Road Trip Clues

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)