Driving From Iowa W/4 Kiddos

[RunnerMommyof4]

Anyone made the trip to WDW by car? Advice...


We will be driving down with DD, DS and myself but coming home with DH, DD x2 and DS x2. I know on the way down driving through is not an option since I am the only driver. Not sure about on the way home, since DH will be a long for the drive.

Thanks for the help in advance.

Also we are going in June so now fear of snowstorms (hopefully).

 

[leahlefler]

We've driven from Western New York to Florida in the past (to Destin) and it wasn't too horrible. I made several activity bags for the kids (we have 2 boys), stocked with Dollar Tree items. I used `1 gallon ziplock bags and made the bags themed. For example, I had a "dinosaur" themed bag that had a velvet art poster from the dollar tree, a few dinosaur figurines, an invisible ink dinosaur book, a 3-D dinosaur puzzle, and a sticker mosaic. We also had "space," "spy," "earth," and "animal" themed bags. When the activity bags were used up, the gallon ziplock bag made a great trash bag.

We had a DVD player and tablets along for the ride, too. We started our trip in the evening, at around 5 pm. We had originally planned 2 days to drive down and 2 days to drive back, but then decided to leave a little early on a Friday evening to get as far down the road as we could - so we technically took 3 days to get down. I kept a "schedule" of sorts. The first hour or two were without the activity bags/games, then a movie, then another activity bag, then tablet time. This kept them from getting too bored with any one item. Then we stopped for dinner, and they watched a movie. We got about 5 hours down the road that first evening. The second day, we drove 9 hours. They started with a movie, and when it finished, they would get an activity bag to keep them busy for about an hour.

We always tried to stop at a place for lunch that either had a playground or was near a park. Letting them get out and run off some steam did seem to help. They really loved stopping at the hotels along the way to our final destination (we always booked a hotel with a pool).

 

[maxiesmom]

I will admit that I am very much anti-driving straight through. It comes from being in a car where the driver swore they were fine to drive at night--and the drove off of the road. The rumble strips, plus my sister screaming woke me and the driver up.

 

[kelseyjoxo]

We are driving from Indiana in May. We plan to nap/sleep and leave in the middle of the night and drive straight through. We may stop along the way home though. Its 14 hours for us.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Not sure where in IA you're from, but I see 19.5 hours of driving from Cedar Rapids. That's not including meals & breaks (or potential traffic issues) , so probably more like 22+ hours. No way I'd try to tackle that in a day.

Definitely plan your trip to avoid rush hour in STL and ATL. If you can also avoid that in Nashville & Chattanooga, great. But, generally speaking that's not as critical.

Food options aren't well advertised in STL & especially Nashville. By the time you spot it, too late to exit. You're better off eating outside these cities if possible.

Mt Vernon, IL, exit 4 in Paducah, Clarksville, TN, and Chattanooga are all easy places to get good food options. Food options South of ATL are plentiful.

Rest areas in IL have playgrounds. We always spend a little time here.

 

[RunnerMommyof4]

Not sure where in IA you're from, but I see 19.5 hours of driving from Cedar Rapids. That's not including meals & breaks (or potential traffic issues) , so probably more like 22+ hours. No way I'd try to tackle that in a day.

Definitely plan your trip to avoid rush hour in STL and ATL. If you can also avoid that in Nashville & Chattanooga, great. But, generally speaking that's not as critical.

Food options aren't well advertised in STL & especially Nashville. By the time you spot it, too late to exit. You're better off eating outside these cities if possible.

Mt Vernon, IL, exit 4 in Paducah, Clarksville, TN, and Chattanooga are all easy places to get good food options. Food options South of ATL are plentiful.

Rest areas in IL have playgrounds. We always spend a little time here.

Thanks we are 4 hours farther than Cedar Rapids. Yes definitely leaning towards stopping both nights/each way. I'm assuming we will head towards St. Louis that seems to be the easiest/fastest route.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I assume you'll come into STL on I-70. I would take 70 to 270 South, to 255 South, and that will loop you around downtown and plug you straight into I-64 East. Plenty of food options on 70 West of STL, then again along 270. Lots of good food along 64 in IL from exits 12-19. But after that there isn't much until Mt Vernon, then another big gap to Paducah.

 

[PrincessElena]

Good luck, and safe travels. I've never driven more than 3 hours.

 

[MandiC]

Especially for the trip down, being the only adult in the car, I would highly encourage you to not drive through the night. I will not drive long trips at night alone, but I prefer to not drive them at night either way.

