Road Trip Details
If you have been following online on instagram you know I recently drove from Muskoka to Nashville and back again with our three young kiddos . . . ALONE. Now this definitely did sound crazy to most people and I actually got a lot of hate from strangers on the internet (and some not strangers lol) for doing it. But I have to say it was actually an amazing adventure and I do not say this lightly but my children were PERFECT on the drive. Like I am still in shock tbh. I will do another post on the actual trip itself but I think it is imperative we discuss the road trip itself first. I highly recommend if you are able to, doesn’t have to be alone, to go on a road trip adventure with your kids. Core memories were made for all of us.
Now, first of all, driving 14 + hours with your kids alone is no joke no matter how great they are but being prepared is the only key to success. I am going to give you the step by step of how I prepared and executed this drive (whether you like it or not).
I started packing and prepping for the trip a few weeks out. In case you couldn’t tell I am a very type A person so being prepared is essentially my version of fun. We were going for a week (ish) and I didn’t want to overpack but I didn’t want to under pack either. Anticipating what everyone was going to need not only once we were there but for the drive itself was an important piece of the success puzzle. I definitely spent some time googling but I didn’t find much that was that helpful. I think you know your own kids best and what they like so sticking to that. Your mom intuition is always important. I made sure that I packed so everything was easily accessible to everyone. Our car is three rows so the two littles were in the middle and Beau was in the back alone. That might sound sad but he is such an easy kid so I knew he would go with it. For Beau we had his Nintendo switch fired up and basically that was all he cared about the entire way. I also made sure he had his own package of goodies fully accessible to him so I did not have to waste any time stopping to get him basic necessities. Beau had his water bottle, snacks, colouring books and window markers all at his finger tips. Watty and Scottie were close enough to me that I could hand back Scottie’s bottle, for example, or soother if she ever got upset. Watson did have his own pouch of goodies as well, which he loved. Our kid Ipad wasn’t working and I only found this out the day before leaving so I fired up an old Iphone for him. I downloaded a bunch of his favourite things on Netflix so he could access everything he wanted without the internet on the way. Genius, I know.
The drive itself was actually way easier than I expect for myself. I put on a bunch of reality TV podcasts and time really went quite quickly. On the way down we stopped around Columbus. I pre-selected a hotel and destination that was 8 hours away because I figured even if it was a terrible drive we could definitely make it the 8 hours. I also wanted to make sure I was in a safe area and didn’t want to risk trying to find a hotel on a whim. We definitely could have gone farther that day but it was almost nice to stop so early and have some fun. All part of the road trip experience. Our stops on day one included really fast gas stops, a few coffee runs, and then our big stop was at lunch were we hit up a Cracker Barrel. Again the kids did so great so my expectation that this first day would take us 12 hours only took us 9 and that was including the big lunch stop. Pretty darn good!
For the hotel I made sure we had everything we’d need accessible and ready to go. I brought in the stroller so I could load the baby in and all the other stuff, keeping me free to deal with the boys at the same time. We had one overnight bag, our pack & play (with sheets from home because Scottie won’t sleep in any other one; diva), our sound machine and that was it. I picked a hotel that had a great breakfast in the morning so we could make the most of it and save some time the next day. I also got gas the night before so were ready to rock.
On our second day of travel I was expecting meltdowns but again, to my surprise, everyone was so good. We only had to do 6 hours the second day and it really went by quickly. We left before 8AM from the hotel and because of the time zone change (just an hour behind on mountain time, which is truly the best time zone IMO), we were there by 1:30pm. Again, I was shocked by how well my children behaved and I don’t know if I just got lucky but it was really so fun. We threw in a few games of eye spy, which everyone was absolutely terrible at, and had some great sing-alongs and chats too. For me going on a trip like this, despite the long drive, really was something special.
So many people messaged me to say how they wouldn’t ever attempt it, but “good for you” kinda thing. I just want to say, if you want to do something with your kids, DO IT. You know what you can handle and you know what they can handle. Follow their lead and just make it happen. It is so worth the memories and magic you make with them.
On the way home from any trip I always feel like I am less prepared and more chaotic regardless of the journey but I knew for my own sake I had to keep it together for this one. Thankfully everyone was excited for home because they missed Dad and the dogs so it was still an “exciting” venture back. I loaded up everything the same way for the adventure back. Everyone had their activities and electronics however I made the decision the day before we were leaving that I was going to try and make it all the one home in one shot. After the success of the drive down I just figured why not? Was a bold move but it paid off . There is something about being in your own bed on the day of a long trip and I just knew it was going to be best if we got home quicker. Door to door we were just under 16 hours. Everyone did amazing and I am happy to report I am 100% going to plan something like this again with them. Hopefully we will have our Dad come along but I feel totally comfortable doing these things alone now. Do not get me wrong, the night before we left I was starting to question my sanity and I did get a little freaked out. I knew I could do it but I did fear that it could be a very miserable driving experience. Thankfully it was not but I see how this could be nerve racking for any parent venturing out solo.
Now I need to know, would you do this ? Would you load up your kids and go on a long road trip . . . alone?? I highly recommend and this trip was a 12/10 on the memory making scale. Go tell me your thoughts on the gram.
Part two on what to do in the Nashville area coming soon!
xo