Our last post was the last of installment of our three part cross continent, North America road trip. We’re gonna rewind a bit with this one and talk about the biggest question we’ve gotten since we even started telling people we were planning this trip! It was all surrounding how we were going to do this trip with our three kids and keep everyone sane. We knew we were asking a lot of our kids (and ourselves) when we committed to driving from Alaska to South Carolina. We were so excited to see some amazing things and make some amazing memories, but we also knew that we were going to need a lot of entertainment for those long stretches in the car. So I came up with a plan: I filled a tub with activities, games, and toys that were appropriate for car rides and hid it all from my kids until day one of our drive. Each day they could choose if they wanted a toy, an activity, or a game and I would start our drive off with a new “something” for each kid. It worked amazingly well and I had enough things to last our entire drive. Of course, by the end of the trip, the kids had had a pretty good view of the box, so the surprise factor did wear off a bit, but they were still excited for something new each day. So, without further ado, here’s a list of the things I filled up our storage tub with that made perfect road trip entertainment for our kids: 1-tying fleece blankets
2 - binoculars
3 - How-To-Draw Books
4 - make a face sticker sheets
5 - Water Wow Books
6 - Highlights hidden picture books
7 - Needoh
8 - Scratch Art
9 - Water doodle Boards
10 - Etch a Sketch
11 - Would You Rather book
12 - Mad Libs
13 - NotebookI also just got them some little notebooks to use however they wanted. They could draw pictures or use as a journal for our trip. They got them towards the beginning of our trip and, unprompted, starting writing out all the wildlife we saw, with our 9 year old writing down where we drove each day and our 6 year old just drawing pictures of elk or squirrels or bison, etc…whatever we saw that day. It was super cute and I really hope it helps them remember our trip. 14 - DVDsWe definitely bought some dvd players for the car and all the cables so they could be linked to each other and to the cars sound system so they could watch the same movie whenever one was playing. I bought 5 or 6 new DVDs for the trip so that was a fun surprise for the kids whenever we brought out a new movie. One tip I have is that DVDs can be purchased for super cheap on eBay! I feel like with Amazon, eBay gets overlooked a lot but DVDs can get expensive on Amazon, especially if you’re buying multiple. You can get DVDs on eBay for a couple bucks a piece. Just make sure your DVD player can play blu-ray or that you’re not buying blu-ray if it doesn’t play them haha. Learned that lesson the hard way ;) 15 - Make your own stuffed animals
16 - Cats Cradle
17 - Aqua Toss
18 - Tangrams
19 - Magnetic board games
20 - Stuffed animalBefore we started our trip, I knew we were going to spend a night in Banff National Park so I worked in one of the “surprises” to be a souvenir from the park. They each were drawn to a stuff animal in the souvenir shop and we snuck back to buy them and they were able to get them the next day as a surprise. What kid doesn’t love a new stuffy to cuddle in the car? 21 - Fun treatsWe also had lots of snacks and treats that we don’t normally have in our cupboards at home. For one of the little “toys”, each of the kids got a little pea dispenser. They were halloween themed because it was around that time so they enjoyed it. I also got a couple little bags of dum dum suckers and other hard candies, not just for entertainment, but sucking on hard candies can help with car sickness, too. Our kids were absolute rockstars on our crazy road trip! They did better than I did on some of those days, haha. They are pretty good little travelers no matter what but it was fun to reward them every day with something new to play with and I know it kept morale up! Have questions about our trip? We’re always happy to answer! Or is there anything you’d add to this list?? Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live!
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If you’re just catching up, we’re excited to meet you at part 3 of our road trip across North America! A few months ago, we embarked on an epic 31 day road trip from Alaska to relocated to South Carolina. We drove the intimidating Alaska Highway in part 1, crossed Banff and Jasper National Parks off our bucket list in part 2, and last we left off, we had stopped in Utah to take a break from driving for a bit and visit with family. We spent 10 restful days in Utah and had a great time! So although we left off on day 12 in the last post, we’re starting this post on day 22, when our driving picks up again! Day 22Our first day back on the road brought us to Glenwood Springs! I’m a little embarrassed to admit that it took me until this day to fully understand that pulling a trailer means slower going than the maps app predicts haha, but it was a beautiful drive. We saw lots of elk and antelope. We pulled into after dark, which made for a little rough going pulling into our reserved campsite at Glenwood Canyon Resort but it was fun to at least hear the Colorado River rushing by that night. Day 23In the morning we started out late because we had to take a dip in the Glenwood Hot Springs while we were there! The Glenwood Hot Springs Resort is the largest mineral hot springs pool in the world. Originally part of the summer hunting grounds of the Ute tribe, Glenwood Hot Springs have been a popular spot on the map since 1888. The Utes named the springs “Yampah” or Big Medicine and the name still stands. It didn’t take long for white settlers to turn the hot springs into a destination for the wealthy, attracting visitors from around the world. Even the (in)famous Doc Holliday, who had hoped the mineral springs would cure his tuberculosis. During WWII, it served as a military rehab center. Now it is a family friendly destination resort and it was a very welcomed stop on our cross continent roadtrip. (P.S. you can also visit Doc Holliday’s grave in Glenwood Springs at the Linwood Cemetery.) This day’s drive was our second most intimidating, with Colorado’s mountain passes but everything held up well. We pulled into Manitou Springs that evening. We had hoped to explore a little bit, but crawling through the mountain passes was time consuming and we also had come up on a bad wreck and Jon had to direct traffic while we waited for the paramedics to arrive. Day 24We woke up and checked the weather at our next destination. 