Nuts & Bolts about our trip

As I type this we’re 8,331 miles into our road trip — near the end! We’re on a long driving day through Montana, and at the moment everyone is fed and contented so figured I’d share a few details about this trip. A few of you had asked for this as you plan your own family road trips, so here we go! Obviously this is unique to us and your own family will have different priorities, but maybe something of this can be helpful. Just ignore what doesn’t apply.

How it began:: The idea for this trip percolated during a 800-mile road trip to Utah to visit my brother. We used to road trip a lot when our big kids were little, but with four kids now and no comfortable vehicle that fit us all, it just all felt overwhelming. For our Utah trip we had borrowed my Dad’s minivan that he used to transport my mom. While we were driving to Utah he called and said he wanted us to keep it, that we could trade straight across for our other car. I protested because I knew the van was perfect for him taking mom places. He insisted. Little did I know that my mom would never get in a vehicle again … she passed away just a month later. I know she’d be happy knowing her car is being well-used to transport her grandkids.

Minivan:: Having a minivan was a game-changer for us. We now had a vehicle we could all fit in comfortably. The Utah road trip went so well that on our return trip we started dreaming. I’d always wanted to take the kids on a cross-country road trip, but it seemed way unattainable. But now just maybe …

Sabbatical:: Also at this time we’d been praying about the possibility of Jeff taking a Sabbatical of some sort. We’ve been at Renew for 10 years, and especially with the intensity of the last 2 years, we were really praying we could get some time away. 

So, these ideas converged at the same time that a mini-van plopped in our lap. At a gas station on our way home from Utah Jeff bought me a US Road Atlas and told me start dreaming.

Process:: I started with the biggies: What spots/people do we KNOW we want to see? Florida was a must. We’d never been there as a family, and Jeff’s brother and his family recently moved there. Washington DC was the other biggie as we’d never been there, and I really wanted the big kids to go there.

Paring down:: Our original itinerary included the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone as well, but it was just too much to try to pack into 6 weeks. We wanted to have some rest time in Florida to just BE and play as a family. We knew that both Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon are easily drivable from home, so we could do those another year. So we prioritized things farther East.

Same with people: We prioritized friends in Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, knowing we probably won’t be over that far again. 

Priorities:: As I mentioned here, our priorities were: Educational, Relational, Economical. We wanted to pick education spots, we wanted to visit people we love, and we knew we needed to make it economical if it really was to happen.

Lodging:: We decided to do a mix of staying with friends/family, hotels for 1-night stays, and AirBnBs for longer stays. I started by booking the AirBnBs for our longer stays, and picked ones that had full refunds for cancellation, since I figured plans would change as time got closer (and they did!). The AirBnB app was super helpful. I didn’t book any of the hotels until we got within a week of being in a spot. I also used the Hotel app, which has a stamp rewards program, and they had a promotion with double stamps during certain dates, so we were able to get our 8th hotel night for free. 

Our AirBnBs were a mixed bag. Two were great, one was medium, two were not so great. But all in all they were fine, the beds were comfy and the homes were clean.

Food:: A 6-week trip is a HUGE financial expenditure. The biggest way we kept the trip on a budget was by not eating out. We got In-n-Out burger once and Braum’s burgers once but other than that we never ate out during our 40 days on the road. I’ll admit, it took a ton of effort and wasn’t convenient. I’m glad we did it, but it’s a commitment. I packed two big Costco totes full of food, some for making meals in homes, and some for easy meals on the road. 

Our favorite food items:: Orgain protein powder (made a shake every single morning), SafeCatch tuna with ring-pull lids (GREAT for in the car, just dump on a salad or eat plain or mix with mayo for tuna salad sandwiches or mix with rice/quinoa packet for a dinner and it’s 35-50 grams of protein), Rice/quinoa packets from Costco, grass-fed beef sticks from Costco, tons of granola, nut bars, crackers and dried fruit. Oh, and I brought lots of Via coffee packets I could just add to water or to weak hotel coffee to make it strong. I also brought a small container of our local honey and kept a small pint of cream with us so I could have a yummy coffee drink each morning without having to buy anything. 

