April 2010

Road trip season is almost upon us, otherwise known at our house as the season of brotherly love – or sisterly love, as the case may be.  Because nothing is better than five people speeding down the road fighting for leg room  and lap tops.

Actually, I jest, because I love road trips.  There’s absolutely no logic behind that though, because it’s crowded, it’s long, it’s messy, and at least a couple of times, things deteriorate into name calling.

Nonetheless, I love them, and although the kids claim to like flying better, I’m secretly going to believe they love being cooped up with their mama for 27 hours.

Oh yeah, my husband drives, so I’m not sure how much he likes it.  And I’m not going to ask.

Legs are Getting Longer

The good news for all of you with little ones wondering if it gets easier, the answer is yes.  Traveling with older, more self sufficient kids is easier ten times over, and for me, ten times more fun.  But there is the problem of the legs.  Kids that used to be comfortable sleeping curled up in their car seat or back seat now have longer legs than me.  They’re now taking up our storage space with their stupid, long legs.  So we’ve had to make some adjustments.

We took out one of the seats in the back for storage of all our stuff, which is working for now, but as soon as humanly possible, I plan on getting one of those car top thingys.   If you can get one sooner rather than later, I would recommend it.  I have yet to figure out how we can manage to fly with a minimum of stuff, but when we drive, we pack the entire house…AND garage.

I know I’m getting old because I covet a car top thingy by Thule.

The Dreaded Hotel Stop

I’ll admit, I’ve become a bit high maintenance about accommodations while I’m on vacation with my family, but I’m not too picky about where we stay en route.  If we can sleep for a few hours and shower, I’m good to go.  My family though, has turned into a bunch of hotel snobs.  They think everywhere is going to be the Ritz (we’ve never actually

stayed at the Ritz, but it’s commonly known as being a fancy pants place).

My husband’s solution to this is to just keep driving, so we’ve tried that a couple of times.  When he started seeing deer on the side of the road at 3:00 am, that weren’t really there,  and my eyes began to cross, we had to put a stop to that.

We stop at places like Holiday Inn Express and Comfort Inn.  My favorites, of course, are the ones with the breakfast included.  If you have kids, you know what a bargain this is.  Also, a time saver.

The next morning, you always have to have the conversation about how, if you had just kept going, you would already be there.  I don’t know why.  It just is.

Some Things I’ve Learned That May Actually Be of Use to You

1. If you are planning to stop at a hotel along the way, make reservations ahead of time, or pick up a flier at a rest stop.  There are usually good coupons for nearby hotels in the fliers.  If you just pull up out of the blue, you will get gouged.

2. Let there be texting.  Usually I tell my kids to put away their phones in the car.  I like to have conversations in the car, and it bugs me.

Again, I’m getting old. See above.

But when we are on a long trip, peace will be yours if you let them text their friends, or even each other, which I think is weird.

3. Please, please, please do not try to cram your family of 4 or 5 into a hotel room.  If you are road tripping, you will be spending all that time together.  Look into vacation rental homes, condos, or resorts.  This is supposed to be a vacation!

4. Get a big cooler, and pack a ton of food and drinks.  Tweens and teens are always hungry.  Even if they are just eating to pass the time, you can make sure it’s grapes and sandwiches instead of gummy worms and Twinkies.

5. Try to stop at rest stops instead of gas stations. Some are pretty nice, with a  little room to move around and stretch, and you won’t be tempted to buy and eat a giant bag of Reese’s miniatures.

If you stop at a truck stop, your 10 year old son will ask to buy a nudie magazine and an “Edwards for President” pin.  Consider yourself warned.

6. Plan your arrival before check in time.  If you show up at 8:00 pm, you will be living in the unit facing the dumpsters.

7. If you will be in a big city, the cost of parking is criminally high.  If you plan on walking around the city or taking public transportation (which is usually easier than driving around), research a less expensive place to park your car.

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2 Dogs, 3 Cats, and One Big Headache

We have five pets in our house, and I use that term loosely, because they are not thought of, or treated like pets.   The five people in our family treat them like they are babies, and there have been many instances where I’ve wished I were one of them.  Working at home all day has forged a bond that has no business existing between a human being and an animal, but it’s there.  Which is why it is such a big, fat headache when we want to go on a family vacation.

No one I know will babysit my dogs.  They’re young, big, overly energetic dogs and people have no freaking idea what to do with them so I really don’t even bother to ask.  Truth be told, I probably wouldn’t leave them with just anyone anyway, and certainly not someone who would leave them home all day while they are at work, or God forbid, treat them like dogs!    I do realize that I’m the one with the problem in this scenario, but that doesn’t change the fact that we need doggy and kitty care for our “people” while we’re away.

I’ve partly solved this problem by taking them to the doggy spa.  I say partly, because there have been times that the canine accommodations have been more spendy than ours.  And that is a problem, too.  But the fact remains that I just can’t go away and leave them unless I know they are safe and well taken care of.  So for the dogs, I solve one problem by creating another one.

Then there are the kitty cats.  At times  we’ve had the perfect person handy to check in on them and feed them a couple times a day.   I figure, there are three of them.  How lonely can they get?  But, at the moment, we just don’t have that handy person, and I will do anything other than feel like I’m inconveniencing a neighbor, though I would happily do the same for them.

There’s also the fact that we have a cat right now who is over 16 years old.   That’s damn old, and it worries me for obvious reasons.

So the point of all this I guess, is that with each responsibility you have, it makes it harder to get away.   But I would never give up the joy I get from my gaggle of furry beasts.  And I won’t give up traveling either.  Hence, I plan accordingly.

Besides, my daughter will soon be old enough to dump all of the animals on anyway.  We’re just biding our time.

Do you have pets?  How do you handle it when you go out of town?  Let me know in the comments!

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About the author: Debbie Ferm is the founder of Travel Dither.  Subscribe to Travel Dither today!

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