Top Ten Things You Never Thought to Pack on Your Road Trip

Posted by Roadtrippingma on Apr 14, 2010 in Gadgets, Packing the car, Top Ten Lists | 0 comments

1. Small Tupperware containers or plastic baggies – Don’t bother with overpriced, environmentally-unfriendly individually wrapped snacks.  Pack small containers or baggies to fill for each child from a bag of munchies.  Passing back the entire bag for them to “share” will guarantee fights over who got more, as well as a nasty mess of crumbs.  Also handy is the ability to toss snacks to the back of a minivan, well, that and a good aim.
2. Wet wipes – Fingers covered in sugar, salt, chocolate, ketchup and more are guaranteed to rub artistic renderings all over the car upholstery unless prevented with the hasty pull of a moist wipe.  A more earth-friendly and economical choice is to keep a Ziploc with one or two damp cloths handy.
3. Empty pitcher with a lid – No, it’s not to make orange juice.  It’s a barf pitcher.  Hopefully it will never be used but should a child suddenly complain of an upset stomach, reach for the pitcher.  Have you ever seen a three year old try to hold a bag open to vomit?  I have.  It ain’t pretty.  The barf pitcher is easier to use than a bag, is leak-proof, and provides peace of mind (sorta.) 
4. Paring knife – Getting sick of junk food?  (This is directed at the parents, not the kids.)  Stop at a grocery store or farmer’s market along the way and pick up some fresh fruit or vegetables.  While some produce can be munched whole, it’s helpful to have a knife for others, such as carrots, cantaloupe, cucumbers.
5. Laundry soap  – “Accidents” and spills do happen along the way and, thankfully, running water is readily available at most every stop.  Laundry detergent, however, is harder to come by.
6. Griddle and flipper – If you want to avoid stale froot loops and day-old muffins offered at the hotel’s free continental breakfast, spark up the griddle beside the TV and serve fried eggs and bacon right in the room.
7. Garbage bag – This is so obvious that it seems ridiculous to include, however, it’s amazing how many times we’ve forgotten to pack any kind of garbage bag and have had to use an empty potato chips bag, instead.  Two empty grocery bags should do it.
8. Overnight bags – Planning to stop at a hotel along the way?  Save time and effort by packing a separate overnight bag for everyone that includes pyjamas, essential toiletries, and a change of clothes.  This way, you don’t need to lug the large pieces of luggage out of the car (or roof top carrier) until the final destination.  Also comes in handy if there is a messy accident and someone needs a quick change of clothes.
9. Toilet rolls – Think road side hotel, two in the morning, four-year-old has to go, and the room is fresh out of toilet paper.  It could happen.  Don’t let it.
10. Corkscrew – Celebrate!  It’s the end of the driving day, and you’ve survived day one (or two, or three) of your family road trip.  You might get lucky and find a screw top bottle of wine in that rinky dink town you’re in, but why take the chance?

Road Trip Vacations Cheaper Than Flying

Posted by Roadtrippingma on Apr 7, 2010 in Costs, Fly or Drive? | 0 comments

That driving costs less than flying is no secret.  This is most evident for average families – and the greater the number of kids, the greater the potential for savings. 

During 2006 and 2007, the average North American air fare with a Canadian airline was about $250.  That means a family of five would have had to pay $1,250 to fly.  Lower air fares would undoubtedly be available to those willing to fly shorter distances and in non-peak seasons.  Anyone want to fly to the tropics in July?  Unfortunately, most Canadians tend to travel during peak season which translates to higher prices – and higher still if the plane has to fly from one coast to another.  On the other hand, the cost for a car to cruise the highways remains static, no matter how many people, and animals, fill it. 

Consider that the average 2009 minivan uses about 10 kilometres of highway driving per litre.  A distance of 1500 kilometres (from Toronto, Ontario to Saint John, New Brunswick, for example) will guzzle 150 litres of gas.  If fuel costs $1.50 per litre (a pretty high estimate), the entire family can travel there and back for a reasonable $450.  Even if an overnight stay is needed to break up the long drive, since most road side motels are less than $100 per night, a family of five still saves half the cost of air fare.  Throw the dog in the car – or a cat for feline fans – and you’re saving another $50 that the airlines charge passengers to stow Benji or Fluffy in a kennel that fits under the seat.