Anytime we stopped at a store I’d grab cuties (oranges), bananas, greens, carrots, and bottled water. 

What I wish I’d packed more of:: Paper towels, baby wipes, and non-refrigerated peanut butter. I bought those things on the road, but there’s basically no way to have too much of these items.

Other helpful items: 

Antibac wipes: I brought a bunch of travel packs of Clorox antibacterial wipes for hands and surfaces. Super super helpful to just have a pack in my purse, one in the stroller, one in the glove box, etc. at the ready. 

Blender: I also brought a Hamilton Beach travel blender (SO helpful! It’s surprising how many AirBnBs don’t have blenders, plus I could use it in the hotel each morning). If you like smoothies or protein shakes it’s super helpful. 

Food Warmer: We also got a travel food warmer. It plugs into the 12V car plug, and warms up whatever’s in it! A large sized Snapware container fits perfectly inside it. I put leftovers, sausages, rice and tune, chicken pockets, anything we wanted to eat warm, just stick in and in a few hours it’s hot! 

Picnic blanket:: A friend bought me a Pendleton picnic blanket that was SO great to have. It folds and zips right up into itself with a little pocket and a strap so you can carry it over your shoulder. And the material is slick so sad just brushes right off, super easy to wash. It was GREAT to have with us. So many easy picnics anywhere we were. We used it everywhere from Key Largo to Washington DC to Lake Michigan. 

Blackout curtain/pack ’n play blackout:: I brought a blackout curtain and some tacks with us which was super helpful for darkening rooms where the little boys were sleeping. Then halfway through the trip I bought a pack n play blackout tent thing that REALLY helped, especially in places where we all needed to sleep in the same room. 

Also:: Because of our kids we also brought two life-jackets and bike helmets for the littles, since we were around pools so often and wanted to be able to bike with them. Oh, and we brought a TykeToter bike seat that attaches to any regular adult bike. This made it so we could just rent a bike with a baby seat (for Ben) and stick Justice on as well. 

Overall thoughts:  Really, six weeks is a minimum for doing a road trip this length. There were a lot of things we didn’t do just because it was such a quick trip through each place. For us this was great. We had three full days (4 nights) in DC and we could’ve spent longer but we were ready to move on by day 4. It would’ve been fun to explore more in certain states, but for us this was just a little taste of America. It worked well for our timeframe and the ages of our kids. 

Wish I would’ve… I could’ve done a better job of educating ahead of time on things we were going to see. I would have loved to have the kids read certain books about some of the places we saw, or listen to information about them or watch documentaries. I love the idea of all that. In truth I was just trying to keep everyone fed and alive 😉 and with two little ones that was all I could do. If I only had older kids we could’ve dived deeper into history and information on each place. Hopefully we whet the kids’ appetites and gave them some hooks in their memories so that when they hear or learn more about something later, they have some experience with it already. 

One small example, when we showed up at Mt Rushmore, Justice immediately recognized President Lincoln’s face, because we had seen it at the Lincoln Memorial. A super small thing, but it was fun to see that he at least recognized something from what we’d seen and talked about together. 

Hard:: Of course being together for 40 days straight with no break, sleeping all six of us in one room for a good portion of the time, and being in unfamiliar and uncomfortable environments a lot of the time … well, it brings things out in us. We had a lot of moments where we all felt exhausted or overwhelmed. I had plenty of moments where I said, “What??” sharply after being asked, “Mama can you …?” for the ten thousandth time in the car. The babies woke up early every morning and the time changes were particularly rough on them, so there was a lot of missed sleep and a lot of Mama being really tired. 

But good:: I am so glad we did it. We LOVED seeing our family and friends, we LOVED seeing 25 states (!) And traveling 10,000 miles to see our beautiful nation with our own eyes. We decided we’ll have to do it again in 12 years when the littles are the age of our big kids and maybe Dutch & Heidi can meet up with us and bring their spouses along. 😉 

Finally, our route:: Here it is! 

Now we’re dreaming up doing a Western National Parks trip with our travel trailer. Any ideas for a trip like that? I’d love to hear from you!