Are we there yet?”…have we left yet?
Part 3: En route and on arrival

We’re thankful to Jennifer Payne, entrepreneur, mom to four-year-old twins, band member and all-around super mom for filling us in on her road trip. Jennifer also manages our valued advertiser relationships here at Kids in the Hills. Watch for guest columns from her this fall and winter. ~BL