Each year our family saves at least $700 by taking the road over the air, leaving us more cash to spend while we’re in Florida.

My husband and I have driven from Toronto to Florida four times in the past five years.  Our fuel costs have ranged from $300 US to $500 US – the fluctuations dependent upon the price of gasoline that year.  We usually stop overnight in a hotel each way, costing us anywhere between $60 and $150 per night – the scale for price directly correlating with the scale for luxury.  Each year we save at least $700 by taking the low road over the high air which has left us more cash to spend at Florida’s outlet malls (and a day trip or two to Disney World.)

Other than general wear and tear on the vehicle and that extra stop at McDonald’s along the way, road trippers don’t have to fear unplanned costs en route.  Airlines, however, are notorious for hidden costs that typically appear in the final tally of passenger tickets.  More of the pesky expenses spring up again in the airplane itself.  “Would you like a pillow and blanket?” sounds sweet as a flight attendant leans over a shivering grandma.  “That’ll be five dollars” – doesn’t sound so nice.  A little hungry after sitting on the tarmac for an hour before take off?  Well, enjoy that cellophane wrapped packet of salted peanuts.  If the plane even stocks a meagre selection of menu items, they will likely be available for a small fee.  For drivers, the amount of money spent on food varies upon the family’s appetite.  Packing a well-stocked cooler will save a great deal of money on the road and the proliferation of fast food joints along freeways ensure easy access to more substantial meals that will be priced affordably. 

When one considers the high cost of flying, coupled with fewer comforts and an ever growing incidence of major flight delays, hitching a ride in the spacious minivan doesn’t seem so bad after all.  In 2007, almost a quarter of all flights with American airlines were delayed.  By 2009, the delays had dropped to twenty percent, bringing the total number of delays to just under one million flights.  When a terrorist tried to bomb a plane headed to Detroit on Christmas day, the delays and cancellations went through the roof for weeks afterward.  Toronto Pearson Airport was the worst offender, in fact.  Whatever the annual statistics are, they don’t mean much to passengers stranded on a tarmac for hours with no food, wailing babies, and stinky toilets, as happened to 47 people who were forced to sit nine hours on a jet in Rochester, Minneapolis in August 2009.  Things are bound to get better, so goes the thinking for the many passengers who’ve been duped by any of the inconveniences that come with flying.  They may be right, but the most certain way to a comfortable ride in the sky is to go executive class. 

While there appears to be little change forthcoming in the economy seats (tall legs, beware), some airlines are ramping up the luxuries at the front of the plane where the old adage, you get what you pay for couldn’t be more apparent.  Air Canada’s web site boasts an abundant list of features for their North American Executive Class passengers including a guaranteed window or aisle seat, “comfy” pillow, and premium wines, spirits and cuisine.  The offerings for Economy Class include a pillow and blanket – for a nominal fee, and an individual reading light.  While car travel may not be a bastion of spa-like indulgence, at least families can control their schedules and pack any number of items to add comfort to their drive.  And it’s nice to know that all the passengers in the car are suffering the same comforts – or lack thereof.

Road Trip Comforts in a 1979 Station Wagon

Posted by Roadtrippingma on Mar 31, 2010 in Packing the car, Road Tales | 2 comments

But, like the throngs of modern minivan owners, the station wagon was a forced possession that parents of yesteryear felt compelled to own by sheer necessity, rather than desire.  It had, after all, a number of merits that no two-door model could ever compete with.  Although it’s hard for today’s minivan owners to imagine how an oversized buick, with a rear-facing seat instead of trunk, could provide any roadtripping luxuries, they might alter their view if they try to imagine the headspace of a parent in the 1970’s and 80’s. 

While today’s family road warriors rely on built-in video screens, hand-held electronics, and spacious interiors to assuage discomforts, families of the past had something else entirely: freedom.  Seat belts were voluntary (read: unused), kids outgrew car seats before they learned how to walk, and the only law drivers really had to obey was the speed limit.  Undoubtedly, today’s web of rules around car safety has cushioned many children from injury.  But just imagine the possibilities.

