Tell me about road trips when your children were young, please?

Question

Picture this:
a 2 year old, and a 14 month old, a grandmother, crib, carseats, diaperbag, bottles, husband, and me in a 1969 Mustang Hatchback with a rack on top with luggage with an 18 foot boat attached, traveling from Miami Florida to Northern Wisconsin and back! 3,200 miles of shear hell. We dropped my grandmother in Chicago, then had to park a car with a boat attached to it. I was terrified driving through the mountains in GA. Now the youngest naturally threw up on me, the 2 year old had diarrhea and I got an abcess tooth. My sweet husband asked if I wanted to stop and see my cousin, I think NOT1 Oh it was a grand time with the kids screaming, me smashed up in the back with the kids, grandma in the front and my husband driving.

WE NEVER, EVER DID THAT AGAIN!!!

Answer 1

We went from California to Illinois to see my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. I carried a new matchbox car/truck/bus..{to add to all the others they brought with them}, for each of them every traveling day..they got it as we left every morning..the backseat of the station wagon was folded down and they played and took naps back there..no seat belt restrictions..no seat belts!! They were told they couldn't ask "Äre we there yet?", for 3 1/2 days. Lunch time on Tues. they asked for the 1st time..they were told we were crossing the Mississippi River right now and would be there soon..Our oldest son and I took his kids to the Grand Canyon, St Louis ,and on to Ill to celebrate my aunts 95th birthday, and home through Mt Rushmore and across the salt flats this past June..the same trip we took our boys on in 1969. We had a grand time every trip we took.
In 1949 my parents took us to Ill to visit the same relitives..my dad was driving I was in the front middle, 1 brother sitting next to me, my mom in the backseat passenger side, 1 brother next to her and #3 brother on the drivers side..We carried a qt jar for emergency use for the boys they were 3-5&5. One boy needed to use the jar so of course each boy needed to use it. We were somewhere in the desert {in Nevada or Utah} it was HOT and before air conditioning, so all windows were rolled down..as we were tooling across the hot desert the boy in the front seat asked what should he do with the jar of pee? My mom said "hang on to the jar and throw the pee out the window" well the pee went out the front window and in the back window and all over my mom, she screamed and we all laughed so hard my dad had to stop the car, as he couldn't stop laughing either.

Answer 2

I used to bring along eggs of Silly Putty, and Etch a Sketches. That helped.

When the kids were older, I'd promise 25 cents to the child who could go without talking the longest. (These days, it would have to be at least a dollar, wouldn't it?)

One time, my son had a bad ear infection while we were visiting my MIL in Iowa. The doctor said to keep the windows rolled up on the drive back home. (900 mile trip.) It turned out to be the biggest heat wave of that summer.... We got stuck for over an hour in rush hour traffic jam that would not move. We did not have air conditioning in that car.... That was the only time in my life that I was seriously tempted to unbutton my blouse in the car..... We put the kids into just training panties and shorts, nothing on top. Stopped and bought ice cream cones. The cones dripped on the kids tummies. Muddy, dirty rivulets down the sweaty kids. And then, the baby dropped his ice cream on the back seat of Daddy's new car. NOT a fun trip! Everyone was screaming at everyone that day.

Answer 3

I used to love waking up in the middle of the night, and just GOING...I had to work the next day, sure, but right then and there I wanted to be miles away from where I was! (The reason probably had a lot to do with my unhappiness with my cheating husband.)

I would sneak into my daughter's rooms and ask them if they wanted to go for a drive. Then all three of us would sneak downstairs and out of the house. (The reason for the "sneaking" was because my husband considered that Chevy Camaro "his" car exclusively, even though it was MY paycheques that paid off the loan on it, and the insurance. It was the only time I got to drive it!!)

Our favourite trip involved driving up to Wasaga Beach, which was about an hour north of us...playing on the beach in the dark for an hour, and then coming back home again. We would get in around 5 a.m. and sneak back into our beds and take a two hour nap before getting up to go to school and work respectively.

My husband never even noticed all the missing gas...he probably thought that someone was siphoning off the gas overnight. Of course, he insisted on keeping that car when the divorce happened a couple of years later.

Answer 4

I did two hours down to my in-laws' when my son was maybe 3mo. Lucked out; he slept like a log the whole way. Other than that, my husband's always been with me, so we have one to drive and one to man the troops. I think breaking it up is definitely a good idea. Anyway you can leave either really early in the morning or really late at night? That's what we always do. Pack up the car the night before and take some coffee in a traveling mug. I can do 5:30 in the morning: there's less traffic, and the kids usually sleep for 3+ hours. We stop somewhere for potty breaks and breakfast when they wake up. Makes for much more delightful travel when they only really have to entertain themselves for two or so hours of a much longer trip.

