Category Archives: On the Road

Traveling with the Butterscotch Sundae clan.

On the Road

How we made traveling with a toddler and an infant slightly more bearable

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I’m taking a break from blogging this month and sharing some words from friends, some posts from the past and other assorted bric-a-brac. This was originally published on July 9, 2008, as “Staying sane on the road.” We don’t make as many stops now as we did then, but we do still take lots of supplies to keep the kids happy. The best addition to our road trip arsenal since 2008? A portable DVD player.

It takes about 11 hours to drive to my dad’s house. That’s if you don’t have small people who need to stop frequently. We do have such small people, which meant we spent quite a bit more time on the road. In all that time, though, we only had a handful of whiney moments and not a single full-blown meltdown. I can’t take too much credit for that; we’ve been blessed with two extremely good little travelers. I did, however, do a few things to try to make the trip easier on them.

Slow down
The first was what made the trip longer: Frequent stops. We tried to stop about every three hours. It extended our time on the road by quite a bit, but I think it helped keep the kids (and me) from getting stir-crazy — thus keeping the meltdowns at bay.

  • Ikea. This was my favorite stop. While Poppy played in the store’s “Smaland” play area, I browsed the cheap Scandinavian goods. It was also the longest stop, which is why it was nixed on the way home.
  • Rest areas. Some of them have really nice green space where the kids can run about.
  • Local parks. This takes some research ahead of time, but it’ll give you an opportunity to experience more of a given town than just what’s within half a mile of its exit.
  • McDonalds. The food is terrible for you, but I think they all have play areas. This isn’t my first choice, but it works in a pinch.

    The things we carried
    I also put together a “travel kit” for Poppy before we left. I packed the small things in a backpack and pulled them out one at a time on the way up. I wasn’t quite as organized about it on the way home, but she was just as happy so I guess that was OK.

  • Big pink lapdesk thing. I wanted something she could use to put her coloring books on. I found a few options online that would’ve worked well, but I didn’t want to spend much on it. The little “desk” that we ended up with was $6 at Michael’s.
  • Small Magnadoodle. She spent lots of time with this, practicing her letters and asking me to draw juice boxes. It has magnets on the back, so I’m going to stick it to the fridge if it ever makes it back into the house.
  • ColorWonder coloring books & markers. The markers will only color on the ColorWonder paper. Normally I wouldn’t go for such a specialized item, but I thought it would be a good idea in the car. Bored preschooler + markers = trouble.
  • iPod stocked with audiobooks/stories. I thought this was a brilliant idea. Then I forgot the iPod charger. Poppy did enjoy listening to it before the battery died. StoryNory is a good source for free stories, and AudibleKids has a few free books as well.
  • Books, books, books. Poppy loves to “read,” so I made sure to stock the car with her favorite books. As long as the book bin was within her reach, she had plenty of reading material to keep her busy.

    I wanted Pete to be happy, too, of course, but he’s easier to entertain than Poppy at this stage. We just brought along some of his stuffed animals and toys that would hang from his car seat. With regular stops for diaper changes, food and stretching, he was a mighty happy little traveler.

    • Diversions, On the Road

    “This is no longer a vacation. It’s a quest. A quest for fun.”

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    My dad recently went on a cruise with his brother and several other family members.* Judging by the 1,134 pictures Dad and his girlfriend took, it looks like they had a lovely time. And now I want to go on a Great Big Family Vacation.

    We’ve tagged along on my sister-in-law’s annual beach vacation a few times. The last time was 2007, before Pete was born. I haven’t been on vacation with my brother since the early ’90s, probably, and that was before he became a fully formed human. (You know it’s true, Perry Mason. I have witnesses who will back me up on that.)

    So what I’m saying here is this:

    All branches of my immediate family! I hereby declare that we, the Butterscotch Sundaes, want to plan a vacation with you this summer. Here are some vacation spots for your consideration:

    Beaches resort
    They have “Sesame Street” for the little kids, an XBox hideaway for the big kids and a DJ Academy for me. Do we even need to continue searching? Why yes. Yes we do. Because Beaches is way out of my budget.

    Washington DC
    Rockford’s grandmother lives just outside of DC, which would also make this an opportunity to visit her. One of my favorite family vacations ever was to DC. All the free museums make it an A-plus destination for homeschoolers.

    YMCA of the Ozarks Trout Lodge
    1. It’s called the Trout Lodge.
    2. They have Archery, so I could brush up on my Katniss skills; Rifle Bowling, which sounds more awesome than the picture leads me to believe it actually is; and Underwater Basket Weaving.
    3. I always wanted to go to summer camp.
    4. It’s all-inclusive.
    5. There be pirates.
    6. It’s considerably less expensive than Beaches.
    Smugglers’ Notch, Vermont
    This place looks awesome. There would be separate all-day camps for the kids, and I would do zilch all day long. But it’s pretty expensive, and it would take us two days to get there.

    Have you ever taken a Great Big Family Vacation? Where did you go? Was it awesome?

    *No one invited me, probably because I wouldn’t have had the money to go anyway, but it would’ve been nice to be invited anyway Dad. Sheesh.

    On the Road

    And then I came home.

    I was on a train for 11 hours on Saturday. I really should’ve written this post-trip wrap-up then, but I was too busy luxuriating in my private accommodations, to which I upgraded after sitting next to a plague-ridden fellow plebeian in coach for two hours. And then I was so unbelievably tired when I finally got home. I think I needed time for everything to marinate before I wrote about it.

    My trip with Jenna of All Thrifty States was a blast. It was exhausting, and long, and sweaty. I am not a camper by any stretch of the imagination, but sleeping in an air-conditioned RV was infinitely preferable to sleeping in a tent. I’d consider renting one if Rockford and I ever decided to do a long road trip.

    I missed the kids all day, every day. They rewarded me for that by being jaw-droppingly nutso on Monday and yesterday. I missed Rockford, too, but I think I’m a little more accustomed to being away from him. And also I could talk to him on the phone. I talked to the kids, too, but they give phone calls about 10 percent of their attention.

    I hit a thrifting wall on Day Seven, in New Orleans. (That might explain why I wasn’t crazy about the city, although I think the general steaminess and seaminess had more to do with it.) Jenna is on something like her 47th day of this. I cannot begin to imagine. The project came about after she was laid off. She wanted to find something productive to do with her unexpected (and rather unwelcome) spare time, so she turned her passion for thrifting and photography into an 18-hour-a-day job that doesn’t actually pay anything. (Seriously. That lady is on from the second she wakes up till the second she hits the pillow, driving thrifting photographing interviewing driving videotaping interviewing editing editing editing and editing.) I am so proud of her for dreaming it up and for making it happen.

    Jenna will still have 12 states to visit after this trip. Anyone with a private jet, a billion airline miles and/or a guest room in Alaska or Hawaii?