During our first couple of drives from Toronto to Florida, we had to make do with the usual passenger set up.  Two kids were stuck facing oncoming traffic in the back seat while other three of us shared the middle row (the sucker in the centre with knees crammed into his chest because of the “bump” upon which his feet had to rest.)  When we got tired of sitting upright, we’d spread out a little more.

“Just lie down,” our parents would advise us (and be quiet, they’d think).  Obediently, we’d reposition ourselves so that two bodies laid head to foot on the middle seat, one sprawled uncomfortably across the dirty carpeted floor, while in the back seat, a body laid on the cushioned seat and another on the floor (thankfully bump-free.)  When the yelling and fighting over who got stuck on the crappy floor bed got too out of hand, Mom or Dad would simply whip a hand to the back and lay a wallop on whomever was closest.  Another freedom of the times – good old fashioned kid-smacking.

One year, they came up with a splendid idea to finally end the sibling friction caused by seat preference.  All the seats behind the driver were folded down so that the entire back of the station wagon was levelled.  Then my parents pulled off a single mattress from my sister’s bed and hauled into the back of the car.  They didn’t want to hear a single complaint about a bump the entire ride to Florida.  And they didn’t.  The wagon raced along the freeways while we repositioned to our hearts’ content.  My brothers got to have wrestling matches, I got to sleep cuddled up in comfort, potato chips were served in one big bowl that we could all eat together (crumbs didn’t bother us so much in those days.)  It was a dream road trip, by any kids’ standard.  And I’m certain the cops we passed along the way – to whom we gestured with the usual peace sign – thought the same thing.  After all, it was a different time.

Top Ten Best Foods to Pack for a Road Trip

Posted by Roadtrippingma on Mar 21, 2010 in Packing the car, Top Ten Lists | 0 comments

1. Chips – you can go healthy or greased up, plain or coated in red salt.  There is a plethora of choices to suit the wishes of any family and, the kids luv’em.  Buy in individual packs or save the environment by packing your own baggies that you can fill for each child.

2. Cut strawberries – sure, there are loads of different fruits out there that you can serve the kids, but many of them will never get eaten (or get too bruised before they’re unpacked.)  These sweet bite-size snacks don’t pose a choking hazard to wee ones and, best of all, you can serve them early in the ride to assuage the guilt from feeding them junk food the rest of the way.

3. Lollipops - there’s not a good thing to say about these tooth-decaying orbs of sugar.  Except that kids LOVE them and they take a while to finish.  So, if you’re looking for five minutes of peace, you’ll be a sucker for suckers.

4. Sandwich wraps – bypass the first McDonalds you see, and instead, enjoy some homemade wraps. My personal favourite is the chicken wrap  (recipe here.)  This is less for the kids and more for the refined tastes of the adult passengers.

5. Trail mix – sorry to all the nut-allergy sufferers out there, but this is a healthy, easy snack that everyone can enjoy.

6. Peanut butter sandwiches – Kids loves these any day of the week.  They’re easy to make, stay fresh for hours, neat, and healthy. 

7. Salami and cheddar cheese – Be sure to include a sharp knife when packing this.  It’s a quick and easy snack or meal on the road.  Even better, have a hard-top cooler at hand to cut upon.

8. Cut carrots – Driving is a bit like watching TV.  You always feel like munching on something.  Rather than reach for the Doritos, leave out a bag of cut carrots.  It’s amazing that you can just as readily enjoy munching on a carrot as an all-dressed chip (well, almost).  Your waistline will thank you!

9. Granola bars – I try to stick to the healthier granola bar fare out there, but to each her own.  One of the best aspects to these snacks?  They’re easy to toss from the front to the rear seat of a minivan.  Be sure to buy a few packs.

10. One hand-picked treat for each child – Before embarking on the road trip, allow each child to select his or her own treat at the grocery store.  It gives them something to look forward to and helps relieve those periods in the car when the kids are grumpy, bored, irritable, or hungry (for something other than strawberries.)  Also, it doesn’t hurt to get your own chocolate indulgence… Life on the road can be tough on the adults, too!

