We took our first roadtrip with Lorelai last week.Well, technically second if you include the road trip to Colorado when she was about 6 weeks old. Needless to say, this roadtrip was different.
Two things I need to mention right off the bat. First, is I know it is so frustrating to still have your child backward facing, especially on a roadtrip, but I also know that is the safest place to have her. Second, mini vans are awesome.
I have one child, and I own a mini van. Actually, I even bought my mini van before we even had a child. You know why? Because they are awesome. No need to cut down on gear, we have plenty of space for every single thing we want to bring. Added bonus is the DVD player, which although she can't see it as well (backward facing) she surprised us by being able to see the screen in her mirror. I'm sure she will love in the future.
This roadtrip was a drive we were incredibly familiar with, from Omaha to Oklahoma City. Kevin and I spent 4 years getting our bachelor's degrees in Oklahoma City...so I put a lot of miles on the roads in between.
We learned road tripping was about flexibility for us this time. We were able to cut down on some possible stressers by researching hotels along the route before hand, along with some easy activities. Rather than powering through and stopping only once like we did in college, we were prepared for more frequent stops, although we really didn't need them.
We found that rather than booking a hotel ahead of time (we left Omaha at 4pm) we broke the trip into two on our way down, we wanted to be flexible. If she was doing well, we would keep driving, but if she was doing poorly we would stop for the night. We knew there would be a good 45 minutes stretch without any hotels off the highway, so we planned accordingly.
This is where having Expedia downloaded on your phone is fantastic. We did this once in Ireland as well, and found that it can be hit/miss (like booking a room that isn't really available) but is pretty reliable for finding last minute hotel rooms.
On the way home, we planned to do the 7.5 hours in 1 go. That meant before the trip, we started researching a few great places to stop. We came across a zoo that was just 20 minutes or so out of our way, which was the perfect way to spend an extra 90 minutes giving Lorelai a good walking break.
A cooler of healthy snacks was a go-to for us. We kept milk, grapes, yogurt, a lunchable, apples, and a few other odds and ends in there. We also had enough adult snacks (I just mean the unhealthy stuff you would never feed to your kids, like Twizzlers, chips, Ritz sandwiches, etc.) for us. That let us keep going and not be forced to stop to eat if Lorelai was doing well.
Books, a few toys, a number of packs of stickers and she was good to go the entire trip. Although we hoped she would take her normal 3 hour nap in the car, she only made it an hour before waking up....which is really to be expected with a toddler (even though as a baby she would have been passed out!)
Overall we had an AMAZING roadtrip experience. Better than we ever could have asked for. Do we have any tips? Well, not really. We haven't done it enough to say we know anything about road tripping with a toddler, but someone sure raised this girl right (her father!)
Two things I need to mention right off the bat. First, is I know it is so frustrating to still have your child backward facing, especially on a roadtrip, but I also know that is the safest place to have her. Second, mini vans are awesome.I have one child, and I own a mini van. Actually, I even bought my mini van before we even had a child. You know why? Because they are awesome. No need to cut down on gear, we have plenty of space for every single thing we want to bring. Added bonus is the DVD player, which although she can't see it as well (backward facing) she surprised us by being able to see the screen in her mirror. I'm sure she will love in the future.
This roadtrip was a drive we were incredibly familiar with, from Omaha to Oklahoma City. Kevin and I spent 4 years getting our bachelor's degrees in Oklahoma City...so I put a lot of miles on the roads in between.
We learned road tripping was about flexibility for us this time. We were able to cut down on some possible stressers by researching hotels along the route before hand, along with some easy activities. Rather than powering through and stopping only once like we did in college, we were prepared for more frequent stops, although we really didn't need them.
We found that rather than booking a hotel ahead of time (we left Omaha at 4pm) we broke the trip into two on our way down, we wanted to be flexible. If she was doing well, we would keep driving, but if she was doing poorly we would stop for the night. We knew there would be a good 45 minutes stretch without any hotels off the highway, so we planned accordingly.This is where having Expedia downloaded on your phone is fantastic. We did this once in Ireland as well, and found that it can be hit/miss (like booking a room that isn't really available) but is pretty reliable for finding last minute hotel rooms.
On the way home, we planned to do the 7.5 hours in 1 go. That meant before the trip, we started researching a few great places to stop. We came across a zoo that was just 20 minutes or so out of our way, which was the perfect way to spend an extra 90 minutes giving Lorelai a good walking break.
A cooler of healthy snacks was a go-to for us. We kept milk, grapes, yogurt, a lunchable, apples, and a few other odds and ends in there. We also had enough adult snacks (I just mean the unhealthy stuff you would never feed to your kids, like Twizzlers, chips, Ritz sandwiches, etc.) for us. That let us keep going and not be forced to stop to eat if Lorelai was doing well.
Books, a few toys, a number of packs of stickers and she was good to go the entire trip. Although we hoped she would take her normal 3 hour nap in the car, she only made it an hour before waking up....which is really to be expected with a toddler (even though as a baby she would have been passed out!)
Overall we had an AMAZING roadtrip experience. Better than we ever could have asked for. Do we have any tips? Well, not really. We haven't done it enough to say we know anything about road tripping with a toddler, but someone sure raised this girl right (her father!)
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