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kristalovesjared
member
Road Trip from Seattle to Indiana... (LONG!!!)
kristalovesjared
member
Just in case anyone is going to take their kids on a road trip, I thought I'd tell you how ours went. 
Day 1: Wake up at 6am to go to Swedish and see a really good friends baby who was born 2 days before. (So glad I got to see him!) Finish packing up, lock up Uhaul trailer and drive to my parents house to pick up Ella. Leave my parents house, 1 min. later my Dad calls and says the trailer sounded funny. Call U Haul 24 hour roadside assistance... don't get 24 hour roadside assistance, spend the night at my parents.
Day 2: DH takes trailer to get repaired when they open and gets a lot of his built up anger out. . We leave at 2pm. We make a stop about every 2 hours because Ella doesn't sleep. She finally falls asleep at 10pm! We get to hotel and DH plops her on bed to change diaper and she just passes out.
Day 3: Ella wakes up early, we try to keep sleeping... doesn't work. Luckily she falls asleep almost right away once in the car. Drive, drive, drive, feed Ella lots of snacks and juice and let her watch movies. Get to Yellowstone around 5:30pm. Didn't realize how big it was and don't get to see half of it because it gets dark. Ella doesn't sleep, we try everything to keep her happy, but she is so tired she has a crazy, manic, meltdown (even when we stopped and got her out, she was going crazy!) Don't get to a hotel until 12pm. Ella is falling over she's so tired, but doesn't want to sleep. We all get in bed and she passes out.
Day 4: We all sleep in, drive all day, Ella naps a lot, so only 3 stops, realize we won't get to Mt. Rushmore until 8pm, so decide to skip it because we don't want a repeat of last night's meltdown. 
Get to hotel around 10pm and DH and I are so ready for bed. Ella will not go to sleep (she's just been sleeping with us). DH goes out and gets pack n play, puts her in, she screams bloody murder for 5 minutes in there with no sign of stopping, we get her out and tell her if she doesn't go to bed she's going back in and she just passes out!
Day 5: Get up early and DH stocks up on McDonald's iced coffee. Drive for 4 hours (Ella sleeps for 2!) Stop for lunch, then back on the road. Drive 3 more hours, then stop at a Target to let Ella play with the toys and DH and I stock up on snacks! Ella gets a new toy, that once she has in the car is afraid of! Ella falls asleep around 8 and we drive until she wakes up at 10:30. Again, she won't just go to sleep. I put her on the floor and tell her she is sleeping down there if she doesn't calm down. She screams for 2 minutes, I bring her back in bed and she passes out!
Day 6: We sleep in ( only 5 hours of driving left!) Make a stop on the way, but Ella sleeps for most of it. Get to Indiana around 7pm. The Holiday Inn (the only decent hotel) is booked because of a wedding and we have to stay at a run down best western that only has 1 room left, right across the hall from the smoking rooms! Gross!!! Again, had to put Ella on floor and make her scream, then threaten to make her sleep down there before she finally goes to sleep.
Day 7: We wake up, go check out a place we might want to live, lady is crazy, but place is nice... go check out of hotel, drive around looking for places to live... find an awesome area, but nothing for rent! Ella sleeps for 20 minutes. Drop UHaul trailer off at DH's office. Go check into nice holiday inn hotel. Almost have Ella asleep when DH gets out of shower and she thinks its play time! DH goes down to lobby to do a 10 hour training thing he was notified of the day we left. I start laundry, take Ella swimming and now it's 6:30 and I'm hoping I can get her to sleep by 7... and that she doesn't wake up before morning!!!
Let me add... Ella doesn't sleep in the car anymore. We took bottles away a couple months ago, but she has maxed out on bottles of milk and apple juice this trip, luckily it worked because every time she got one, she fell asleep! Now the fun part begins when we take them away again! Oh well... it was worth it! Now I'm hoping we find a place to live soon so we aren't stuck in a hotel room all day while DH is at work (my parents are driving my car over in October!).
Overall it was way better than I thought it would be. I never thought I'd take my little kid(s) on a roadtrip, but I totally would do it for a vacation now!
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Re: Road Trip from Seattle to Indiana... (LONG!!!)
Sounds like a decent trip all things considered. L did the same thing on a trip to and from California a couple years ago. At least you had no vehicle breakdowns. And happy that your family had a safe trip.
The only Easter Bunny I can get behind.
Maxwell Joseph 4/09 Lucy Violet 10/12
I'm glad you are there safe and sound! I can sympathize, Max does not sleep in the car either...we flew to Florida when he was around Ella's age. Woke him up at 4am to leave and he didn't sleep until almost 10pm!
I thought you were moving to Chicago too! Did they change it at the last minute? Cost of living will be way lower in Indiana at least.