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ROAD TRIP!

© Lain Ehmann

Okay, so I've been writing about family travel for, oh, a couple of years now. I've told parents how to fly with kids, how to pack for kids, how to survive a hotel room with kids. But despite my varied experiences in the field of traveling with children, there was one event that I had steered clear from undertaking myself: The Long Drive.

My kids spend a lot of time in the car - commuting time. We're always jetting off here, heading out there, traveling crosstown from Point A to Point B. We've taken many day trips - two hours or less in the car each way - and they deal with all that pretty well. But what we had never attempted was a multi-day trip where the main mode of transportation was automobile.

That is, until this summer.

During August we were staying in Northern California for an extended stretch of time, and we had the opportunity to head in two opposite directions: North to Lake Tahoe, and south to Ananheim for a trip to Disneyland and Disneyland's California Adventure theme park. It all sounded great, in theory, but the idea of taking not one but TWO major road trips had me quaking in my bucket seat. Would the kids self-destruct? Would I self-destruct? Would the car self-destruct? Despite the reservations we decided to give it a shot. If nothing else, it would make great material for my column!

Things started out a bit rough when the drive to Tahoe - which I remember as being about three or four hours long from my youth - took almost six hours. It seems that traffic is quite a bit worse than it was in my childhood, plus I think time behind the wheel seems a lot longer than time spent in the backseat, sleeping, eating and playing.

Because we hadn't anticipated a long drive, I hadn't packed a "bag of tricks" to keep the kids occupied. I'd only brought along a couple of juice boxes and a bottle of water, anticipating that we'd stop once for dinner at In-n-Out Burger http://www.in-n-out.com/ (about $15 for dinner for four) and that would be it.

My lack of preparation meant that we ended up stopping many more times, including a foray into Safeway where I picked up Wheat Thins, Cheese-Its, more juice boxes, and some Fig Newtons to last us until we arrived at our hotel, the Resort at Squaw Creek http://www.squawcreek.com/tahoe/SITE/top... (a four-star resort whose rack rates range from $300 to $350 per night for a standard king room; promotions are available). The kids got a lot less fussy once their mouths were busy, and we made the final 100 miles of the drive in relative peace.

The copyright of the article ROAD TRIP! in Family Travel is owned by Dr. Tami Brady. Permission to republish ROAD TRIP! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.