30 mph crosswinds with a trailer didn’t sound fun so we opted to stay in Manitou Springs one more night. Jon got the opportunity to work on the trailer brakes that had been giving us issues and we got to explore the land of my ancestors ;) Just kidding, kind of. We started off our day of exploring with a free walking tour to taste the mineral water around Manitou Springs. We started off at the chamber of commerce to get a map and we actually did buy some souvenir cups for $2 a piece (though you can get free ones there at the chamber of commerce.) There are 8 different mineral springs, all with different concentrations of different minerals and all naturally carbonated. Fair warning, only because the people at the chamber of commerce warned us ;) - Most of them are pretty potent and were immediately spat on the ground when tasted by Jon and my daughter, haha! I didn’t have to spit any out but the best tasting one we saved for last - 7-minute spring - and it was quite tasty. When I said this was the land of my ancestors, I meant it haha. My grandma grew up in Colorado Springs, not too far and she shared with us that she would drive to Manitou Springs every Sunday with her dad to fill up on the mineral drinking water for the week. She said she wasn’t a big fan of the taste but they would mix it with koolaid to make it more palatable. The locals also like to mix it with lemonade and I can imagine that tastes pretty good, too. While on the walking tour, we happened upon the Manitou Penny Arcade! It was so fun to walk around all the old games and rides and the kids got to ride a few since it was only a couple quarters each! It’s right in the middle of downtown and was so fun. Next, we visited the Manitou cliff Dwellings. I must admit, this little adventure was not at all what I thought it was. While we were there, we learned that these “cliff dwellings” were actually built by white people, who had dismantled actual pueblos in the four corners area and shipped all the bricks to Manitou Springs to rebuild a tourist attraction in the name of preservation. That being said, my daughter later said it was her favorite adventure of the day, so do with that what you will. It was fun to be able to climb in and around the structures and the museum does contain actual artifacts, which we all enjoyed. Our next adventure of the day consisted of driving into Garden of the Gods and visiting Balanced Rock and the really cool visitors center. Lastly, we visited the pioneer cemetery where my 3rd great grandpa is buried, which was pretty cool. We even found a picture of him with his family posed in front of Balanced Rock! Which was pretty amazing. There is so much more to do in this little area that we didn’t get to but even little things, like driving the windy, steep streets where my great grandpa delivered milk in a horse and wagon was fascinating to us. It was very fun to take a day to hang out and explore. Day 25The weather on this day was significantly better than predicted the day before so we were glad to have stayed an extra day in Colorado. But the show must go on! Made it to Kansas, not too far outside of Wichita for the night though we did stop a little earlier than planned because we kept forgetting to calculate time zone changes. To get to our campsite we had to turn left onto Wizard of Oz Lane and right on Yellow Brick Road, so that was fun ;) Day 26This day started out with a couple hours in Wichita at the Exploration Place. It was the coolest science museum and I kid you not, my 3 year old said he wants to go back just the other day haha. We ended our drive in Alma, Arkansas to spend the next few nights with family. Day 29After three days in Arkansas, we started our trek back up and drove to Tennessee! We stopped for the night just outside of Nashville. Day 30On this day, we stopped in Sevierville, Tennessee. I was so tempted to get out and do some exploring but we were also exhausted and just ready to be done. But I made mental (and physical) notes of all the things we want to do when we go back so you’ll have to watch for a future blog post whenever that happens. Sevierville is so close to Pigeon Forge, home of the famous Dollywood! And so many more adventures! I really can’t wait to explore more of this area. Day 31This day started out with a fun stop at Bush’s Baked Beans visitors center/museum/cafe in Dandridge, Tennessee. The museum is located just across the highway from the factory and is such a fun roadside attraction! We kinda just came up on it and decided we couldn’t pass it up. The museum is actually the original store front from the early days of Bush’s Baked Beans. It’s completely free and the guides inside were the CUTEST southern ladies I’ve ever dreamed of. They were so cute with the kids and we all had such a good time learning about beans! Haha, who knew that could be so fun? On our way out, we decided we couldn’t pass up the cafe and we had a great little southern lunch. You know how some restaurants will bring out chips and salsa or bread for a little appetizer? Well the Bush’s Baked Beans Cafe brings out…you guessed it, baked beans! It sounded like each day is a little different depending on the beans of the day. That evening, we completed our cross country roadtrip! 5160 miles, 31 days, 17 campsites, 2 countries, 14 states (and provinces). It including a beautiful drive through the Smokey Mountains and crossing the last two states off our map (North Carolina and South Carolina). We were all kinds of shocked as we took in our new home, and to be honest, it still feels unreal sometimes that we did that drive. `I told multiple people over the past few months that my future ends here, meaning I could only mentally prepare and mentally handle the timeline up to this point. Now that we had crossed that bridge, we were relieved, overwhelmed, excited, nervous…all the emotions and we’re still so ready to set out on some new adventures! Have questions about our route or other parts of our trip? We’re always happy to answer! Or if you’ve done this route, is there anything you would add that we might’ve missed?? Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live! |
AuthorWe're just a military family enjoying where we live, one PCS at a time. Follow us as we explore our current home, South Carolina, and beyond. The world is our backyard. Archives
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