Ladies, you are the BEST - thank you for coming through for me with such awesome advice!
2 coolers helped us...one we opened a lot with drinks and one to keep food cold. <snip>
Kimberly, these are fantastic tips - thank you so much! I'm definitely planning on bringing two coolers, and I love that we can pack in open crates and totes. So much easier than flying!
Kimberly has a lot of great tips - the only one I would add is to be sure you have your phone charger(s) handy - we ran out of battery as we traveled.
Jill, with your advice in mind, I actually purchased two console/cupholder extenders with an opening on the bottom so you can feed in a phone charger. It'll keep it all nice and organized and right at our fingertips!
We had a VRBO booked in a few towns along the way, which in retrospect, I would not recommend - obviously, we HAD to stay where we'd booked, but it would have been less hassle and less stressful to just have stopped when we felt like it.
Yeah, this is something I've been wrestling with - whether to pre-book hotel rooms for our overnights or just grab something whenever we decide we're ready to stop. The one time I tried that, though, we wound up sleeping in our car in a Walmart parking lot because all the hotels for 50 miles were fully booked - some kind of convention - and we were stuck. Not the worst thing in the world, car camping, but not the most comfortable night of sleep either.
How fun! My only advice is to make sure you have clear expectations for each person when the other is driving. Our biggest fight on our epic road trip was that I wanted to listen to audiobooks on my headphones while Joel was driving, but he wanted me to be available 24/7 when he wanted to say something to me.
Kellie, I couldn't stop laughing when I read this, because I'VE BEEN THERE. Not with my husband, but with my best friend when we did our first road trip together. She got more than a little frustrated with me when I slept almost the entire time I wasn't the one driving. She expected I'd be awake and talking with her to keep her alert - LOL!
I love road trips! It's really the only type of vacations my husband and I have had together but I really do love them
I wish I could do more.
Road trips were the only vacations my family ever went on when I was a child. Lots of drives up and down I-95 from Virginia to upstate New York or Virginia to Miami to visit family on alternating summers. If this trip goes well, I expect my husband and I will do more in the coming years. Since he works remotely, we can travel on weekends and let him work during the week, requiring fewer vacation days for trips!
My son and I did a road trip a few years back, just the two of us and he was young. The thing that helped me the most was we found podcasts to listen to together. The time flew by listening and gave us stuff to discuss.
We always pick out audio books that we would both like to listen to and then we have the fun of sharing a good read on our way!
I'm hoping I can convince my husband to listen to an audiobook with me along the way. He's a political junkie and we've listened to numerous political podcasts on long drives, but I'd rather listen to something entertaining rather than something that will get him frustrated and angry...
My tip: don't buy a new water bottle that won't fit in your cup holder! (I just ordered a cup holder expander last night!)
Oh no!!! I'm definitely going to test my tumblers and water bottles to make sure they fit.
The only thing I have to add is make sure to discuss ahead of time if it's a 'Get there as fast as you can' kind of road trip, or a meandering 'enjoy the ride' trip, where little unexpected stops in small towns along the way adds to the trip. Hubby always wants to go-go-go and get there as fast as possible, I like to stop in the little towns and see what's there lol
Trina, your advice is super timely as my husband and I just had that very conversation! We compromised: I've agreed we can do the "get there as fast as you can" thing on the way home (trying to do it in 2 segments of 14 hour days with us spelling each other every few hours behind the wheel) and he's agreed we can break up the drive there into 4 days so we can stop and see stuff along the way.
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Ladies, you are AWESOME! Thank you for sharing your advice with me. I'm getting super excited about our trip!
