Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

[AndersonRanch]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

Ppine: any chance you are a glider pilot? :-) Minden is a soaring Mecca. My dad is a glider pilot, as was my brother.

[WanderinWhitlows]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

Excited to hear of your future adventures and wish you all great successes. Our family plans are to wait till our son is five years old before we depart on a two year adventure from the United States to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina and back via truck. Please consider documenting your travels to share with us here as there are all sorts of different types of camping enthusiasts here and I'm certain by now you have sorted out that there are many that want to revel in your sucess as well as offer insight to questions you may have.

[AndersonRanch]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

WanderinWhitlows: what an awesome adventure you have planned! What type of rig are you planning to drive there?

[WanderinWhitlows]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

Right now we are working with a Toyota Tacoma double cab truck and it is proving to be very capable. We are in the middle of allot of our upgrades after years of careful research.


Older picture before many upgrades.

[AndersonRanch]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

Excellent choice! I love the roof top tent! I come from a long line of Toyota owners. The truck I'm taking on my adventure is a 1986 4runner. Are you planning to do any suspension modifications?

[WanderinWhitlows]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

...Are you planning to do any suspension modifications?

We have an Icon stage 4 suspension system here but I'm waiting for some extended brake lines to arrive as the ones I ordered were incorrect - my fault - and I wanted to have everything in hand before I got started again.

[ppine]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

Anderson,
No I am not a glider pilot, but they soar over my house almost everyday.

Willows,
Great idea. I love South America, especially Peru and Bolivia. My brother just came back from a 5 month trip. He fell in love with Columbia and Equador.

[AndersonRanch]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids



Got the hammock set up for a colder weather test. Expecting a low of 35* and winds gusting as high as 30mph. The clouds sure look pretty tonight.

[sarahspins]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

Other items I am thinking about bringing are a portable potty and shower (with 4 young kids, this is kind of a necessity)

Yes to the shower, but having a porta potty is really not necessary, even with smaller kids. I traveled for 3 weeks last summer by myself with 3 kids (who were 5, 7 and 11 at the time, and we could have gone longer, that's just all we had planned for) and there were numerous instances I wished we'd brought a shower (mostly to do with rinsing the kids off after playing when they got dirty, not necessarily full bathing - we had one at home I just didn't pack, and I nearly bought one towards the end of our trip but we only had a few days left so we just went without and used a washcloth as best we could) but there was never a time where I thought "gee, I wish I brought a portable toilet" - we just made use of facilities available along the way (gas stations, trailheads, etc - even the most primitive camping we did still had vault toilets, but my kids would have been fine with the idea of using a cathole if necessary) and for the most part that worked out fine. That said, after an incident hiking in Mesa Verde where a park ranger very politely allowed my kids to go to the other side of the ruins and pee because it was about an hour back to the trailhead and the kids really had to go (and I was MORTIFIED, especially since I had the kids all go before we set out and I thought they would be fine). In the end it was fine, and that wasn't a situation that could have been helped with a porta potty, but I now carry a "Travel John" in my hiking pack (well, a few of them, actually, they are fairly compact) and keep extras in my car, but that's basically just a bag to pee in if one of the kids absolutely can't hold it and there's nowhere to easily get away to and "go". I highly recommend them, and they can be used by either gender relatively discreetly once they know to use it.

You mentioned a bucket for laundry - if you already have something to use for washing dishes, or even a large pot, that's probably fine for light laundry and you don't necessarily need something "extra". I didn't hand wash more than the occasional item between the 4 of us (we found a laundromat and did laundry every 3-4 days), but I could have easily washed and dried much more if I had to. Most of what I washed was socks and anything in danger of staining before we had a chance to do laundry again).

150-200 miles a day is a very easy pace, with ample time to get out and do things along the way. We had numerous days on our trip where I didn't even need to stop and get gas, and I liked not being on a set schedule and just meandering along, it made the trip much less stressful and more spontaneous. We did have some longer travel days too, and those were fine, but we actually did plan those out with some longer rest breaks so the kids didn't feel as cooped up in the car.

Setting up and tearing down camp every day (by myself!) wasn't really that bad on our trip - it does seem like a lot of work the first couple of days but after that it starts to become a routine, and you'll figure out little shortcuts that can make certain tasks go faster, and you'll figure out ways to get the kids involved so they make more efficient helpers while they think they're actually just having fun.

[AndersonRanch]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

Sarahspins: thank you for the great response! The insight you gave about the potty situation was very helpful. Same with the laundry bucket.

It was good the hear that the daily set up and take down of camp wasn't too daunting for you. It gives me hope that I haven't bit off more than I can chew. Lol

Where did you go for your road trip?

[sarahspins]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

West Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and eastern Utah. We had a great time and visited something like 14 national parks on our trip, along with some other interesting locations. I had planned to try to visit more places but we lost a few days in the middle of our trip. My car needed a new CV joint and we had to wait for parts to arrive (over a weekend, otherwise it would have only been a day), so our plans changed a little and we took a slightly modified/shorter route home as a result.

We couldn't work out being away that long last summer and instead just went on several shorter day/weekend trips, but we're hoping to do another long road trip again next summer

[AndersonRanch]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

Wow! Sounds like a great trip! You should post up your plans if you decide to do a road trip next year. I would love follow that thread.

[KBunn]

Re: Planning a 4 month long road trip with kids

I also homeschool and took my four boys on a 50 day trip last summer and we're planning a 70 day trip next year starting in May. It is an amazing adventure, and I know you all will have a great time. I agree with those that say give yourself some time at each stop. We made some of our stops last time 2 nights, and by the time we arrived and setup, our first day was almost gone. This time, we are doing a minimum of 3 nights at each stop to give ourselves plenty of time to explore and learn about the area. I didn't bring a shower of any kind last year, but after my ice cold sponge bath in the tent in 40 degree weather at the Grand Canyon, I will be this year.

Unless you are planning at camping at all primitive places with no tables, or you have plenty of extra room, I would rethink the chairs. We ended up not even bothering to drag ours out and set them up after the first few stops, since the picnic tables were always so close to the fire pits. Of course, we were in a van and didn't have a roomy truck bed. Good luck!