Tips for Long Family Car Trips
It’s a form of one-upmanship. One person says, “I got charged ten cents every time I asked, ‘When are we gonna get there?'” Another counters, “I had to pee in a cup from Albany to Orlando.” The indignities we suffered as children in the name of family road trips-we all have our war stories. As parents ourselves, we vow never to stoop to protracted games of “Who can be quiet the longest,” or to resort to those age-old idle threats, “If you don’t stop that, I’m going to turn this car around, young lady.”
But how do you stay sane on the wide, open road with a carful of antsy travelers? As with a NASA launch, it’s all about careful planning and precision execution. Consider yourself lucky that this doesn’t mean devising zero-gravity suits and dehydrating food-you just have to keep your astronauts comfortable, fed and entertained. To that end, consider carrying a master list of all that you’ve packed. Although it sounds monstrously fastidious, it helps to see where your gaps are, it allows you to easily keep track of things from car to motel to final destination, and if you generate this list on the computer, it can be used as the basis for future trip lists.
The list should be divided into categories: Clothes and equipment (these are the things that go in the trunk, to be exhumed at your final destination) and the stuff that makes or breaks your travel time-food, entertainment and car comfort. Older kids can each be put in charge of a category checklist as the car gets loaded.
Subhead: Laying in Supplies: The Food and Drinks
In preparation for lots of drive-time munching, tissues and wet wipes are essential. Be sure to have a ziplock baggie of each in the front seat. For preternaturally messy toddlers and little kids, you may want to preempt spills by throwing a plastic tablecloth over the backseat before strapping in their car seats. Stock the car with a sealable bag for garbage, front and backseat.
To keep food safe for serving, you’ll need a good cooler, ice packs and a constant supply of ice (restock when you get gas). Drinking water varies widely around the country, so throw a big jug of emergency water in the backseat (it may help rejuvenate your radiator, too).
Think of packing foods that nature has already prepackaged-bananas, oranges, hard-boiled eggs. Avoid things with sauces or drip-potential, chips coated with the dreaded nacho cheese orange goo (deadly on seat covers), or things that crumb too easily (crumbs can turn itchy on small thighs on a long trip).
Stick with foods that are easy on the stomach (read carbo-heavy; too much fruit and you’ll be hitting the bathrooms more regularly) like bread, rice cakes, small boxes of cereal or peanut butter crackers. Although individually packaged applesauce and yogurts are workable, try to limit the number of utensils needed.
For drinks, carry a large, plastic, spill-proof cup for each child. This way, you can get juices at convenience stores but you won’t be at the mercy of those wide-mouthed, splash-prone glass bottles in the car. Alternatively, bring a bevy of frozen juice boxes. You won’t have to wait in line for sodas and the juice boxes will be nice and cold during the first leg of a trip.
When traveling with babies, prepare bottles at home. Boil the water you’ll be using to mix formula and put filled bottles in an insulated bag. Find a convenience store or a friendly restaurant, and they usually won’t mind zapping your water in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up. After you have it at about the right temperature, add your powder formula and voila.
Subhead: Avoiding the Pitfalls
The sight of the yellow arches fills most kids with joy and most parents with dread. Fast food is the most common pitfall on long car trips, a wasteland of fat, salt and sugar. In order to avoid the tortures of drive-through (it’s everywhere, after all), you have to stand firm. If your resolve dissolves, opt for grilled chicken sandwiches over nuggets (pure saturated fat), choose a baked potato, when possible, over fries, and even though fast-food salads are loaded with nutrient-poor iceberg lettuce, split one between the kids for a little added crunch and textural interest.
Finding other food can be an adventure on long trips: Get off the highway and hunt down an old-fashioned diner, one with counter stools, a good jukebox and a shortorder cook who makes the perfect, oozy grilled cheese. In preparation for a long car trip, research the indigenous foods of the areas you’ll be passing through. Make a game of it: Going through St. Louis? Try their legendary toasted ravioli. In Philly, go cheesesteak. If you pique a child’s curiosity beforehand, they will be more likely to brave uncharted culinary territory. Use the Internet to print out pictures and histories of the country’s gastronomic highlights.
In this era of fat-consciousness, it’s easy to find lowfat snacks on the road. It’s sugar that’s insidious. If you’re buying prepared snacks from a convenience store along the way, be a careful reader of ingredients. If you spot the ending “ose” on a word, it’s a sugar. That’s sucrose, glucose and fructose, it’s the ubiquitous “high fructose corn syrup” or the sly “corn sweetener.” All of these are sugar in sheep’s clothing. Kids respond to sugar differently-you know your own children; if sugar gives them an instant blast, avoid at all costs on a long car trip.
On a similar note, many big motel chains offer “complimentary continental breakfasts.” While convenient, the offerings are often laden with sugar. If you want to avoid the sugar cereals and sticky buns common to these morning meals, lay in a supply of bagels, whole-grain muffins or soft flour tortillas and take breakfast on the road.
And although it wreaks havoc with your pace, it’s preferable to stop to eat at a rest stop or picnic area. Feeding smaller children still in carseats while the car is in motion poses a choking hazard-you may not have enough time to unstrap, unclip and come to his or her aid. Stopping for meals also prevents kids from snacking constantly out of boredom-those habits start early. Make mealtime special and encourage kids to entertain themselves in the car and enjoy the scenery passing by.
Sidebar: Entertaining the troops
When traveling in the car with small children, allow more time to reach your destination. Count on stopping every hour to stretch your legs and run around. Churches are good stopping spots if rest areas aren’t available, as they often have open, grassy areas and playgrounds. Traveling at night or during nap times is a good way to make up time. Put blankets, pillows and any necessary stuffed animals in the back seat at the ready.
Your local party goods and dollar stores are perfect places to find inexpensive new forms of amusement. Wrap each new toy as a gift, to make the excitement last. Caveat: Do not buy travel games with small pieces sure to get lost immediately under the back seat. Maze books, magic pen books, stickers, magnetic puzzle of the , even car bingo can keep everyone entertained. For long car trips, the book “Miles of Smiles” is filled with car games. Picture-puzzle books (like I Spy and Where’s Waldo) can be made into games as well: One person names an object for the rest to find in the picture.
Even if you eschew the “plugged in” feel of Gameboys or videos in the car, bringing a Walkman stereo headset for each child allows everyone to listen to their first choice, whether that’s Britney Spears or “Good Night Moon.” You can even make your own books on tape: Record your child’s favorite stories on audio tape and then they can have the stories ‘read’ to them in the car.
Bring lap desks and art supplies for projects. Dated spiral-bound drawing pads can be a nice way to chronicle a trip, with each child keeping the finished pad (parents can annotate as instructed). Encourage older kids to “journal” with a cool pad and a set of gel pens.
For smaller kids, always take a change of underpants or diapers inside the car with you, rather than in the trunk with the luggage. For older kids, encourage a layering approach to dressing-when one child is chilly, donning another layer may be preferable to making everyone endure the car heater.
