Good luck! (you are gonna need it) But have a safe trip and try not to leave anyone by the side of the road. If it gets too bad…make fric and frac run behind the car, that will help rid them of any excess energy.

18 hour drive with my dad, my 2 kids, 1 cat and 1 dog. We are heading down the side of a mountain on a road with a 6% grade slope (the ones with truck run offs on the side) and it is raining. My then 18 month old screaming her head off. This is hour 10 of the trek. My dad looks over at me exasperated and says “Can you get her to be queit?” Cause you know 18 month old kids just do whatever you ask them to do right?

Three kids + two adults + one very tiny Ford Focus = Clown Car from Hell! We were driving north to Bear’s parent’s home, it is roughly a 6 hour trip. I took the younger two girls to the rest room but the oldest girl refused to go. So, we got back on the road. After 10 minutes and the start of blizzard like conditions, the oldest decides she must now go to the rest room. So here we are in a tiny vehicle, her younger sisters bouncing around in the back seat and the old child screaming at them to stop moving because “I HAVE TO FREAKING PEE!”
Twenty minutes later, we find an exit. We try to exit but we get half way down the ramp and have to stop because of an accident on the ramp. This makes the oldest dissolve into tears. Her two younger sisters start singing “Do you have to pee now? How about now? Yet?”
Twenty more minutes go by before we can even move. When we get to a McDonald’s, oldest jumps out of the car and races to the rest room. When she gets back, she declares “From now on, I am going pee when you guys go!”

The kids will appreciate the roadtrips when they’re older! I love my parents horribly for driving us 5 girls around North America and Europe.

there are five children in my family. We used to take family trips in the econoline van to visit our family in florida. That is a 21 hour drive if you dont stop.

My youngest sister used to try to brush her older sisters hair while in the car…with a lolli-pop. I think there was blood.

You are a brave woman! I only have one and since I’m such a chicken, I don’t have a story to share yet.

But, when I was 10, on a drive from New Jersey to New Hampshire for a family vacation with my parents and younger brother, my parents ACCIDENTLY (so they say) left me at a rest stop.

When we stopped, they asked if I had to go to the bathroom and I said no, that I was just going to get a drink of water. But, the line was actually longer for the water fountain than the bathroom so I decided to pop in there.

My Mom returned to the car and never thought that I would NOT be in the backseat and my lovely younger pain the rump brother didn’t offer up anything like, “Jen isn’t in the car!” Or, “Shouldn’t we wait for Jen” or “Where is Jen?” Now, granted he was only 5, but, still!

When I came out of the bathroom, I saw the family station wagon had pulled away and was halfway down the entrance ramp to the highway.

Good stuff.

They eventually came back and it only took a moderate amount of therapy for me to recover.

LOL.

Good luck! As long as you don’t leave your kids by the side of the road, you’re in good shape.

2 things and your life will be golden. Portable dvd player and Nintendo DS. You won’t hear from your children for years. Trust me, it works.

I can’t even PRETEND that I’d be interested in trying that again at my age. When my son was 3, we took a trip. It was only 240 miles across state. Apparently he had to pee and wasn’t able to communicate that fully. So from the front seat of our car…I hear…water running. I was like…wtf? O.o I turn around and my adorable 3 year old is peeing in my McDonald’s cup. Yeah…there was Coke in there. I am SO glad I realized what he was doing BEFORE I took the next drink. *sigh* Those were the days.

I seconded the portable DVD player suggestion! We drive to Northern WI (about 3.5 hrs) almost every weekend in the summer with four kids and two 100 lb. dogs.

Once that thing is playing, I don’t hear one word from the kids unless it is “Can you put in a new movie please.” Good Luck!

“Go Girl”….tell me about THAT ! ! ! I never heard of it… and am in awe !

Can’t wait to hear about THAT ! ! ! !

Good luck. Buy ear plugs. I’ll be thinking of you.

you know, i bought that go-girl the other day after you mentioned it the first time, totally the best thing since flush toilets. (so thank you for that).
once went on a road trip where the foam mattress (among other things) flew off the top of the car, into 6 lanes of traffic on one of ontario’s most dangerous (& busy) highways. somehow we managed to get it back, and without losing any family members. apparently, it was a very *important* piece of foam…!?

Hee hee. I don’t have children but I was a child once. Does that count?
When I was 12, we spent the summer with relatives who were living in Venezuela at the time. My uncle Greg thought we would really enjoy a trip to a touristy village thing on top of a freakin’ mountain…and for some reason, we took the ranch truck. So my cousins, little brother and I are riding in the back of the pick-up (proving that redneckiness can cross continental lines) and my parents and Uncle Greg and Aunt Rita have all piled into the front.
As we drive up, up, up the windy mountain road, my couins, brother, and I all take turns being sick over the side of the truck again and again and again ’cause after the 3rd stop, Uncle Greg told us he wasn’t stopping again because we had lunch reservations, dammit. And then Aunt Rita says she had to pee and he tells her to hold it …well, even a Go Girl wouldn’t have helped that day. So we roll into this lovely restaurant overlooking gentle mountainside streams…5 kids covered in puke and one adult with wet shorts. Just thinking about it makes me want a drink.

Wow, some of your commenters have some scary stories.

My son and I travel to Ohio every year after Christmas (it’s a 3.5 hour drive), and surprisingly he has done pretty good the past 3 years. He’s four now. His first year was horrible, but what to you expect from a 2 month old?

Also, I second the suggestion of a portable DVD player PLUS a Nintendo DS. It’s enough to keep mine quiet for 3.5 hours. But then again, you have multiple children, so more than likely they would just fight over what movie to watch. lol

I feel for you! But, I’m intrigued by the Go Girl.

Kat

Good luck. I’m more of a flyer myself!