Answer 5

We drove to Palm Springs in the 1950s and we had to drive through a mountain pass in the desert and the winds were sometimes so high it blew semis off the road...we loved it, of course, because we had no fear, no sense of danger. There was also a huge brontosaurus, an odd sight in the middle of nowhere, and we used to get out and explore it. And we always stopped for date shakes, oh baby, those were good! And a little button shop I remember...all they sold were buttons! And we used to play a game where the one who spotted the most station wagons won the game. Today it would have to be SUVs.

Answer 6

Drove from Philadelphia to Rosemead California in a Ford LTD Country Squire Station Wagon with my very pregnant wife and our two boys who were still toddlers and pre-schoolers. Since it was getting close to the summer months we took Interstate 80 for most of the journey, rather than a more southerly route. The longest leg of the trip that I tried was from Salt Lake City to Reno. Unfortunately I had booked us into a Holiday Inn on the south end of Virginia Street. Of course it was Saturday evening when we got to Reno and I had to drive through the "tourist grid lock" past the casinos.
The oddest event of the trip happened after we crossed into California. Since I had a checking account with the Bank of America I stopped at their banking branch in Truckee to cash a small check. They called my branch downstate to verify my balance and then deducted the cost of the phone call from my check. Upon arriving in Southern California a few days later, I closed out my account and have never done business with that bank since then.

Answer 7

Try traveling from Norfolk, Va to JFK airport to Rome, Italy, then spending the whole day until 8 p.m. in the Rome airport until you catch a flight to Olbia, Sardinia (big island off the west coast of Italy) landing in a rain storm. Then getting on a Navy van, riding 25 miles through the mountains at 10 p.m. at night to get to the ferry for the last ferry for the night. The ferry is rolling and the ramp is bouncing on the pier and the driver makes a mad dash for the ramp on it's downward swing, sliding onto the ferry...with a 10 month old and a 3 year old. Surprisingly, they both were very well behaved on the WHOLE trip. This was just a couple of weeks after terrorists shot up the Leonardo di Vinci, Rome airport in December of 1973.. The oldest one was fascinated by the Caribinieri and their machine guns. One in particular, even though on duty, stopped by to talk to my oldest from time to time on his rounds. He spoke excellent English with a decidedly British accent.
For some reason, our bags took 2 days to catch up with us.

Answer 8

Wow! I'm not sure where to begin! My husband has always been a work-a-holic. So, many times the girls and I would go places by ourselves, to give them a memory for the Summer or, Winter vacation.

I had decided to take them to the mountains during Winter vacation from school. I invited a friend of mine as she had been to Colorado and I had never been there before. She agreed and we left for a week of adventure, in the mountains!

The girls were so excited as they had never seen so much snow. They loved playing in it and we would stop and get out just for a little snowball fight! They were in grade school at this time and oh....so much fun!

The second day, in Colorado, I was driving in the mountains and we were suppose to be not far from Vail. Well, the snow started fallin and falling, the roads were getting worse and the only things I could see were mountains, frozen streams and snow!

After driving a couple of hours, it was getting darker and darker, as the snow was becoming relentless! I was haviing to go so slow as I could hardly see anything outside of the window and I simply could not pull over as there were no shoulders to do so!

As things worsened, my children became frightened! I asked them to be very quiet and to help me to make sure we could keep seeing the side of the mountain. Not long, after they had been on duty for watching, I heard them both praying! ROFLOL! I told them that their prayers were more effective than their eyes so, do as you think best! They prayed again! lol

No more than about ten minutes later, we could see lights below us. Thank God! We had made it to Vail! Talk about two very happy children! They were! So, we all celebrated with pizza for dinner....their favorite, at the time!

We were in the hotel and my stomach strated rolling! Then my friends! Then, my eldest daughter and then the youngest! That pizza did us all in and we were all taking turns calling dubs on the potty!

Needless to say, we left the next day to return home! The trip home was very uneventful and we were very grateful! lol

Answer 9

I remember so many trips my sister and I and our parents, The most fun were the trips to New York State from Boston. Mom would mmake sandwiches and fruit and cookies she had made,and a huge jug of lemonade,and we wold stop at a roadside area and stretch and use the restrooms and eat our picnic lunch. Sometimes she brought homemade fried chicken and her homemade coleslaw,We had a lovely red wicker picnic basket with plastic silverware and plates,and we laughed a lot and sang songs and often took naps,those were the days.

Answer 10

I remember riding in the back of the car...I don't mean the back seat...I mean that part that used to be above the back seat...where you could lie down.(can't believe I was ever that small)...and Daddy would smoke that AWFUL SMELLING cigar. (don't see many men with cigars anymore).
I also remember taking my son for a visit in the back seat.. in a bassinette (sp)....before the seat belt law..or seat belts at all happened. Wonder how we survived !!!! (Maybe people drove better then)
You know what I miss...those little windows in the front..that you could turn towards you and get all that wind. Of course they would always break..but at least you could hold them and still feel the wind.Now you have to have ac or you're in trouble.