12 days 3400 miles coast to coast with kids

[RedJeep]

This summer I have 12 days to get from Portland Oregon to NYC. 3400 miles. Wife, nine year old twins, two dogs and a cat. Major stops along the way include Mount Rushmore, Niagara Falls, and Boston. Once we get to NYC then we get to slow down and relax for the next 4k miles.

I'm not sure if many folks do these long haul trips with kids. I decided to post in Class A because travelling in a motorhome is a different thing from TT and FW.

I figure we can average 500-600 miles per day to give us six to seven days of road time and five to six days of site seeing. Of course, I wish we had more time to get to NYC, but schedules are fixed.

Even though my kids are young they are well experienced travelers.

Anyway, I thought it would be good to share some thoughts and ask you to do the same.

What we found that works on long driving days:
* Keep kids occupied with reading, school lessons, games, electronic media and lots of stops.
* Pets are great to keep the kids occupied.
* Rule is... "let me (the driver) know if you need to get up (bathroom, drink, etc.)."
* We try to avoid making reservations that lock us into a time commitment. We like figuring it out as we drive.
* If we drive really late we will look for rest stops to camp at (actually sleep for a bit and then get up and go after a few hours).
* If no rest stops then we'll look for truck stops or walmarts.
* We tend to avoid RV Parks on the long haul days unless we need to dump the tanks. Or, if we just need a break then we look for RV parks.
* If just looking for an overnight stay we may call ahead by a few hours or just show up late at night and see what we can find. We can almost always stay at a park even showing up super late. Only a handful of times have we found that we could not get into an RV park.
* We always travel with a full fresh water tank.
* I try to fill up the fuel tank at about 1/2 full. RV is gas. Tank is 75 gallons. So we stop often. I figure you never know when you'll need some extra gas.
* I drive pretty slow (about 57 mph).

[2_Retired]

also suggest you get a Pilot/Flying J card for fuel. They grant a 6cent/gallon discount with their credit card. MyPilot app is free as well to locate stops along the way. Sure there are other truck stop companies that do the same. Just something to think about.

[Mandalay_Parr]

Sounds like you have it well planned. Go for it.

[2_Retired]

Agree that 14 hr driving days are a challenge. When we traveled with younger kids we began day very early (3 to 4 am) stopped for breakfast after kids had been fully awake, (never before 8am), drove another couple of hours, stopped for lunch, then broke for the day no later than 7pm. ALWAYS stayed in CGs, so kids could enjoy outside time before bedtime (let them stay up til at least 10pm so they would sleep later!) Went to bed when they did and woke up very early to begin again. Found this to work much better than truck stops/Walmarts. Agree that slide outs are not generally accepted at many of these types of stops as well. More and more Wally Worlds also do not allow overnight stops (usually local ordinances forbid it - too many fools abusing this opportunity). No place there for the kids to enjoy anything. DH never drove more than a total of 12 hrs any one day. Too much stress to do more. Realize time is tight, but try to stop whenever you can for the "little things" to see and do. Sad to waste a cross-country trip mostly riding inside a rig on an interstate!

[ksg5000]

I made similar trip - fun but tiring. I found that getting up early and driving for a couple of hours b4 breakfast helped and my wife occasionally took the wheel on long/boring/safe stretches of Freeway.

Good luck.

[GordonThree]

Sounds like a fun trip.

600 miles a day is a lot, even for two drivers... at 60mph that's 14+ hours when you add in fuel stops, food stops, bio breaks, etc.

How usable is your coach with the slides in? If you and the wife are exhausted and you overnight at a Cracker Barrel or WalMart, slides out is typically frowned upon.

Maybe a book like Next Exit will help find campgrounds along the route, and the copilot can call ahead to make sure they're accepting late arrivals?

[Dutch_12078]

Will your wife also drive to relieve you at times? Or is at least familiar enough with the coach to drive it if necessary?

[the_bear_II]

Sounds like you have it well covered.

Growing up every summer my family would take one of these 2 to 3 week long roadtrips to visit relatives and sight see. It's on these trips that I learned to enjoy reading... first comic books, then novels aimed at preteens ("Hotrod Patrol" was my favorite series) and then full size novels as I reached high school age.

I hated the trips most of the time while in the vehicle but really enjoyed the outdoors.

Now, I look back at the trips with fond memories.

[JnJnKatiebug]

That's doable but also a lot of driving.