Make SWMBOs car trip

Tunawife wants to visit her sister by car with all of us. Even though I would be super happy to let her go and stay home with my kids (ages 6, 4, 3 and 1 for those not aware), she wants us all to come. Her sister lives in Colorado somewhere, and we live in Greenville SC.

OI need the GRM hive mind to make it bearable, cheap, and the whole thing can't take more than two weeks. We don't have enough cash on hand for any sort of vehicular purchase along the way, and the trip will be in the family minivan unless a compelling case can be made for something else.

I don't have any itinerary ideas to offer, but this kind of trip is precisely what minivans were engineered to do. Any other vehicle choice would be madness.

Not sure what level this trip is on, but it's in there somewhere...

As was said earlier, minivans are fantastic for longer trips like the one you're outlining. We've driven on many long road trips with ours, and it's handled them all very well. A conversion van would be the only thing that might be better from a comfort perspective, but you'll likely pay a huge penalty in fuel costs (not to mention the initial purchase).

Take the minivan, add a rooftop carrier. We made many a long distance family road trip (6 in my family too) with a sears x-cargo carrier on the roof and a bike rack hanging on the back of moms minivan. I think we even had a middle seat removed and sat 3 wide on the back bench seat so there was a little room to stretch out and sleep and stick a cooler in the middle within reach. Rotate seats throughout the trip.

This was before dvd players and such so good mixtapes went a long way to making the trip enjoyable. I remember Shell gas stations had the cruisin classics tapes were family favorites and mom always managed to subject us to phantom of the opera at least a couple times in each trip.

My rents still have that roof top carrier I sort of want to mount it on a harbor freight trailer so it can be towed behind a car. I have absolutely no need for that yet but it seems like a good idea.

And, actually, I do have an itinerary suggestion. It should even be on your way:

St. Louis City Museum

In reply to Duke:

Now THAT is helpful!

Do you have the budget to rent an RV?

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Do you have the budget to rent an RV?

Second this. I suspect it isn't in the budget and fuel costs are brutal in an RV but having running water and an onboard bathroom are HUGE when travelling with the rugrats.

Borrow a friends perhaps?

Other suggestions, portable DVD players. Don't feel the need to ironman the driving days: stop early at a hotel with a pool.

Stick with healthy food and avoid McDonalds.

May the FSM have mercy on your souls

KyAllroad wrote: Don't feel the need to ironman the driving days: stop early at a hotel with a pool.

I will second this. Adding a day to your travel time, even both ways, is nothing if it means the kids are not cranky and wired out from being in the car too long each day. And a hotel with a pool is a destination in itself to a gaggle of kids under 10.

2 weeks should be doable, I just did a bit longer in 10 days with the first half being quite leisurely. You dont say what part of CO, so you could be looking at 3000 miles round trip or closer to 4000. Definitely attainable in 2 weeks time without any marathon drives. I just did CO back to NJ in 2 days. Its a lot of boring roads, break it up into 3 or 4 stopping to enjoy stuff with the family and it might not be bad.

A roadtrip tip from my childhood. Whenever we'd start on a trip dad would look at us and say "you get [number]" So lets say it was a 5 day roadtrip he might say "You get 3" What that meant is everyone in the car had than number of things which they could say "let's stop and see it" and we would, no questions asked. Worlds largest ball of twine? No arguments, I want to see it, its there, we see it. Eliminated a lot of the whining when someone wanted to do something the rest didn't because everyone knew you had a no questions asked, no whining policy. Keeps the kids looking out for something to stop and see and is a great way to find interesting silly little things to do on your trip.

Bring a cooler so you can make your own sandwiches for lunch and bring some healthy snacks for in between meals. I would bring a couple of magazines for yourself when the wife is driving and bring a couple of kids books so you or the wife can read to them too.

In reply to JThw8: I like that idea.

