Question about 17 hour drive?

[ski_mom]

We will be driving from just north of St. Louis in June. There will be 7 of us (me, DH, DD7, DD6, DS 22 months, my mom and dad). We are unsure if we should drive straight through or stay overnight along the way.

If we drove straight through we could either leave Thursday pm or early friday morning. I think it should be about a 17 hour trip (according to mapquest). So, with 4 drivers the time driving shouldn't be a problem, I just afraid of how the kids would handle it.

I was just wondering if anyone has done this and the results?

Thanks for any opinions!
Becky

 

[HaleyB]

I would say that the 22 month old will be your limiting factor. If the baby can take it then you should be fine. We drove cross country with an 18 month old and he did fine. But he was already used to long road trips and we always made sure to drive as much as possible while he was asleep. Just make sure you have a plan 'B' in case you hit the wall. 17 hours is a very long drive. As an adult I have done 24 hour straight through, two drivers, but we have never pushed more than 12 hours in a day with kids.

 

[NotUrsula]

Stay overnight, preferably somewhere with an indoor pool, so the kids can work off the energy from all the sleeping in the car. Swimming is the magic bullet; it exhausts kids, but just relaxes adults.

The problem with long road trips with kids is that the kids end up sleeping a lot on the road, but the adults don't. The result is that when you arrive, the adults are totally wiped out, but the children are hyper beyond belief.

Also, if the plan is to drive overnight, keep in mind that studies have shown that long stretches of night driving begin to be exponentially more hazardous once a driver is over 40 years old. One gov't study I read noted that a 60 yo needs 10X the light a 20 yo does to see the same object at night, and someone who is 55 will take 8X longer to adjust to getting a flash of glare in the eyes than a 16 yo. What that adds up to is that the older you are, the more quickly you become exhausted by night driving. I'm 42, and just wear regular glasses, not bifocals; I do start to feel the eyestrain much sooner these days.

 

[crzy4dsny]

I drove with a 5,4, and 2 year old. Much to my surprise they were excellent! I thought I was in for the ride of my life but it was very nice. It took 18 hours straight thru. Our van has a tv-vcp in it which helped alot. They watched tapes of their favorite shows most of the time.

I'm doing it again next month. This time we are going to stop over night so we can arrive at the resort early in the morning instead of late evening.

 

[Nebsky]

We just got back from our Disney VC.
We drove 17 hours total eachway and overnighted....

We left Dallas at 4am on 3/13 and were in Lake City FL (where I10 and I75 cross) at 7:30pmish. We averaged about 80mph on the 70mph areas..No doubt we could have gone the full distance on the first day.

On the way home we left the park after a FULL day. We left at 7pm and made it to Eglin AFB area at 1230. That is about 1 hr east of Pensacola. We were planning on trying to go all the way, but changed our minds. Good thing.

We lucked out and got a room at the Ramada Limited for $57.

Dont try and push it. Its just not worth it. If you do decide to do it, do it on the way there. Not after spending a full day at the park..

BTW, in car video systems are the greatest things since sliced bread!!!