Ive had a lot of people ask me about how on earth we manage to make epic, 2500-mile or more treks with a van that's fairly bursting at the seams with what I've affectionately termed "my huddled mass of humanity". It sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen to most people, apparently, and it tends to baffle them that we could possibly enjoy or even crave these kinds of adventures. I guess it's in the blood, at least to some degree. Christopher is related to the guy who chiseled out the Bozeman Trail through Montana to the goldfields of the Pacific Northwest (so if you ever saw my last name and asked, "You mean like Bozeman, Montana?", the answer is yes). And I am directly related to William Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame who, well, pioneered the great American West (with no disrespect to the Native Indians--they didn't have to pioneer their own home, I guess). Somewhere in my DNA, my husband's DNA, and now doubly in the DNA of my children, is a hard-wired lust for adventure and westward movement. This explains a lot. Maybe.
But this post isn't about all that. This post is about the nuts and bolts of actually doing a real-live adventure, of living to tell the tale, and of somehow getting a really big kick out of it all. So I offer up my top 3 Teri's Travel Tips, while they're still fresh on my recently-traveled mind:
1. Plan your route carefully.
This seems like a no-brainer, but the fun is in the details. The longer your trip, the more diversions and distractions you're going to need in order to stave off boredom, fatigue, and mutiny. I like to have a couple of handy references at my command when charting a new journey. Google Maps tells me how far and how long and which route is best, and on my iPad, will even give me a couple of alternate routes, in case I'm feeling super-adventurous. I usually am.
Once the basic route is chosen, it's time to decide on where the best lodging can likely be found. For a family of epic proportions like mine, this can be a problem. We call around to every hotel in town sometimes, looking for someone who will take a family of 8, either in one room or two adjoining rooms. This can get pricey, but there's little alternative if tent-camping is out of the question. We've recently begun looking into AirBnB.com, where individuals rent out their extra rooms or entire houses on a nightly basis to whomever they please. Cool idea, and looks relatively safe.
The next part is the funagonizing one. You need to decide what sorts of attractions/sights you want to see during the course of your adventure. The fun is that you wouldn't believe how many cool things there are to see in this country, even on a short trip. Take a look at Roadside America for thousands of quirky attractions--paid and free--that you'd never know were right along your route. I also bust out my handy National Parks Passport map, which give me the low-down on where every National Parks Unit in America can be found. Every.single.park.unit has a Junior Ranger Program where your child(ren) can spend anywhere from an hour to a day learning about the ecology, history, anthropology, paleontology, and culture of some of our greatest landmarks. At the end of this little adventure, kids earn a shiny Junior Ranger badge and/or patch and a certificate (and often, a nifty pencil!) and are sworn in by an actual park ranger. Our kids have collected somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 of these little trophies, from South Padre Island to Yellowstone and everywhere in between. This is a *major* part of our travels, an always hotly-anticipated discovery when we begin trip-planning. Now, the agonizing part of this is that you'll inevitably have to say no to some of the exciting things you'll discover in the planning phase. This is a severe bummer, but at least it gives you 1)a deeper appreciation for where you're traveling and 2)a reason to return!
2. Snack-time is sacred.
Road-tripping in our family is the only time we really get to snack out, so this ends up being one of the most exciting aspects of travel for the kids. We try to keep it relatively healthy, with cheese sticks, yogurt-in-a-tube, carrot sticks, and whole wheat crackers. But I'm not gonna lie--we have our share of cookies, and chips, and--gasp!!--cheese in a can. There is no quicker way to make my children happy than to pull a can of Easy-Cheese out of the snack bag. It's like magic.
But the trick here is not just to snack non-stop. I bag up all sorts of goodies in little snack-sized ziploc baggies, and I only dole them out on certain occasions. One of those occasions is when the little sailors are getting mutinous (read:bored and tired) and have had it up to here with being crammed in an over-packed van with half a dozen siblings. When attitudes sour, it's time for something special. I also like to keep things exciting by doling out schnackies at certain way-points, like when we hit the 140-mile marker on the Interstate, or see the first roadsign for our destination town. So here are some of my all-time favorite road foods:
*Cheerios
*Teddy Grahams
*Austin Crackers (those little 6-packs of peanut-butter and cheese crackers)
*Easy-Cheese and Wheat Thins
*Cheese Sticks
*Yogurt in a squeeze tube
*Those neat little cartons of (very expensive) organic chocolate milk
*Dried fruit
*Nuts
*Tangerines (the smell of the peels helps to, you know, keep things fresh)
*Stainless Steel water bottles, filled with delicious iced-tea from home (we usually travel with 2 or 3 gallon coolers of home-brewed iced tea in a variety of flavors. During this last trip, I made a yummy concoction of rooibos and peach detox tea, which was not only aromatic and delish, but also completely caffeine-free and loaded with antioxidants and minerals).
*Prunes (inevitably, somebody gets plugged plumbing during a long trip. Prunes are a quick remedy!)
3. Save the cheerleader, save the world.
I view my role in a successful trip as several-fold. I am a driver, a navigator, the resident oral historian, the event planner, the food-banker, the referee...and the cheerleader. Kids on long trips need pep talks. A lot of them. Sometimes the only thing standing between a large family on the road and World War IV is that valiant, optimistic soul who can single-handedly fight off the doldrums with a rousing, morale-boosting chat. Kids need to know how much longer this leg of the trip will last, where is the next attraction, what is interesting to look at out the window, where you'll eat (and what), and what special something awaits them if they can just hang on to that last thread of gooditude. They need to know that they each play a crucial role in the success of this venture, and that without them pulling through, the expedition may well be doomed. Give them a sense of immediacy and urgency, as though it's life or death. Because psychologically, at least, it is.
Ahh, but how to save the cheerleader? What keeps Mommy from becoming the fire-breathing despot of the front seat? For me, it's several things. Good chocolate always, *always* accompanies me on any journey. This is completely non-negotiable. Convenience store chocolate is a craptastic substitute and should only be consumed in dire emergencies. Otherwise, stock up before the trip and make sure that you have control over the food bag. I also pack hoity-toity drinks that I can't purchase easily on the road. My recent fave is sparkling lemon water from Knudson's. The kids know that this is for Mommy only, and they don't even ask for it. I also reserve the right to purchase some new music of my choosing before or during the trip, and to bury my head in headphones for a little (or long) while to clear my head and drown out the noises of humanity coming from the back seats. Aromatherapy is a nice touch, too, and I travel with a few of my favorite essential oils. When the air gets thick in the cockpit, I drip a few drops onto a napkin or Kleenex and stick it in a vent, to disperse the scent all over the van. Or I just sniff it straight from the bottle, if I'm feeling naughty. You'd be amazed at how much sanity can be saved by just observing a few self-care and self-pampering rituals during travel!
So you have a foundation, at least, of how to make a successful trip. I'll be checking back in and posting more specifics about little necessities that help save the day on our voyages.
--Teri.
