Texas to Tennessee road trip- with a toddler? Trip from hell?
 

Hello everyone. Husband and I considering taking our son who will be about 22 months old to visit his great grandmother in Tennessee. We plan to drive so we can stop when our little boy needs to get out and stretch or if he has just had it in the car seat. We plan to take our time and have no issues with taking 3 days to get to the Tri-Cities area. Driving time is about 16 hours. For those who have traveled with little ones will we have our sanity on this trip or will it sour us to future road trips?

We talked about flying but we are looking at expense and also the fact that if our little one gets fussy which toddlers undoubtedly do everyone will be unhappy!

tulips.. I think it will be fine! If your child has toys/videos to occupy his time, you will be ok.

If you do not have a portable video for car...you might consider buying one. I don't think they cost that much. My two granddaughters travel very well with these and the headphones keep mom/dad from having to suffer endless playings of Nemo. :) You can buy one that straps onto the back of a front seat.

If you take frequent breaks (every few hours), I think you and son will be fine.

I took my kids on many road trips when younger and they were all memorable. :)

I don't know anything about Texas or Tennessee -- but I do know about traveling with toddlers! Flying isn't so bad. We've flown cross country and transatlantic repeatedly with ours. I do understand that it can be cost prohibitive and I can't in good consceince recommending holding your little one on you lap. Either way -- it's the same principle -- preparation. Food, toys, naps, etc.
Taking 3 days for 16 hours of driving would drive me crazy! Even with breaks I don't know if you could get your child back in the car by the 3rd day. My best advice would be a portable DVD player and some dvds. Even if you're not into letting your child watch t.v. the Baby Einsteins dvds and the Little Einsteins series are the best of the bunch. They have saved us on many trips. Good luck! The trip may be difficult but if you put stuff like this off your child will never get used to it and there will never be a good time to go.

Sarge -- read my mind! I don't know how our parents took us anywhere without dvd players! Then again, I haven't had to threaten to turn the car around and go home either!

Thanks guys. We don't have a portable DVD player but I would definitely consider one if it would occupy our little one and keep him from having a meltdown. I guess our biggest concern is when we stop in hotels and then get to our destination will he have slept adequately. Our son sleeps best in his own crib and everytime we visit the grandparents he doesn't sleep good in his Pack and Play and he tosses and turns if I put him in bed with me. You know he may do better than we think it is just hard to tell.

We are willing to take our time because we would like to stop in Memphis for one night and take our little to the zoo and my husband wants to visit the Gibson Guitar Factory. But, I know that 3 days on the road could potentially be a bad thing. More considerations...

I'm sure great grandmother will be thrilled w/ your trip!

Three days is a LONG time in the car for a little one. I suggest on one of the days (maybe the first one) that you don't start driving until a few hours before bedtime. That way you can get a few more hours down the road, and he can sleep through some of it.

My kids don't sleep well in pack and plays either. When I put a small blanket or throw underneath the mattress, they sleep a little better.

Portable DVD players are the BEST thing in the world.

Also, there is a poster on this board (although I haven't seen him in a while) by the name of photodad (I think). He has a good blog that is full of ideas for traveling w/ kids.

Oops, here is the link

http://familyroadtrippers.blogspot.com/

Mea culpa. I said "video player" when I should have said "DVD". (that's my "old" brain working!)

The cool thing is that those can also be used on the plane. We just took a trip from DFW to Chicago. The plane ride is 2-1/2 hrs. We put both 3-yr-olds into the middle seat (great fit!), put the portable DVD on the tray table, plugged it in on the floor (most airplanes have power outlets on floor every two rows) and gave each girl one of the earplugs. They watched DVD's for the whole trip and were fine! :)

Don't forget, you can break up the trip with an hour at a McDonald's playland and your son will think he's been on his own vacation. :) Kids that age have poor understanding of elapsed time. (Hence, the "are we there yet" syndrome!)haha

I don't know where you're starting from in TX, but the point about starting your trip in early evening is a good one. My daughter and her hubby always try to do that when driving from Dallas to Houston, so that the kids are zonked in the car after an hour. :)

If little one gets terribly fussy, one of you could ride in back with him for bit and "play games", share a snack, etc.

Paula

PS I also find my grandbabies sleep better in the pack and play if I "pad" it a bit with a fleece blanket (flattens well) or some flannel sheets (also flatten well). This makes it feel more like a crib matress, I suspsect. :)

I know it's a bit off topic, but this thread made me think about the vacation driving trips I did with my family in the 1960's. We lived about 1200 miles from my grandmother and we couldn't afford to pay for hotel rooms for a family of 7. So, my parents switched off driving for the 24-hour trip and we stopped only for gas and sodas. (Picnic breakfast, lunch and dinner in the car.) Of course, there were no DVD players to entertain us, so we 5 kids entertained ourselves and enjoyed reading comic books (a treat reserved for this trip) and playing Auto-Bingo. This is probably the number one favorite memory of me and every one of my siblings.
Back to your question--Yes, I have driven from Texas to Tennessee with a small child. My child was less than a year old at the time. She did get a bit antsy in her car seat, but I would get in the back with her and play with her or sing to her and we did fine. We made the trip in much less than 3 days, so if you give yourself that much time and schedule regular rest stops, you should be fine!
P.S. Don't rely on the DVDs too much. Spend some time talking with your child, making up stories, telling jokes, etc. It can be a great time to spend time together with relatively few distractions.

