Because getting there is half the fun
With National Lampoon’s Vacation theme song playing in my head (You know the one “holiday rooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaddddd…..” by Lindsay Buckingham). I hopped into the family truckster along with my parents, niece, nephew, and my kids at o’dark-thirty - one of my dad’s sayings. Destination: Rapid City, SD.
I LOVE family vacations and HATE long car rides. Yep, this one was a doozey. Luckily my parents broke up the 800+ mile drive into 2 days with a few planned stops (Wall Drug, of course) to keep us from all going crazy.
I brought my summer reading buddies – James Patterson and Nora Roberts to keep me company and help stave off the claustrophobia and boredom. If you’ve ever driven that far west it’s a whole lot of flat and corn fields until the west side of South Dakota. And the kids brought, well, Best Buy: DS game systems, personal DVD players, MP3 players and a collection of games, movies, and song that could supply a small store.
Lucky kids – what I would’ve done to be able to watch movies in our Chevette as we trekked across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula over 2 weeks! My sister and I entertained ourselves by pinching each other if one of us “crossed the line” between the seats, played with our Barbie dolls, and those silly miniature plastic “car games’ with the tiny metal balls that always pop out of the slot with every pot hole. UGH! Looking back I wouldn’t blame my parents if they had left us on the side of the road with all the bickering we did.
I’m all for anything that makes the long car rides easier – for kids (and me). I had fun sharing earphones with my son and nephew while squishing ourselves even closer together to watch a movie on the 9 inch screen. Whining was minimal, despite the close quarters, and the “are we there yet?’s” didn’t start until about an hour before we reached our campground. What can I say? I couldn’t stop myself! So, how do you handle long rides in the car with the kids?
Laura Feit is the mother of two. She lives in Walworth County and works full time for Gazlo.com. Laura is a community blogger and her opinion is not necessarily that of the The Gazette staff or management.
Jul 7, 2011 at 6:53 p.m.
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Many of my great uncles and their families were truck drivers. One of them was even a long haul driver. We spent our time looking to see where the truckers were from and who could find the one that was the furthest from home. Then we would try to decide if they had just left home or were on their way home and what they might be carrying. What made it more fun was if the license plate on the trailer was from someplace different then what the tractor said. To this day even when driving by myself I look to see where each trucker is from.
Jul 7, 2011 at 3:14 p.m.
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Sing and games - having great kids helps too.
The more time we spent with them, the better they were. Quality and Quantity.
Jul 7, 2011 at 1:06 p.m.
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We packed "fun boxes" for our kids, with a variety of treats, car games, word searchs, MadLibs, etc. They got to select something from their box as either a reward for being good, when they got bored, after a gas stop, etc. I had fun making them happy and they had a variety of non-electronic things to do.
If we were taking a long trip, we also loved to see how many different state license plates we could find. How fun when you came across Alaska or Hawaii! One year we had over 40 states represented on our trip. Old fashioned entertainment, which I think is an important part of a family vacation.
Jul 7, 2011 at 12:30 p.m.
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We limit the car time to 10hrs or less per day, bring snacks, listen to books on CD, and have a picnic lunch/dinner somewhere the kids can run around and play for a bit.
Jul 7, 2011 at 12:18 p.m.
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Lots of snacks and lots of stops.
Jul 7, 2011 at 10:33 a.m.
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I agree with WiGRf - books on CD/tape are great! I have a 30-minute commute to work each way. I listen to books on CD and it really makes the car ride enjoyable.
Jul 7, 2011 at 9:07 a.m.
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Books on tape from the library.
Jul 7, 2011 at 8:41 a.m.
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counting telephone poles is fun.
Jul 7, 2011 at 7:57 a.m.
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Took my two children (boy 12 and girl 7) to California back in 1992 by car. We tried to keep them separate as much as possible-one in front and one in back. Worked pretty good for the most part. Even so after three weeks we couldn't wait to get home.
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