This is us for the next 5 weeks driving from the west coast to the east coast making it our first cross county road trip with kids. I did a very similar trip 10 years ago with a friend when this same Prius was new. Now 10 years later, two children, and family to visit we are hitting the road in 5 days.
That's right in 5 days we take off. Currently I'm on a delayed flight from Chicago heading home to finish the last week of school and to pack like a maniac. 5 days to get our act together. To say the least, making lists has mainly kept us feeling sane for this journey.
It's a bit odd to write this but I was encouraged to do so by many friends who also felt that I should document our no-media way of travel. I guess these days portable media is normal and I have refused to give into it with the kids . My stance on this is, generations have traveled without being plugged in, so can we. In the past 7 years we have not turned anything on for the kids while traveling so I'm not ready to start now. If you start it you can't take it away so don't do it to begin with. It's just not a choice and when faced as such we make do. I'll go into detail as we travel and as I begin to post more.
For the next 5 weeks we have to make do with the same limited clothes, meal preparations, and lots and lots of looking out the window and checking out maps. Yup that's right. We went to AAA and got ourselves half a dozen maps of states, regions, and the entire US. I hope to get these kids aquatinted with reading maps and working on their geography. Yes we will have a GPS that's part of our phones but the main source are maps.
As someone who stresses over healthy home-cooked meals on a daily basis, making sure we maintain this is very important to me for these 5 weeks. Yes there will be a road stop for some local fare, fruit/produce stands, local brew, and ice cream, but there will be zero stops at fast food. Again the no choice method. I hope to meal plan and prep when staying with family in major cities. We will have a smaller cooler, dry food bins, produce bags, clothing and camping gear. All this needs to fit so being organized will be key.
Photos and smaller entries will be updated when possible on Facebook. Hope our experience will inspire you to travel some with your family this summer!!
Looking forward to sharing this with you and would love to hear from you as well!
The orange line is from my trip 10 years ago, green our current and changing route.
Ah, too funny - I just posted about our car trip experiences. I'm ALL about the no-screen-time! Especially in the car. We found Playaway at the library and it's been great - books on tape! Perfect! Happy travels!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. I wish our CD player in the car worked but with that busted online or downloaded podcasts are our only solutions. So far almost one week into the trip we are doing ok. We shall see with 4 weeks left to go!!
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