When you have a few kids and you travel often on the road, you can’t stop every hour to eat, use the restroom, etc. You would be broke and a 3-4 hour trip would take 6-7 hours. Believe me, we started our RV journey not really being prepared on travel days. I remember our first road trip from Austin to Galveston. A trip that was supposed to be 4ish hours took 8 hours! YIKES! Hopefully, what we changed and now do when we go on road trips can help you as well.
Food
For meals, we put together an ice chest for cold drinks and food. Sometimes we make sandwiches and sometimes we just throw in lunch meat, cheese and have some crackers for a homemade lunchable, We make sure to pack plenty of drink options for us. The kids really only drink water and milk, so they have water in the car (no way in heck will I let them drink milk in the car – been there, done that, never again). We also pack a gallon ziplock bag for each kid with non-refrigerated snacks. My kids will not stop eating unless you make them, so to ration our food, they get what is in the bag for snacking on the road and when they are out, they are out. We pack things like fruit, crackers, goldfish and usually a little treat. We also do one for ourselves. These ideas should help save you from tantrums and spending $50 for every meal on the road.
Bathroom Breaks/ Rest Breaks
We usually time out our breaks around a meal and it is usually lunch time. When we stop, we let the kids stretch their legs outside, we get our lunches out of the cooler, change diapers (for kids who are still in them), and use the bathroom (usually in the RV). Using the bathroom in the RV is a HUGE time saver for us. When we all go into a gas station to use the restroom it adds at least 30 minutes to our trip. If we go in the RV, it adds 10 minutes. We also let the dog go to the bathroom and top off with gas. We try to stop every 2 hours and maybe try to push 3 hours if we can. If we need to use the bathroom, we stop wherever it is safe and go in the RV potty. Seriously saves so much time.
Entertainment
My kids have their own Amazon pads. They are pretty inexpensive and they can download games, movies on Netflix, etc. so they don’t need wifi. This is the majority of their entertainment on the road. Lawsyn enjoys looking at books and coloring, so we pack some coloring books, pencils and books for her. The boys help us pass things to the third row if we have someone back there. Knoxton also brings books to read and Brixton sometimes brings some circuits that he builds. Usually Lawsyn and Brixton will take a nap at some point during the trip. For us, Zach has a bluetooth Bose speaker that we listen to audiobooks on or music. But most of the time we just talk.
I hope this was helpful for you! What are some tips you have for road tripping? How do you keep your kids entertained or cut back on food costs while on the road?
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XO,
The Fabulous Life of an RV Wife
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