Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Road Rules - Packing For A LOOOONG Road Trip

This segment of Road Rules isn't ministry related at all.  In fact it is completely opposite of that. We have an 8 to 9 hour road trip ahead of us and we're leaving all our music "stuff" behind (except for Josh's guitar of course)!  

We're going to Orlando , FL!!!  No, we won't be visiting Disney World, but we will be seeing my little brother graduate from RTS.  (I'm sure we'll make it to Lego World and the Princess Place while we're there) We figured, we've never made it to see my brother and his wife in their own home, EVER, since they've been married and we also can't imagine when we'll ever have family that lives in Orlando again.  So, before they head out to live in the DC area for his PHD program we decided that we'd better make some plans.

Since it is such a long trip I've been packing the same way I always do, except that I'm doubling up our food bag and the kid's "to-do" bags for the car.

Via Road Trip Must-Have's:
  • "To-Do" bag (or basket) - I went out to Target's $1 spot and racked up on some fun newbies and added in some of their all-time favorites and then divided the bootie stash in half.  1/2 for the trip there and 1/2 for the trip back to make it exciting=)
Areyna's bag is the blue / Zeke's bag is the green
(stickers, pencils, cars, pony's, Color Wonder stuff...just to name a few things)
  • DVD Player - I may try to run out to the library and get a couple of new movies for the kids.  If not, we still have the favorites that never get old (Cars, Cinderella, Tinkerbell, Nemo, Mary Poppins)
  • Food Bag - We're not big fans of fast food and we are trying to spend as little money as possible on the trip so we went to Wal-mart and snagged some pretty good deals with my coupons.  We have pretzels, chips, granola bars, fruit snacks, bananas, apples, juice boxes, stuff for sandwiches and much, much more!  We're still planning on stopping for lunch and letting the kids run around during meals but we are bringing our own food.
Red: Trip down / Green: Trip back

How do you pack for long road trips in the car?  What helps guarantee your safe arrival, and sanity?=)

4 comments:

the broomes said...

How fun!!! Will you get to stop by a beach somewhere? I don't know if you go through Macon, but if so- please call us! We love to have y'all over for lunch/dinner or just to say "hey" and let the kids run wild for a minute. Or of course, you can stay with us if you're wanting to break the trip up. As far as travel for us- we have to have tons of books. Our kids both seem to like looking at books best in their car seats. I also take the little potty for emergency bathroom stops (or just put both kids in pull-ups:))

Shannon Bradley said...

I LOVE the idea of "on the way" bags and "on the way back"! I always cram everything and am constantly trying to keep it organized!! Have fun!

the burchard bunch said...

a little tidbit we learned from traveling was renting movies from the redbox.... they're only $1 and you can return them at ANY redbox location:) We rented some (@ the Harris Teeter in Matthews) for the trip down in March and then returned them the next day @ a Wal-Mart in Florida. Just an idea! Have a fun, safe trip and enjoy your family!

Abbey said...

We did the Redbox on our last trip - 17 hours to SC. Its pretty sweet.

We almost always drive through the night, or almost always, it makes it so much easier. We take turns driving/sleeping. I think its the way to go! We do quite a few long road trips a year.

We actually drove through the day last time, and made a stop in Wake Forest to run around the campus of SEBTS. It was neat to show Morgann where she was born. That's off topic though;-)