Road Trip Report

We took our first long road trip with two kids this weekend. We went to Manassas, VA, to see my cousin and her daughter, who is only about two months older than S. It takes about 4 1/2 hours to drive it with no breaks. Naturally we took breaks.

Things that worked about the trip:

• Kids' CDs. S. loves the Best of Elmo (she calls it "Elmo Songs") and also enjoys Toddler Tunes and Burl Ives sings (she calls this "Animal Songs"). The only problem is that is our whole list of CDs, and when the CD would start over she'd yell NOOOO and demand a different CD. I've just put in a new order to Amazon, for Sesame Street Kids Favorite Songs, Sesame Street Kids Favorite Songs 2, and the Mary Poppins soundtrack. It was kind of a binge, but I think it will pay off in summer beach trips.

• Books. I didn't really think I'd be able to read in the car, but I did a lot of holding the book up and reading it anyway.

• Computer backup. Even though I'd just been reading all the comments on Blogging Baby that seemed to imply that using DVDs on a car trip would rot my kids' brains on the spot, I brought my DVD playing laptop and our very fine collection of Scholastic DVDs so I could be secure in the knowledge that if things really got bad I had my own personal zombifying device available. We didn't use it, though.

• Our Lands' End beach blanket with built in pouch. We carry this thing in the car all the time. It is so nice at rest stops, where we can put it down and have a place for the baby to roll around and not pick up a cigarette butt. I can lie down and nurse, and we have a big ole changing area. It is very high on my "baby tools I wouldn't have thought of" list.

• Only going to one destination, and making everyone else come to us. We have lots of friends and relatives in the DC area, and it is tempting to try to see everyone. My husband's brother lives in Silver Spring, MD, and on our last trip we drove there with S. It was miserable. The DC traffic never ends. In addition, my brother-in-law and his wife like to keep their kids very heavily scheduled, so we wound up driving around the greater Silver Spring area as we followed them from Russian class to Taco Bell to home back to some pageant at the kids' school. S. never got to run around and she wound up in the car for more than 3 hours and she was very unhappy. This time we had my aunt and uncle come to us (from West Virginia) on Saturday and had my brother-in-law and his family drive down from Silver Spring on Sunday. It wasn't the shortest drive for them, but it made things much easier.
  

Things that didn't work about the trip:

• Fast Food. I'm not anti-fast food, I'm one of the 1-in-8 Americans who has worked at McDonald's and it was a fine experience. But on the way up we stopped at a rest stop, then as we approached Manassas we realized that we were starving. So we stopped at the most miserable Burger King in the history of the universe, where the wait was interminable and they did not give us all our food and both kids melted down while were in line. Then we ate it, and things got worse. I kept thinking of the salt lick we had for the goats when I was a kid. It was a large brown brick of solid salt. I felt like I'd eaten that salt lick. On the way back we stopped at McDonald's for play as it was raining, and S. and L. had a good time, but I again felt like I'd eaten a salt lick. A smaller salt lick, not quite full brick size, but salty just the same. Has it always been that salty? Maybe I've been eating less salt, or it just is hitting me more these days. Next time we have got to pack some grown-up food as well as the kid food.

• Trying to fit my tush between the two car seats. When it got hard to entertain the kids (especially L.) I crawled on back there and tried to fit between the seats while the seatbelt holder ground into my hip. Meanwhile my husband seemed to have confused the Richmond-Petersburg section of highway with the Indy Motor Speedway, so we went whizzing between lanes as I gained additional bruises. I look forward to having both kids forward-facing so entertainment is easier.
  

All-in-all, though, it was a good trip. It was wonderful to see S. playing with her second cousin M. They were so cute together. They had whole conversations, which I didn't expect. The cutest moment was when they got their Easter baskets and my cousin said "say 'Thank you Easter Bunny'" and M. said "Thank you Easter Bunny" and S. picked up a stuffed bunny from the basket and said "You're welcome."