Road trips

[Night Elf]

I have to take a 15 hour drive. I hate car trips. I'm either eating or sleeping to pass the time. I'm not looking forward to this. My mom said we should take a couple of days for the trip and make stops at fun things to do, but she loves road trips. DH and I just want to get it over with so we drive straight through. We prefer to have more time with family at the other end. But oh I hate these drives.

[Ellie]

:grouphug:

 

Your mother and I would make good road-trip companions. :-)

[carriede]

Just focus on all the money you're saving by not flying!

 

We used to do a 16 hour drive every summer when I was a kid to visit family. A necessary evil. I always wanted to play 20 Questions, but none of the other 6 passengers wanted to... :p

 

Stock up on audiobooks? It's also much nicer to take a break at a rest stop than at a gas station (unless you actually need gas at the time).

[Cinder]

I'm with you--I do not like long drives. I usually just knit or read or stare out the window. I just don't like driving. Dh likes driving but he's more like your mom--2 shorter days with time to see stuff on the way. That's usually what works best for our family. Once we drove straight through on a 15-hour drive and we were just about dead when we got there. The day was sooooooo long. And it was like, the longer we drove the slower the miles seemed to go by.

[Annie G]

We love long road trips but I think it's something you either like or don't like. I imagine it's hard to develop a love for them unless you do them often enough. Of course that may just make it worse.g 

 

But on the bright side, at least your dh feels the same way as you do about it. It would be even more annoying to be in the car for 15 hours with a guy who totally loves it while you're just wishing the miles would pass more quickly. 

 

 

Are your kids going with you? Ours sometimes do but they shove earbuds in or talk to each other. And dh and I spend our long road trips talking about our future...it might be retirement, renovating the kitchen,  redoing our budget, whatever.  Many a project has been hashed out on our road trips. 

[Ali in OR]

We have about 13 hours when we travel down to CA to see family. It's a two-day trip for us--one long day and one half day. Audio books are great. We have our favorite places to stop along the way--like the exit where we can gas up at Costco and have lunch at either In-n-Out, Baja Fresh, or Panda Express (or different items from all three...). You get into a mindset where you just know you're in the car all day. We have done it in one day twice--once before kids and before audio books (at least our car lacked the necessary technology) and dh and I took turns reading aloud to each other. Once when we got news that dh's grandparents had died in a car accident and we needed to get home as soon as possible. Both of them were midsummer--doesn't seem so bad driving 13 hours if it's still light when you get there. It would be much harder when it's dark and you have to worry about weather over the pass (mountains in northern CA/southern OR).

[TKDmom]

I used to like road trips. Then I had kids.  :willy_nilly:

 

We are taking a 20-hour trip this summer. I keep looking at Southwest's fares, but plane tickets for 6 people just isn't in the budget. And realistically, we can't squeeze all that driving into one day. Sigh... I really wish we hadn't committed to this trip. I am so not looking forward to all that family togetherness.

[Delirium]

I've driven coast to coast a few times. Can you sleep through most of it?

[marbel]

I used to like road trips but not so much anymore.  We have a 12-hour drive ahead of us next week that we are breaking up into 2 days.  One of my kids requires frequent stops so we have to add substantially to the google maps estimated drive time.

 

It's just getting harder now with teens.  It was fun when everyone could listen to Winnie-the-Pooh and other stories together.  Now, it's hard to find audiobooks and music that all enjoy.  My kids do have ipods and we have a couple of kindle fires so there is plenty of music but I dislike having everyone plugged into different things.  And, when I'm driving I must have either music with lyrics or a book going or I will get too sleepy.  My husband likes spells of silence or instrumental (classical) music and has low tolerance for the kids' noise - simply because he's not as used to it as I am.  He'd not nasty about it, but he does require more quiet than I do.   So it's just more of a hassle now trying to keep everyone happy. 

 

Wow, I just made us sound like a terrible family.  We do like and love each other!  We like to goof around together and talk and we do enjoy much of the same music.  But being in the car, blech.

 

 

[regentrude]

15 hours in one go is pretty miserable. I draw the line at 12 hours in one stretch. Anything longer, I want a night's break.

15 hours I'd break up into two segments, a half day with 6 and a longer day with 9. Either leave after lunch the first day, or do the long day first and arrive after lunch the 2nd. Taking a break for dinner and then driving another few hours is good; those evening hours are not put to any productive use anyway.

Our history education has made great strides through the long drives (we drive 18 hours from home to Utah where we hike) thanks to the TC lectures. And like a pp, DH and I get a lot of time for uninterrupted talking when the kids are otherwise occupied.

 

Our kids watch movies on their portable DVD players, write on the laptop, read books or on the kindle, listen to their ipods. The driver has the say what is playing on the radio. Thus I get some exposure to the music DD likes ;-) I find long drives with teens is much easier than driving with infants or  toddlers.

 

 

ETA: OP, are you going with your kids? In that case, I would  drive through because you'd have five drivers who can take turns, so only 3 hours per person, especially if you can sleep in the car. I can't, not a wink.

[liber]

We do 30 hour road trips yearly to the east coast. We do it in three days even with kids and babies. We don't like to waste time on the road. We have also done the trip between Edmonton and Winnipeg in a day. I prefer to do the driving. It makes the trip go faster.

[Night Elf]

My oldest dd cannot make it this year so it's only 4 of us. DH, me, dd16 and ds17. Ds has a learners license but hasn't even driven on roads yet. He's not ready to leave the parking lot unfortunately. DH doesn't mind the driving but requires frequent rest stops just to get out and stretch his legs. I don't mind the kids being plugged into their own thing. It makes it easier for everyone in the car. The driver has control of the radio but we keep the audio in the front part of the car so the people in back aren't disturbed. We only have 5 nights and 6 days. We can't half the drive because it would mean less time wtih family and they are the whole reason we're even traveling. I'm probably the worst passenger. I try to sleep as much as possible. I even get into the 3rd seat so I can lay down on my pillow. I also listen to audiobooks. This year I have a few books on Kindle with narration so I'm not limited to my same list of books I have on my ipod that I only ever use on this once a year vacation. 

 

Oh, and we eat. I load up on snacks, both healthy and junk food related. We stop to eat twice, once for lunch and once for dinner. But with a picky eater in our car, and the fact that we don't like fast food, we only eat Subway. We get real tired of sub sandwiches after vacation.