I’m not sure your hand is where that Go Girl is supposed to be!

There was the 13-hour road trip home from SC with my father and sister in 1990.
Pulled over on the shoulder I was giving my little sister the Heimlich while my father voraciously stabbed the car radio with a Swiss Army knife.
As he cursed and stabbed, the gum flew out of my sister’s throat and landed in her hair.
We rode the rest of the way home with a knife sticking out of the radio, a transistor radio strapped to the visor, and gum bits in my sister’s hair.
My dad was so busy attacking the radio he’d never noticed us heimliching beside him and will deny it to this day.
My sister and I still crack each other up about that trip.

Once, while driving from Washington state to Texas, my 6 year old son barfed guacamole Doritos into my hair. To this day, he thinks HE got the raw end of the deal because he had to look at it until I could exit the freeway and all we had for him to drink was warm Dr. Pepper.

It was wonderful.

In other news: I nominated you for a Kreativ Blogger Award!! Come n’ Gettit!

worst drive, day 4 of moving house. Station wagon containing 4 kids, 1 mama cat (firmly attached by claws to kid#2), 3 kittens too young to be given away, 1 hamster in cage, 1 hamster, escaped. Oh, & mom & dad.

Running late, dad opts NOT to call the hotel to confirm the reservation because we are going to (us) a small town in NC, middle of the week, no way will they sell out of rooms.

any body ever heard of the NC furniture mart? Buyers were sleeping in the lobby! We ended up driving past Winston-Salem & well into the mountains before finding a room. Probable 18 hours on the road.

Wow, at first glance “go girl” looked like a new energy drink to me. I said FIRST GLANCE. Then, of course, intrigued, I read more, and WOW! someone out there, I”m sure a woman, thought this thing up. Too bad my road trip days are behind me, as my sons are 16 & 19, and aren’t about to drive any length of highway with me in the car. But, I will definitely keep this in mind for future alone trips, as I hate dirty bathrooms, would rather pee myself on the side of the road (in the woods) than put my hand on a gas station bathroom door handle!

So, is your aim pretty good? Any snow angels? lol. Lordy, women peeing like men, I wanted to see the human demo video, but I”m sure that’d put this website into the porno stratesphere.

At Thanksgiving we were at my In-Laws. Nittney, AKA – Bad Dog got a hold of the turkey carcass in the garage. Hijinks ensued.

Hubby and I had two cars (before we could afford our illustrious minivan- covet me.) I was following him with the kids. He had the dog in his truck. All of a sudden he started swerving. He called and started screaming, ‘She’s shittin in the car! She’s shittin’ in the car!!’ I laughed. He cursed. I hung up. I laughed more.

We eventually ended up at a grocery store parking lot with a roll of toilet paper and a lot of bags (darn those grocery bags are handy!). Bad dog completely emptied her watery turkey bowels in truck. It was everywhere. Windows, seat cracks, floor, husband. Bad dog sat next to me looking guilty in the parking lot. On a warm day, you can still smell the aroma of turkey carcass poo.

Bad dog died a few years later. I still miss her.

Hmm. Worst? Ever? We’ve been pretty lucky but there have been a few bad times.

One hotel we booked in Castle Rock, Co was between a jail and Bubbles Liquor Emporium. We changed hotels to one in Colorado Springs, Co only to have the clerk announce that he was a former meth addict (AFTER he had the Visa #) and announce that he was 2 months clean. They then asked us if Canadian women shaved, if we lived in igloos, etc. I convinced them that they’d love to move to Northern Saskatchewan. We were also asked if we had kangaroos in Canada and if BC was part of the 50 something states.

2 doors down from our room were psycho people having an all out drag-em down fight, with a Mom slapping the daughter and screaming “I know you’re banging you’re father, you (words not suitable for young ears)…” We called the front desk and they refused to do anything. We were nervous guns would come out and eventually left the hotel. Later we came back to hear that they jumped out the second story window and escaped.

The crowning moment was when we got home and the 13 yo recognized our hotel on an episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter.

When I was 5 months pregnant, my ex-bf, 2 tweens and I drove from Ohio to California (that’s a long ass way) in a freakin’ Dodge Neon…which broke down as soon as we got to San Diego. I got sun poisoning the first day. Tweens tried to kill each other the whole way there, and the whole way back…actually made the boy tween leave his shoes in a motel room and go barefoot on the way home ’cause, DAMN! the stench!

Lets just say a 6 week old with colic or something of that not being able to poop sort, 2 1/2 hour car ride one way. The most intresting trip of my life…and for that I consider myself invincable! lol, at least for that moment and it being over. Good Luck, and hope you make it through this. (along with learning some new mommy tricks, always a bonus!)

After I graduated from college in St. Louis, my parents and sister and I drove 2 cars… my old beater car that I’d had with me, plus their own car… back home from St. Louis to Omaha, about a 7 hour drive, mostly across Missouri. I was driving my car in the lead and saw what looked like a cardboard box or grocery bag on the freeway ahead. I had just made the decision to drive over it rather than around it when I realized that it wasn’t a box, it was a large turtle. Too late to swerve, so I went over it and hoped for the best, only to hear a loud bang and see said turtle turned end-up in my rearview mirror. The car kept running alright so I didn’t stop, though the engine seemed to get louder after that.
When we finally did stop, my dad mentioned that the muffler on my car was hanging really low. He checked it out and found that it was barely hanging on, so he pulled it off completely. I guess the muffler had some sort of lifetime warranty so my dad wanted to make sure we brought it back to Omaha with us. The only problem was that both of the cars were totally full of all my stuff. The only place to carry the muffler was on the lap of the passenger. So we drove the rest of the way home.. about 3 more hours… with a muffler on my lap (I think my sister drove that last section).