Hotel Room a Tight Squeeze for a Family of Five

Posted by Roadtrippingma on Mar 17, 2010 in Road Tales | 0 comments

My kids are getting bigger.  Normally, that statement breezes past my lips (or through my fingertips) with a sigh of relief.  Aaaaaaah.  No diapers to change, no portable crib to unload, no contortionist-like reach into the recesses of the minivan to buckle in each child.  My kids have, in fact, become quite self-sufficient in many ways.  But still, they’re kids.  When we travel, they come with us.  And, when we stay in a hotel, we book only one room.   

While we no longer have to traverse around a mini nursery that we assemble like Ikea furniture in our hotel room for the baby of the family, the boys’ larger bodies more than make up for the freed up floor space.  A crying baby is loud, but not quite as loud as three boys playing hide and seek between the beds.  But what’s a family of five to do?  Hotel rooms are built for a maximum of four bodies.  Of course, we always book a room with two queen size beds.  If we’re lucky the mattresses are, in fact, queen, and not the imposter “double” size.  Yet our bodies, spreading across the mattresses like continents on a map, are growing unwieldy. 

An adult sharing a large bed with two toddlers can still stretch out with relative comfort (assuming bony elbows and knees are of sufficient distance.)  But our oldest son is now almost ten, the other two not far behind in age.  We’ve come to accept that sleep is a five-star luxury that a growing family of five simply cannot afford.  

We recently stayed in Ellicottville, New York in a fantastic hotel called Holiday Valley Inn.  We could have ensured two nights of incessant snoring pleasure if we’d booked a second room, thus allowing my husband and I to horde as much bed space as we desired.  But at $200 a night per room, we were content to ski with the reckless abandon of overtired parents trying to keep up with our even more reckless kids.  We have helmets, after all.  May as well use them.

Being in such tight quarters, some can argue, offers a rare opportunity for familial bonding.  This is true.  However, it also means that those irritating habits that you thought you could escape during vacation (think toilet talk, whining, picky eaters), tend to be just as prominent in your new oasis of pleasure as they were in your suburban house.  Our youngest son, for example, pees his bed regularly.

At five-thirty in the morning (shortly after I’d finally fallen asleep) I woke to my five year old son staring at me.  His little hands pushing me away from him and towards my edge of the mattress. 

“Move,” he demanded, “Move away, Mom.  Move away.”

“What?” I whispered back.  About to lecture him about his need to show more respect to his mother, I suddenly bit my tongue.  There was only one reason that he ever woke me in the early dawn.

“Did you pee the bed?”

He nodded nonchalantly, ”Yeah.”

There aren’t many options when one out of two beds is eliminated from a room filled with five tired people.  It wasn’t long before the entire family was awake.  After all, five year-olds aren’t known for their stealth.  If it was any other family, perhaps they would have used these early hours of dawn to bond with one another over a game of charades.  But that was out of the question for our family.  The kids grew restless in about ten minutes and one of them poked another in the cheek – the equivalent of lighting a firecracker on July 1st, in our household.  Needless to say, we knew after those first few hours of the morning, the nice, quiet guests in our neigbouring rooms would not be looking for any opportunities to bond with us either.

Lessons learned:

1. If your child pees at home – pack a plastic sheet to go under him on the hotel bed.  This is especially important for the parent who plans to sleep beside the urinating child.
2. If you forget the plastic sheet, wake the offending child before pre-dawn and force him or her to the bathroom to relieve the bladder.  While this will disrupt your own sleep, it is a small price to pay for the benefit of every family member’s sanity later.
3. Really loud whispers that sound more like growls can be heard through hotel walls.  So, if you cannot avoid lecturing the kids, definitely avoid all eye-contact with your hotel room neigbours.

CAA Member Preferred Parking at Disney World

Posted by Roadtrippingma on Mar 9, 2010 in Gadgets | 1 comment

Here’s a little known perk for families who are travelling to Orlando, Florida.  If you purchase a Disney Magic Your Way Pass (for three days or more) through CAA not only do you receive a discount on the overall price, you are eligible for an exclusive parking voucher.  This parking voucher offers your vehicle “AAA Diamond” preferred parking every day, any time of day. 

