How my large family mastered life on a 4-week road trip
across the country
My family mostly all lives in Washington state. My brother and his family live in Alabama
though. They make the expensive and huge
trip to Washington when we have family reunions here, but he had jokingly
volunteered to have a reunion for everyone in Alabama at his house. One of my sisters and I thought, why
not? A road trip would be fun, and it
would only be fair to our brother.
We have a large family, with 5 of our 6 children planning to
be on the trip with us. About a year
before, we started talking about the trip.
9 months before, we started ordering state travel guides from Chambers
of Commerce. 3-6 months before, we
started our planning in earnest, making lists, and plotting the course.
With a large family, we have a more limited budget for
unnecessary things. We could spend
$15-20 for a laminated map, or $6 and reinforce it. That’s what we did. We bought a map of the USA and I used packing
tape on both sides, on every folded seam.
Next, I found some different colored highlighters. One was for marking every city on the map
with a temple (we’re an LDS or Mormon family). Yes, I know Utah was one big
temple mark! Another was for marking every city that had family or friends of
ours. The last color was for family
history places or interesting things we wanted to see.
We made a tentative timeline that included our start date,
plus dates that were more set in stone for specific places to be or meet family
or friends. Our course was determined by
doing a lot of direction-seeking on Mapquest, to see how long it would take in
real time between daily destinations. We
wanted to only travel 3 hours each day, but discovered it would take far too long
to get where we needed to be (Alabama) and back home. After figuring times and distances, we determined
that driving 6-8 hours per day was a good amount, and we could be lenient
depending on where we’d be, for sightseeing.
For the time we’d be gone, we set up a housesitter/pet
sitter. Our neighbors were made aware
that we would be out of town for a long time, and we gave them our contact
information. For the house/pet sitters,
we made a binder with our rough itinerary, contact information, vet
information, family contact information, and all the weird little things about
our old house.
I brought our bill folder on the trip, since we’d be gone
for a full month and I could pay the bills online. I made a long list of road-trip-easy dinners
we could make. Plus, breakfasts and
lunches. I bought as many ingredients as
possible from Costco before the trip. I
also bought a small package of powdered bleach, as well as toiletries. I figured it would be far more affordable
(cheaper) to bring these things from home, where we didn’t have to shop for
convenience.
Our minivan is a 2010 model, so we were able to put supplies
in the empty space underneath the two middle seats where the seats can normally
fold down. We had a car-top carrier on
top of the van, and we did NOT want to bring a trailer. Too many opportunities for further
complications on a trip with a trailer, even if it would be more
convenient.
Under the seats, we put stovetop pans, mixing bowls, colander,
measuring cups, extra-full first aid kit, pull-ups, pool toys, and a life
jacket for our youngest child. I
prepared and packed a 3-ring binder with birth certificates, social security
cards, insurance papers for the car and house, and a medical history for everyone. It was fire season at our home, so I also
chose to bring our blog books from the last 10 years, so in the unlikely event
that fire hit our town, we’d still have picture memories.
In the car-top carrier, we had sleeping bags, tents, a
camping stove, and small propane tanks (small green ones).
Inside the van, we had every seatbelt taken, so were tight
on space. Each child was allowed to
bring one backpack with two swimsuits, 2-3 pairs shorts, socks, shirts, and personal
toiletries. I purchased sturdy sandals
for each person in the family, so we could wear them in the heat, but could
also wear them and look nice for church.
I think we let them pack pajamas.
J They all grumbled, especially since they were
teenagers, but complied so they’d have decent leg room.
Between the two middle seats, we had a cooler. Originally we had a Styrofoam cooler. It disintegrated after a couple days, but it
was a good thing to have so we knew what size cooler would work best for the
space available. It was nice for butter,
cream cheese, jam, ½ gallons of milk (weird to buy for big family, but good for
traveling!), string cheese, produce, etc.
