So plane tickets were TOO expensive this summer, and we got a killer deal on a 10-day minivan rental ($455) so we decided to throw all sanity to the wind and drive 20 hours across the country with the three boys. Turns out, all of the boys travel better than I do (more on that later).
We got a killer rental through Costco. For anyone that has the option, it is great because you can make your reservation with no money down, and then cancel and re-book any time you find a better deal. 
So I re-booked twice and ended up with a steal of a deal. We ended up with a 2017 Chrysler Pacifica. I don’t know what trim level it is, but it has a built in DVD player, stow and go seats, separate climate control for driver, front passenger, and rear passengers, all of the USB and charging plugs/ports you could ever desire, and quite a bit more room to spread out than either of our daily drivers. My only wish after 20 hours is that there were built-in headphone jacks for the DVD player. In comparison, Jason’s 2004 Honda Pilot is definitely the larger of our two vehicles, but it’s getting to the age and mileage that we are less trusting of driving it cross-country at 85mph so the rental gave us some piece of mind. The rental also dampens road noise reasonably well. It turns out this can be pretty important when you’re moving at 85mph.
So how did the travel go? GREAT! I took everyone’s advice and packed more toys/games/DVDs/snacks than we could ever possibly need. Between their Kindles and the built in DVD player the bigger boys stayed pretty occupied. They also spent time playing Legos in two cake pans I had brought along, William drew for a little while, they played for quite awhile with some kid meal toys from Chick-Fil-A, and puttered with various other toys I had packed. I was most concerned about Andrew’s travel ability, but he alternated snacking, napping, and playing with toys in his car seat. Only once did Jason need to move to the middle row to sit by him so he could have a “friend”. He babbled a ton and seemed to like listening to music. I think it was also helpful that he knew all of the rest of us were in the car with him.
We made use of strategic stops along the way. The rental had a range of about 450miles/tank of gas which was way further than we dared to stay in the car at a time. We pulled out of our driveway at
7:20am Sunday morning and after realizing we REALLY needed to clean the inside of the windshield we pulled out of the driveway again at 7:30am. 🙂 Upon entering Wyoming Jason got so excited he threw a cup full of Lucky Charms all over the vehicle. (Woo Wyoming!! Or he’s just clumsy). We cruised up the road making our first gas and leg stretch break in Rock Springs, WY. The boys ran several laps around the convenience store before we loaded back up and trucked to Rawlins, WY (Noon) for another stretch/bathroom break and to switch drivers. This is where things started to go badly for me. Jason started to drive and I decided I should eat something. Suddenly it was like all of the motion of the morning caught me at once and was insanely motion sick. By the time we got to Sidney, NE (2pm) I had already developed a 
plan that if I were to throw up in the vehicle, the tortilla chip bag within arms reach would be sacrificed. We ordered food for Jason and the boys and I took my motion meds and sat outside waiting for them to kick in. When we left Sidney I was still in no shape to drive, so I took a cat nap in the front seat and Jason continued up the road. Our next stop at around 6pm was North Platte, NE where we found a park for the boys to play in and Jason and I could eat a bit and stretch our legs. By this point I was feeling human again (thank goodness!) A quick Dairy Queen drive through and we were back up the road to the hotel we’d just booked in Kearney, NE. We arrived at the hotel around 9:15pm Utah time and everyone was tucked in and settled shortly after 10 (11pm Central). It was a quiet night, other than bringing Andrew to sleep in our bed from 5:30-7am after he woke up scared in an unfamiliar room.
The Fairfield Inn had an awesome breakfast so we took our time eating and getting ready. We had everyone loaded in the car at about 9:15am, pulled out of the hotel, were about to take the interstate on-ramp and then had this “we’re not ready” moment. We pulled across the road to the next gas station and proceeded to wash the windshield (So. Many. Bugs.) find lost sippy cups, prep a bottle for the baby, buy mama some coffee, and load a DVD. After the false start we were actually driving again by 9:30am.
We stopped briefly for gas near Lincoln, NE then cruised until our lunch stop in Des Moines, IA (2pm). Dear Chick-Fil-A. Thanks for the excellent play-place, the competent staff, and the great kid-meal toy. Probably the best stop of our trip. We then arranged to meet aunt Jen in Dubuque, IA for dinner. 6pm we rolled into Dubuque and took advantage of the McDonald’s play place. From here it was a short jaunt to the farm and we pulled in shortly after 9pm. Whew! We made it! 🙂
Day 1:
Day 2:
In all seriousness the boys were great. Christopher didn’t really start to ask “are we there yet” until we had passed into WI. We have a bit of a travel hangover today and could all use naps, but the whole thing (minus my motion sickness) went much better than anticipated. Now we chill until Sunday/Monday when we do the whole thing in reverse. We learned a lot (start the DVD before you start moving/take your motion meds even if you think you don’t need them) so hopefully the trip back will be just as good. Stay tuned…
S.~