Flying & Driving....

[Tiffany_MommyOf3]

but not to Disney..

Our family + my mom & gandma are going to Pitkin, LA for a very spur of the moment family reunion.

Going are

Grandma - age almost 80 with dementia and extreme ADD lol

Mom - age 53 - deathly afraid of flying post 9/11 (she was on a plane that day)

Hubby - age 27 - go with the flow kinda guy

Me - age 22 - loves flying or riding



The kids are

Raymond - 5

Arianna - 3

Alexander - 2

Nathaniel - will be about 8 months



Anyways, if Grandma were to ride in a car for over 13 hours (the minimum travel time if stopping twice for the kids to get out and run and play in a playplace, eat whatever) we would all kill her LOLOL - She would drive us absolutely INSANE! Driving 30 minutes across town is a horrible experience with this woman.

So, since mom won't get on a plane, we were thinking about me, grandma and Nate flying (I'm not afraid of planes and I worry about Nate in a carseat that long). The big kids can stop at a playplace and run around but Nate can't get on the floor and crawl in a ChikFilA LOLOL..

Sooo, does that sound like the best solution?

Also, I need ideas on car games/fun stuff kids ages 5, 3, and 2 can do!


My kids have been in a car 3 hrs to Disney and back a thousand times but this is no 3 hours - this is 13 hr drive - maybe longer?

 

[jtopp]

Can you drive at night, when they would normally be sleeping? Or in the evening, so that they would eventually go to sleep? If not, a dvd player is a gift from God to parents on long trips, as a dvd will occupy the children for a surprising amount of time in the car.

 

[Tiffany_MommyOf3]

We def. love our DVD players in the car but I wonder how many movies they can watch in 1 day LOLOL. We are HOPING that mom and hubby will get on the road early early morning (like 2 am) and that way they kids can sleep for a while. I'm afraid if they drive all night long, one of them may fall asleep at the wheel. My hubby is pretty good driving at night. My mom not so much. So he could drive from 2 until daylight and then mom could drive while he sleeps and then switch off as necessary.

 

[mncherokee]

You will definitely need to stop more than 2x with those kids... yikes!

We went from MN - Orlando this year (approx 25 hours without stopping)... we stopped every few hours... but my 2 year old was DONE being in the car after 13 hours of travel and let us know it!

We figured 2 days at around 12 hours each... easy to do, right? however, in reality it looked more like this:

Day 1 with stops - left home 5:00 AM CT arrived Nashville 10:30 PM CT
Day 2 with stops - left hotel around 6:00 AM CT arrived Orlando around 9:30 PM ET.

You may want the drivers to consider doing it in 2 days and stop at a hotel 1/2 way. I can't imagine more than one toddler/preschool aged kid in the car!

 

[Tiffany_MommyOf3]

Thanks for the experienced perspective. I'm thinking that may be our best bet. They may end up just driving until they have to stop and finding the nearest cleanest hotel they can LOL

Thanks!

 

[mncherokee]

Look at several options for possible stopping points and check out TripAdvisor for hotel ratings... we pre-booked hotels along the way (that's why we pushed all the way to Nashville that 1st night)... then you can find the best of the cheaper hotels. You wouldn't have to book ahead of time, but you would know what you are getting into.

Hope it helps!