My husband and I did the Disney last year with our three boys.  Always the budget-conscious travellers, we stayed in a condo outside of the sprawling Magic Kingdom Resort for a ridiculously reasonable sum  of $500 for one week and drove a mere ten minutes every morning to tackle yet another of their parks where, they claim, it’s “the happiest place on earth.”  With the parking voucher, we were able to bypass the typical parking attendants, with their pointing fingers and commanding hand whooshes, and zoom straight to the front of the lot.  While other visitors had to wait for shuttle buses to transport them the mile or so from their Goofy-labeled parking sign to the front gate, we strolled there in minutes.  With hours of lineups ahead of us, we truly appreciate this one hassle-free experience.

As far as the awesome deal on our condo goes… Well, if you google hard enough, there’s always a deal to be found.

Pack the Anti-Nausea Medicine

Posted by Roadtrippingma on Mar 8, 2010 in Road Tales | 0 comments

If you think you might need it.  Pack it.  I learned that the hard way.  Five years ago, when my kids were one, three, and five years old, we planned our first road trip to Florida from Toronto. 

The night before setting out, I organized our medicine kit:   Children’s Tylenol, thermometers, Benadryl, measuring cups, and super strength aspirin (for me.)  I picked up the box of children’s anti-nausea medication, Gravol, and stared at it for some time. 

 “Do you think I should bring this?” I asked Ted, lifting the box for him to see.

 He shrugged.  “Sure.  Why not?”

Why not?  I knew why not.  I’d heard the whispers among moms and dads, their uncomfortable laughs when they admitted in hushed tones that they’d slipped their crying toddlers Gravol to make the transit from one place to another more enjoyable.  Hey, they’d said, it’s no big deal.  They’d laughed, nudged one another in the ribs, we had a great ride, eh?  

I’d force myself to laugh along, then chastise them behind their backs.  Shame on them, I’d thought.  Drugging your children for some peace and quiet.  Shame.

I now stood at a cusp, holding the fruit of promised tranquility in my hand in the form of a barely used box of small pink tablets.  I knew I’d have to endure crying, whining, fighting, and yelling (my own would be the loudest.)  The temptation to administer these happy pills might be too much to resist, I’d figured.  And my kids rarely suffered nausea at home.  So I returned the medicine to the cupboard and shut the door.  I’d have been wise to consider that my kids may actually need it for nausea.  Strangely, that thought never entered my head.  Shame on me.

The early part of the drive was through Pennsylvania – a state of undulating roads carved across a vista of mountains.  Peter, it turns out, suffers motion sickness.  I never knew that.  And being the quiet three year old that he was, he preferred not to alarm us with dire warnings of an expulsion of his most recently consumed food. 

We’d simply turn around to see him soaking under a bib of vomit.  Over and over and over again. 

After the first vomit, we quickly found a place to stop and replaced his wet pyjamas with a fresh set of clothes that we’d packed in the kids’ knapsacks.  We’d planned to change them anyway, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.  With no medicine to give him, Ted and I offered Peter a grocery bag.  He could barely keep it open with is tiny fingers, but it was all we could do. 

Less than two hours later, we turned around as our oldest son exclaimed, “Peter’s barfing again!” 

By the time we begged him to grab the bag, it was too late.  He was soaked again.  With less rush, this time, we eventually stopped off the freeway.  The boys’ remaining clothes were tucked inside a suitcase atop the car in a roof rack carrier.  After ten minutes of unlocking, unloading, and rifling through luggage, some clothes were found and Peter was hastily changed with kind reminders to please, tell Mom and Dad when you feel sick BEFORE you vomit.

I’d like to say the rest of the drive was uneventful.  We were, after all, trying to “make good time” (my husband’s road trip mantra.)  And, no amount of vomit, nor its putrid odour, was going to stop us from attaining our planned mileage.  The vomiting grew so frequent, however, that we’d stopped changing him.  We simply would re-position the blanket under his chin.  By the time we’d stopped at the hotel, thirteen hours after his first expulsion, Peter was so soaked, he shivered as he walked from the car to the hotel room – his wet shirt flat across his chest like a fried egg on a pan. 

I spent the evening in the hotel room scrubbing his bile covered car seat with the hotel’s bath soap.  If only I’d packed the Gravol.