Sure, you've probably got GPS, but if you have AAA, stop and get a Trip-Tik. Rotate the kids in the front seat, to let them "navigate" with it. I remember doing it when I was a lad, and how it seemed to make the miles shorten, flipping the pages of it.

Cooler that plugs into the car and a wall outlet, we use it all the time since we are cheap and don't really mind ham sandwiches. It has come in handy so many times and needs no ice.

Station Wagon.

Second the cooler suggestion. It's amazing how much $2 bottles of water and $6 lunches add up (especially multiplied by 6). Buy a cooler, keep a gallon jug in there, everyone gets refills. Same with other road-friendly food, trail mix, sandwiches, etc. Budget maybe one nice meal out every other day to break up the monotony. Eat light while driving- nothing worse than sitting still in a car with a heavy stomach-load of bar b que or egg salad.

Pace is key. I've found that myself, my companions, and my car are generally happiest with 300 to 400 miles in a day. If you're interstating the whole thing you can knock off up to 600 before it gets rough. Stops every 2-3 hours are a must.

In reply to volvoclearinghouse:

If I do this trip, I am totally going to find a moose to punch when I get there.

The moose shoulda told ya.

I haven't used it yet, but I hear good things about AirBNB. Might be able to snag a decent room at a good price along the way, if you plan it out right.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: I haven't used it yet, but I hear good things about AirBNB. Might be able to snag a decent room at a good price along the way, if you plan it out right.

Seconded. I've had several airbnb stays. Good stuff, though I fear you're less likely to get a pool, and more likely to worry about the kids messing something up that gets you a bad review.

We did road trips like this when our kids were that young. Minivans are awesome for this sort of thing. I wholeheartedly agree with adding an extra day to your travel time. Try to make the trip part of the adventure rather than just a means to an end. Be flexible and don't sweat it if you need to make a few extra stops.

pinchvalve wrote: Not sure what level this trip is on, but it's in there somewhere...

I would imagine it would be somewhere around sowers of discord

We just did Atlanta to Washington D.C. in a single day with our two kids (4 and 2 years old) and two grandparents. We mapped the route in one hour increments, identifying nationals/state/local parks along the way. This allows you to gauge the temperament of the kids and stop when they need some running around time. It worked almost perfectly, as we identified a park via Google Maps overhead view but not street view. We arrived at a closed baseball field with locked bathrooms. No bien. Luckily the town had a local park within five minutes travel, so all was good.

Check for national/state parks along the way and ask about their junior ranger programs. We did little activities and the kids earned a little junior ranger pin. Also, some of the national parks could be your ticked to cheap lodging. I haven't done it yet but I have seen "arrive and camp" camping rentals.

We packed a cooler and a metric ton of snacks. My wife bagged up snacks in sandwich bags so the kids got a single serving at a time instead of wolfing down a whole bag of Doritos.

My wife is brilliant. She made a little in-car micro-economy for the kids. She gave them each $100 play money to buy "treat" type snacks, story time, or screen time (tablet). We priced screen time at the most expensive, and the treats they liked were smaller amounts. The kids could then earn more money by doing things like using the bathroom at stops, being polite, keeping the car clean, responding to instruction the first time, staying buckled, etc. It worked perfectly.

We did the math and the round trip total cost to move four adults and two kids from Atlanta to D.C. including the van rental, gas and food was only $800. It was around 600 miles for us and we took right at 15 hours with stops. Looks like you are facing 1,500 miles, so a good three days driving there, and three days driving home, so you get eight days with the family.

Minivans tow popup campers. Campgrounds are way cheaper then hotels. Camping makes roadtrips more epic.

Update after considering all presented so far:

In-laws have an RV, but would not want us to take it that far (even after I did the exhaust manifold for it)

Cannot afford a flat out rental RV

Do not want to tow with minivan

Wish to hear more about destinations along the way. The Corvette museum is another the kids would be very excited about seeing.

Love some of the ideas, keep them coming