Where we're heading next:
Home Sweet Home
Quote of the Day
Peanut, "Wow, mom, now we can say we've been to all 50 states! What are we gonna do next?"
We're in our last hotel, a few miles from home and I'm finally responding to a common question from readers. I hope this helps you out with your own road trips.
Here are my thoughts about traveling with kids this age on long road trips:
1. Pangs of home-sickness seem to start at about 3 weeks. If you're traveling longer than this, make sure the destinations are ones the kids value. For us, we had Yellowstone and Craters of the Moon to look forward to.
2. Let the mornings happen naturally -- wake up on their own, load the car and check out, have a leisurely breakfast. We set out most naturally around 9:30am but sometimes it was 10:30am.
3. Try to arrive back at the hotel in time to go for a swim, or run around in a park, have a bath and get to bed within an hour or so of their normal bedtime.
4. Let the kids participate in decision making. In Chicago I asked, "Do you want the double decker bus or would you rather go to the fountain again?" They chose the fountain for a short time, followed by the bus! When we were nearing home, I actually asked the kids, "Do you want one more night in a hotel with a pool, or would you rather drive longer to get home and see your friends and the kitties?" They chose the hotel much to my surprise.
5. Keep media out of the program altogether. We allowed cartoons on some mornings when one kid was sleeping longer than the others, but that was it. T.V. and computer games are much harder to take away once they've been allowed. Kids have incredible imaginations and are capable of entertaining themselves (and us!) when that's their only option.
6. Each kid is likely to be in a different stage and it's okay if things don't even out perfectly. Little Man would have been happy to simply go on a gift shop tour of the U.S.A. He got something at EVERY stop and he played with it until the next stop. This worked beautifully. Peanut was happy to read her books in the car and only chose a couple of souvenirs. Doodle controlled the music almost exclusively.
7. We made a cd for each kid before leaving and brought books on cd that complimented the trip: Mark Twain's, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Laura Ingalls Wilder's, On the Banks of Plum Creek. We listened to these repeatedly and the kids' music non-stop. It's important to note that their interest in music is quite diverse. Their cds weren't exclusively childish music -- The Killers, Death Cab for Cutie, Billy Joel, Stray Cats, Patsy Cline, They Might be Giants and The Cure were on their playlists, too.
8. Try to feed your kids real food. Skip the Children's Menu if possible when it only contains mac'n'cheese and dino nuggets. Order a steak or shrimp or pasta and split it among your kids. Let one kid get french fries, but share them. Get a salad and let them pick out the parts they like. It'll cost about the same and they'll feel better afterwards.
There will certainly be frustrations and arguments, but I really believe it usually stems from the adult's mood in the car. When I was easy-going, the going was easy. When I was calm the rest of the car usually mimicked me. The minute I started to freak out about something, the vibe of the car shifted negatively. If I could pull myself together, all went well, even in stressful situations.
I hope this helps any of you thinking of a long road trip with wee ones and I hope you'll join us again in a month when we head to New England!
Back in Washington of all places, the golden, swaying wheat fields finally came into view. This was literally our first wheat crop of the trip even though I'd prepared the kids for miles and miles and days and days of wheat. Instead we found only corn fields, until now. It was b e a u t i f u l! We pulled over to play in it, cut it, chew it. We talked about different ways to grind wheat -- using a mano like Josefina did (see New Mexico) and a wheat grinder like Pa did (see Walnut Grove, MN). Back in the car, they separated the seeds with their fingers and made wheat maracas.
I rounded a corner after taking yet another picture, when I saw the oh so familiar swirling red and blue lights. All the music stopped as a cop pulled me over. I was only going 66mph, but naturally the speed limit had just dropped to 55mph. When I only got a warning, Peanut said, "Wow, mom, I didn't know cops were nice in Washington, too!" What am I teaching these kids?????
Despite being an 8-hour drive, the kids were overjoyed for the sun to go down so they could do another flashlight show (see North Dakota). They created a stage with their Glacier National Park walking sticks, and another stick Little Man picked up somewhere to make an arrow when we got home. This contraption became quite ornate, with blankets, birds, etc. and they proceeded to entertain themselves while I desperately tried to find a hotel.
Idaho is one of those states that is so beautiful and diverse but full of oddballs. Lots of movie stars, California immigrants, potato farmers, outdoor enthusiasts and of course, thousands of rednecks and Mormons (sometimes one and the same, but not always). Never did I imagine driving the entire state, but Idaho isn't easy to cross. There are these illustrious mountains in the way!
We made it to Arco, a town that I refused to sleep in because it gave me the creeps, a point Grandma and I didn't agree on. Soon the earth turned black and charred and lumpy and the heat poured over us like syrup. We'd arrived at Craters of the Moon!
My nephew has never been here. My Fireman cousin in Twin Falls has never been here. Take a day trip soon!!!! This is the most unique place Idaho has to offer and it's impossible to visualize without visiting it in person. There's a LOT to do, but come as early as possible to avoid the heat.
Eight periods of erupting volcanoes have given us this crazy landscape and the Visitor Center has a very visual display that makes this history easy to understand. The kids learned that magma is inside the earth, and lava when it comes out of the earth.
