Firebird Rising
03-23-2010, 11:13 AM
I'm not intimidated. I'm not intimidated. I'm NOT intimidated....
Okay, I am.
It's a 550 mile trip from here to Sacramento. I'm driving it on my own starting off early Friday a.m....with three boys.
My parents can do it in 8 hrs. Bret and I never did it much faster than 10 hrs with the two kids (Cam and Eli). I'm actually planning on it taking 14 hrs so if it doesn't, I'm pleasantly surprised. We will be doing the trip in one day.
Here's my overall plan.
Stop every 2 hrs for the olders to get out and for me to feed Ben
At least two of these stops will have a play area that I'm planning in advance and will have directions printed out for.
If I need to stop in between and feed Ben, the boys will stay in their seats
Eating out once, bringing TONS of snack food and drinks
Books on cd from the library, both kid ones and older ones. Books for the boys to read.
All library books will never leave the car and the library cds will be put in my cd book so we have less library stuff to keep track of.
Have a stash of 5-8 pacis to give Ben when we're in a tough situation when I can't stop right away.
Stickers to put on windows (maybe window decals for Eli because stickers are hard for him to separate from the backing still).
We are in a large Suburban with Eli and Cam FF on the outer sides and Ben in the middle rearfacing. All of them are in Britax seats so there is no room to pull out the cupholders, etc. Cameron is helpful with Ben. Elijah is not so helpful. But I can't reach Ben if I move him away from the middle.
CDs will be played from the console in front with speakers in the back.
We've done several 3 hr trips around the area recently to get a feel for what I need to be aware of. Ben is not as good of a car traveler as Eli was at this age.
What else would you recommend?
Jen D.
PS: This trip is actually a dry-run for the trip I'll be taking out to Nebraska this summer which, at this point, appears to be a trip without Bret to help on the drive out...I'm planning on taking at least 3 days for that one.
Okay, I am.
It's a 550 mile trip from here to Sacramento. I'm driving it on my own starting off early Friday a.m....with three boys.
My parents can do it in 8 hrs. Bret and I never did it much faster than 10 hrs with the two kids (Cam and Eli). I'm actually planning on it taking 14 hrs so if it doesn't, I'm pleasantly surprised. We will be doing the trip in one day.
Here's my overall plan.
Stop every 2 hrs for the olders to get out and for me to feed Ben
At least two of these stops will have a play area that I'm planning in advance and will have directions printed out for.
If I need to stop in between and feed Ben, the boys will stay in their seats
Eating out once, bringing TONS of snack food and drinks
Books on cd from the library, both kid ones and older ones. Books for the boys to read.
All library books will never leave the car and the library cds will be put in my cd book so we have less library stuff to keep track of.
Have a stash of 5-8 pacis to give Ben when we're in a tough situation when I can't stop right away.
Stickers to put on windows (maybe window decals for Eli because stickers are hard for him to separate from the backing still).
We are in a large Suburban with Eli and Cam FF on the outer sides and Ben in the middle rearfacing. All of them are in Britax seats so there is no room to pull out the cupholders, etc. Cameron is helpful with Ben. Elijah is not so helpful. But I can't reach Ben if I move him away from the middle.
CDs will be played from the console in front with speakers in the back.
We've done several 3 hr trips around the area recently to get a feel for what I need to be aware of. Ben is not as good of a car traveler as Eli was at this age.
What else would you recommend?
Jen D.
PS: This trip is actually a dry-run for the trip I'll be taking out to Nebraska this summer which, at this point, appears to be a trip without Bret to help on the drive out...I'm planning on taking at least 3 days for that one.