Some thoughts. If he does not sleep well on the road at night he will sleep in the car - not necessarily a bad thing.

If he gets cranked up in the car one of you could spend some time in the back seat reading books, etc. He will be thrilled with the extended one-on-one attention.

I advise against driving at night - while kid will sleep in car seat, parents end up exhausted. Instead in you are a morning person, put him to sleep at night in sweats. Get up at 5 AM, rolling him from crib/bed to car seat. Don't stimulate him too much and he will likely sleep a few more hours in the car. Stop for breakfast - you have just checked off over a hundred painless miles without even realizing it.

Or if you are an evening person, get up later. Stop for a relatively early dinner and change kid into pjs or sweats. He will sleep for a few hours in car seat after dinner.

Bring little toys/treats, wrapped, for the trip. Even a juice box, a few crackers, etc are a mood lifter if they are wrapped and a surprise. Save some for the trip home.

I think you could do this in 2 8-hour days if you do 2-3 hours as described above while he is asleep. Plan an extended mid-day break with running around time. He likely will still be taking an afternoon nap at this age, so you could even get a few more hours of drive time while he is asleep.

I just saved the blogspot mentioned by jcb to favorites, it looks really good. I would say when it comes to trips we are more morning people than evening people. So we would probably be better off leaving around 6:00 or 7:00 since our little one usually sleeps in until 8 or so. And my husband and I can switch off sitting in back with him, which we have been known to do even during short trips when he is fussy or hungry. Well, you guys give me hope that maybe this might not be so bad after all!

Here is a plan. Day One. Load car the night before. Make sure you have done everything prior to departure day (lights on timers, lock doors, etc.). Drag yourself out of bed at 5:30 - hit the road by 5:35. Kid will hopefully sleep until 7:30 or even 8:00. (2 hours down).

Stop for breakfast. Back to car - bring out a new toy. That should last about an hour. One parent to back for another 1 1/2 hours. (another 2 1/2 hours down - only 4 more to go for the day).

Stop for lunch, playground, treadmill, marathon run - anything to tire him out. Back to car. Naps for 1 1/2 hours.

Bring out the DVD player that he has never seen before (resist urge to show it to him before trip). Watch videos for 2 hours, with parental contact. (Total of 8 hours down).

Try to make the first day driving a little longer than 2nd as the novelty will wear off on day 2 and it gets a little tougher. If all else fails, put child in car seat on roof rack (only kidding about that one).

You will be fine, and it will be a trip to remember. You have to start kids off early traveling, or they never really get it. With three days you can stop and smell the roses -- toddler style. Take lots of photos!

My husband have talked about this trip for a while and I think we are going to do it. My grandmother is not getting any younger and I know she would love for her great grandson to come for a visit.

We are thinking about doing this trip in mid-late March 2008. I think we will try to leave really early in the morning- 4 or 5 am so we can try to make some mileage while the little one sleeps.

Our thoughts were to visit Memphis on the way back for a couple of nights so we can hopefully visit the Memphis Zoo and husband can go to Gibson Guitar Factory. Do you guys think weather would be agreeable in Memphis in late March?What about Spring Break crowds? I'm not sure if Memphis is a place that families or even college kids go to.

My grandmother is in Tri-Cities TN. I know the weather could be hit or miss, but hopefully our son can have some outdoor time. Any child friendly places in Johnson City, or Bristol? I saw a children's museum in Johnson City that might be neat. We will probably stay in Tri-Cities for 5 or 6 nights so we want to stay in the immediate area.

If anyone has comments let me know. Thanks.

Ilovetulips, all the spring breakers will be down in Florida in late March so I wouldn't worry about that. The weather should be pleasant--think light windbreakers and sweatshirts unless there's a cold snap.

My two children, who are now 18 and 20 years old, grew up taking road trips from the time they were eight months old. They were both born in Atlanta but I grew up in New Hampshire. Every Christmas (without fail) we'd make the 22 hour drive up to New England. With two cats. The kids were never a problem. The cats? Whole 'nuther story! Sometimes we drove straight through but mostly we stopped overnight. We'd get out of the car and stretch our legs every two hours. We pretty much took our cue from the kids. If they wanted to run around at the rest station for half an hour, we let them, knowing they'd be tired and sleep in the car afterwards. Maybe we were extraordinarily lucky with our two, but until they both went off to college, they continued taking trips with us and did so with positive attitudes. They both love good road trips.

Count water towers--or "some thing". Books. I'll bet you'll find he will nod off some. Children's music tapes--some that don't send you up the wall.
Children's books on tape.
Do it in a long day and a shorter day. But you will have to stop and eat, potty or change diaper, etc.