The loop drive only takes about 20 minutes, with several places to stop and hike. We chose to stop at the Spatter Cones, just a 1/4 mile hike. You can literally look down the cones of little volcanoes -- some still have unmelted snow! Pretty remarkable considering it was 104 degrees out here!
The kids were mad that I wouldn't let them hike more, but their cheeks were already bright red! Also, I remembered that hike to see the horses at the beginning of our trip (see Washington) and I wasn't eager to do it all over again in this heat.
I let them climb as much as possible, but these rocks are sharp and scratchy and porous. Doodle followed Peanut everywhere which was terrifying to say the least.
There's actually a lot of wildlife out here which is shocking, but not nearly as shocking as the tents dotting the rocks -- humans!
Arrrgh. We finally have internet service, but pictures won't upload. Hopefully, tomorrow all the posts will have our great shots of Yellowstone!
I’d booked this wagon ride and cookout months ago and I’m so glad we did. An old cowboy sat on a stump and sang and played guitar the entire evening. There was a pile of bones that Little Man stacked into a number of piles, his best being a fly-catcher of some sort. That was...until he found the creek. Other boys were damming it up or racing their paper cups. Not exciting enough for him.
As I was enjoying my steak, Doodle ran up in full delight, “Little Man is getting all soaking wet!” and she took off like lightning. Just as I was approaching I could see him, starting at one end of the creek and barreling through full speed splashing the entire way to the end in a big mud puddle. By the looks of him, this wasn’t his first tour of said creek. He was in his element and unfortunately I had to end his fun.
The event was surprisingly huge – there were about 10 wagons holding 20 or more people each. We met all kinds of people: an uptight family from Long Island that I liked immensely, a nice New Jersey dad with his boys, a family from Holland and another from Saudi Arabia. The most memorable family, however, was one from our neck of the woods. Except they really were from the woods and they had a lot to share with our wagon guide who was also from the woods. She was a kick in the pants with her chew sliding around her front teeth as she talked about such things as Poison Cliff up ahead (one drop and you’re dead).
She had useful things to say, too. Guess which critter causes the most casualties in the park? Timber Tigers. Apparently chipmunks aren’t as skilled at deciphering a carrot from a finger as one might think.
Someone mentioned seeing elk and she said she’s only interested in seeing elk outside the park – yup, this classy gal is a hunter, too. Enter Woods Mom from behind, “Yeah, I just learned how to skin a coyote! You start with the claw and pull the nails and skin back, then you...” Waiting for Peanut to say something didn’t pay off and finally I admitted, “Wow, I’ve NEVER felt more urban in my entire life.” I have to say I was truly enjoying this family; they were just from another planet.
This is where Tomcat decided I was his cup of tea. After being best friends for nearly a decade, we hadn’t actually lived near each other in a couple of years. For a stint we both found ourselves living in a very unlikely place: Utah. He was studying film and I was living in the burbs with Sister, anxiously awaiting an au pair assignment in Paris. I’d been driving all over the country for the past year, trying to hit all 50 states and found myself extremely restless. So one day I called Tomcat and said, “Hey, I’ve got the bug. Do you want to come with me? You can pick: North, South, East or West.” He said, “Sure, I’ll come. I haven’t been East.” So we left that night for Mt. Rushmore, returning via Yellowstone.
Well, the heater in my car was broken and we were bundled in blankets. Heading to Yellowstone only brought disappointment – it was closed for the winter! I’ll never forget shivering to the radio, which was playing the entire Bat out of Hell album.
A year later, he was still in school and I still wasn’t abroad. It was late September and Mammoth had a cabin available so we were off to try Yellowstone again. There was nothing up there to speak of back then, maybe an old church nearby. We ate a nice dinner somewhere and I introduced him to Baileys. This will forever be the beginning. “How come you never dated me?” “Well, you always had a girlfriend.” “Well, you always had a boyfriend!” (Actually, I don’t quite remember who started that 3-sentence conversation.) Looking at each other, we realized that we were both liberated; he’d just dumped his girl, and I’d just dumped my guy. We were married less than 4 months later!
Now, here I am up in Mammoth Village with my kids and no Tomcat. It just doesn’t feel right. The area has developed into something far greater, but the cabins seem lost and the area is no longer teeming with elk, or maybe we were there at the wrong time of day. We did spot a couple of females trying to nap under a shady tree and that thrilled the kids. The actual terraces maintain their magic though – stinky as hell, bubbling up their boiling waters into phosphorescent pools of copper and blue.
We could spend all day talking Geyser Basins. Walking along and suddenly seeing steam shoot up 20 or so feet high out of the ground only a few feet in front of you is quite a memorable experience. Their steam whistling and spitting out of the tiniest holes or roaring out of immense ones. There’re these milky bubbling hot tubs called Paint Pots, which had us all giggling for some reason. They were so unlikely and gross and yet appealing! At one point Peanut was dodging the steam from an active geyser, shouting, “Thank you SO much for bringing me here! I love this place!” Smelling rotten eggs while watching these displays makes the definition of Sulfur sink in pretty well. And when the sign says “Danger Thin Crust” we can talk about pizza and what treasures lie just below the Earth’s surface in the same sentence and have it all make perfect sense.