In our back end, we had a couple of Rubbermaid tote
containers. One held toiletries. I had purchased two baskets from the dollar
store and filled each with shampoo, conditioner, soap in a baggie or container,
toothpaste, and a razor. These could be
brought to the shower rooms at campgrounds or at swim parks. We brought laundry soap that has the pods, so
it would be easier to use and not so messy in the box, plus dryer sheets. I brought 3 rolls Costco toilet paper,
feminine products, and towels.
In the other, larger tote, I put mostly canned food, with
packages of pasta and other foods that would make simple meals, a can opener,
food prep utensils, paper plates, disposable cups, dish soap and washcloths for
washing dishes. Bowls are not needed to
eat cereal. It can be eaten from a
cup. We also had a garment bag with everyone’s
church clothes in it. Lastly, we had a
regular size stroller for our youngest, who has physical challenges.
On the trip, we kept track of how many miles we drove each
day. We visited every temple possible. Daily, I posted pictures and a description of
where we were, what we saw, and what we did that day. We stopped at most rest stops, and tried to
get a picture with the signs, “Welcome to ______!” for every state.
For overnights, we camped, stayed in hotels, rented cabins, and
stayed with family. Campgrounds were
pretty affordable, but if a campground had cabins, they were commonly just a
small amount more than a tent site. Worth every penny to have less set up and to
have a solid surface to sleep on.
When
camping was not easily available (driving 20 miles out of the way is not worth
driving sometimes), we stayed at hotels with low prices and a pool for getting
energy out. It is easy to google or
compare hotel/motel prices in specific areas.
Hotels/motels were more expensive than camping for more than the accommodation
pricing…we’d have to eat out if we were in a hotel. Or, buy food that could be microwaved. One time, we were driving through the dinner
hour. We stopped at a rest stop, set up
the camp stove stuff, and made dinner there.
If you plan to camp, bring bug spray, and bring a lot of
it! The Midwest and the south have a LOT
of nasty bugs. Make sure you have
bottled water. We have wonderful tap
water in Washington, and some states are not so fortunate.
It was interesting to see the soy plants in the Midwest. We’d never seen them before! And, some highways were gray cement/asphalt
like in Washington, but in places like Kansas, they were white! Or, clay was red instead of having brown
soil. Cement used in Texas was red, and
they had nice, 3D designs formed in their overpasses. It was so cool to see the different styles of
structure architecture of even rest stop buildings! Another fun thing was attend church each
Sunday. We met some neat people across
the country.
Some helpful things we had paid for include an AAA
membership and KOA membership. KOA campgrounds were great, with pools usually,
and with clean services.
As for our AAA membership--Our son has a major medical
history. We didn’t know before the trip
that he would have a hard time with high altitude. We became landlocked in Colorado, at the top
of 3 different passes and at an altitude of 10,000ft. Anthony’s body struggled, his oxygen
saturation plummeted (60% for those who know what it means), and we nearly
called an ambulance overnight. I had to talk
to our cardiologist in the middle of the parking lot in the middle of the
night, with the cell phone on speaker, and with me holding it up to the sky to
try to have slightly better reception.
Still, we were disconnected twice.
The following evening we did visit an emergency room and stayed the
night there. AAA was willing to do
anything they could, to help us get out of that situation and get our son to
safety. Our minivan that we had just purchased
for reliability (for all his medical issues and having to drive 3 hours to
Seattle when he has health crises) was not all we thought it was. Chrysler/Dodge were AWFUL, asking if I could
prove that our son has a medical history.
They were not willing to continue our warranty if we had a local
mechanic fix the simple hose problem.
breakfasts—cereal, bagels and cream cheese, muffins,
pancakes (from a mix), scrambled eggs, toast (kind of toasted on the griddle)
Lunches—pb&J, lunch meat sandwiches, fast food (not
often)
dinners—mashed potatoes with gravy and canned chicken,
spaghetti, tuna or chicken casserole with cream of mushroom soup and pasta,
pizza from Costco, hamburgers, stir fry (on pasta, not rice)
