As many of you know, my family of four just traveled across America, from North Carolina to Southern California. While we did hit a few bumps in the road, the majority of the trip went according to plan, and was super fun.
When I set out to travel across the country with my family, I knew just how stressful it could be. And, I knew as an anxious person, how I had the tendency to suck the fun out of things for efficiency’s sake.
Here are some tips that helped this move go smoothly, and filled with so much love:
1. Set Your Intentions.
So the first thing I did before starting out on this journey was set my intentions for the trip. I wanted to show kindness to my partner, kids, and anyone I encountered on the road, and I wanted it to be fun. These intentions came to me the morning of the move.
By 6am I noticed I was getting short with Emmanuel, and ordering him around. I was annoyed that he wasn’t moving fast enough. I am so grateful that I had a still moment to realize this was not how I wanted any of us to feel the day of the move, or even the week plus on the road. So, I set my intentions, posted them on my IG post (because if it’s not on IG, is it even real?) and kept those intentions throughout the rest of our journey.
And boy did I need those intentions. But, that’s another blog post for another day.
2. Plan Out The stops.
The goal was for each leg of the trip to map out to about 5-7 hours of driving, knowing that driving with two small kids meant more like 7-9 hours of driving per day. E and I got plenty of time to talk to each other, and the kids got some naps in, and James got a special old iphone, loaded with podcasts.
One thing that mattered alot to me was finding fun things for the kids to do at each stop. Whether that was going to the zoo, like we did in OKC, or making sure the hotel had a pool for the kids to play in.
3. Let Kids Be kids.
We made it fun by deciding to stop for lunch and play every driving day. We tried to stop before they fell asleep, but a few days, we had to stop after their car nap. We either had food that we bought from the store, or stopped at a nearby restaurant, then made our way to a nearby park to play. The kids loved this, and if we made it before their car nap, they got in the car nice and exhausted and took an extra long nap.
Kids love toys. We stopped at the dollar store before we headed out…
4. Did I mention snacks?
We had a food bag in the car, with some healthier snacks, and some less healthy snacks too. Some of my favorite snacks to pack in the car are clementines, uncrustables, candy necklaces for the older kids, crackers, granola bars, goldfish, and cheerios. If you are planning for this trip to take several days, there is no need to pack the car full of food (though you definitely can) because every day or so you can take a five minute trip into the store for the next batch of apple sauce pouches and goldfish. That way food isn’t taking up too much space in your car.
I will say, one thing to think about is not having as many salty, carbs foods because the babes will want more water and more water means more pee. So take that pro tip if you’d like.
5. Pack Intentionally
On this trip, packing smartly was important. Emmanuel had his own bag, I had a suitcase, and the kids shared a suitcase. Each of us also had a backpack. My husband and I both packed our computers, any books we thought we would read on this trip (spoiler alert: we didn’t read a single page), and any things we wanted more easily available to us on the road.
We used packing cubes for the adults so it would be easy to find each article of clothing we needed. On stops that were only going to be one night, we packed that change of clothes in our backpack so we didn’t have to bring all the luggage in. It helped to know where everything was, and stay organized. We also had a laundry bag and did laundry twice on the road. Two of our hotels had laundry machines.
You don’t need to pack everything you think you may need. For me, I packed four pairs of shoes (one pair of workout sneakers, one pair of cute sneakers, one pair of loafers, and a pair of water shoes). If you know me, you know I love shoes. So, if I was able to do a ten day road trip with just four pairs of shoes, you can too. Promise.
I’m sure as I continue to reflect on this trip even more, I will come up with more tips, but here are five to start out with.
We were prepared for so many obstacles that came our way. And then the car broke down in New Mexico. Twice.
No worries. A few setbacks in our trip did not stop this from being an amazing memory maker for our whole family.
Would you and your family ever take a big cross country roadtrip? What questions do you have about traveling with your family? Put them in the comments below and I’ll be sure to answer.
Hi Sarah I definitely want to do a cross country trip. I’m trying to convince my husband or maybe my cousins and siblings but they are not trying to hear me. I believe it will be spectacular. I most definitely want to fly back, I don’t want to drive both ways. I love trying to stay organized during trips. I’m cracking up at how you guys didn’t read anything but the intention was there it happen to the best of us. I’m glad you guys made it safe and enjoyed the drive despite the setback. I can’t wait to read more and enjoy your new home in Cali!!
Tell your family to be brave and DO IT!