 

[Feberin]

We drove from Maryland so not nearly as far. My recommendation is flexibility. We left earlier then planned since I couldn't sleep anyways and on the way down drove a lot further then we expected since the kids fell asleep on the last leg. On the flip side the drive home was rough since we were exhausted and we stopped earlier then we'd expected. I would plan on stopping and have some rough ideas where but don't actually book a hotel or anything ahead of time that way you can stop earlier or later depending on how you're doing with the drive.

 

[theyoungs07]

We drive from the IA/IL border (Davenport area), we've done it three times and will be doing it a fourth in April. Here are a few things I've gathered from our trips:
1. Don't leave the interstate in IL trying to cut straight south through the state...may not apply to you, but I travel with a lot of kids and rest areas and bathrooms that are open 24 hours sure beats gas stations in small towns that are closed
2. Time your trip to go through Atlanta in the late night or very early hours if doing so on a weekday. It gets uglier than any other city in the US during rush hour (5/6am-10am and 3pm-6/7pm). When going through, just go straight through, no bypass. Get in the diamond lane on the left (carpool) and go...it helps you to not go crazy as people weave around...I'm from a small town, you are from Iowa so I can assume a small town .
3. plan on letting kids out to the bathroom with each gas stop...not optional unless maybe sleeping. Stop at a rest area or two so they can have races around a random tree to get them moving.
4. have some idea where you want to get to and have some ideas on hotels you could stay at...you won't fit in some single hotel rooms so pulling up to a lonely exit at 2am with one or two hotels that don't have accommodations for your family really is no fun...we've done it.
5. If you have a smartphone, download and use iExit, you can search upcoming exits for points of interest like restaraunts and gas stations, it even tells you how far from the interstate each thing is...I hate nothing more than to see a restaurant on the sign, exit for it and then find it is 3 miles from the interstate through construction (done that before as well, wasted almost an hour to get to a freakin Burger King).
6. Electronics for the kids (for your sanity)
7. Goodie bags. We get cheap toys (sometimes a new video game/movie) and non-messy treats (airheads, tootsie rolls) and put them in paper bags that we label. Every hour or two (or when we just need it) we announce that it's time for a goodie bag!

More for the larger family stuff at http://www.disboards.com/threads/large-family-tips-and-discussion.3138060/

 

[RunnerMommyof4]

We drive from the IA/IL border (Davenport area), we've done it three times and will be doing it a fourth in April. Here are a few things I've gathered from our trips:
1. Don't leave the interstate in IL trying to cut straight south through the state...may not apply to you, but I travel with a lot of kids and rest areas and bathrooms that are open 24 hours sure beats gas stations in small towns that are closed
2. Time your trip to go through Atlanta in the late night or very early hours if doing so on a weekday. It gets uglier than any other city in the US during rush hour (5/6am-10am and 3pm-6/7pm). When going through, just go straight through, no bypass. Get in the diamond lane on the left (carpool) and go...it helps you to not go crazy as people weave around...I'm from a small town, you are from Iowa so I can assume a small town .
3. plan on letting kids out to the bathroom with each gas stop...not optional unless maybe sleeping. Stop at a rest area or two so they can have races around a random tree to get them moving.
4. have some idea where you want to get to and have some ideas on hotels you could stay at...you won't fit in some single hotel rooms so pulling up to a lonely exit at 2am with one or two hotels that don't have accommodations for your family really is no fun...we've done it.
5. If you have a smartphone, download and use iExit, you can search upcoming exits for points of interest like restaraunts and gas stations, it even tells you how far from the interstate each thing is...I hate nothing more than to see a restaurant on the sign, exit for it and then find it is 3 miles from the interstate through construction (done that before as well, wasted almost an hour to get to a freakin Burger King).
6. Electronics for the kids (for your sanity)
7. Goodie bags. We get cheap toys (sometimes a new video game/movie) and non-messy treats (airheads, tootsie rolls) and put them in paper bags that we label. Every hour or two (or when we just need it) we announce that it's time for a goodie bag!

More for the larger family stuff at http://www.disboards.com/threads/large-family-tips-and-discussion.3138060/

Thank you! Yes I now live in a small town but I grew up (recently) driving in California on the 405 & 91. I have driven through Atlanta once and umm...I'll for sure be passing through late or very early. Thanks for all the great ideas It helps!!!