RV Trip

18 Sep 2021

Here’s some of what we brought on our trip, knowing we’d “start a life” wherever we end up living. We also packed the car in a way that would help our kids be supplied with whatever they may need on the car trip if they weren’t sleeping.

What we brought:

  • Toddler has a backpack that we filled with his toys (update: see contents of his backpack here)
  • Under 1 has a backpack that we filled with his toys (update: see contents of his backpack here)
  • Diaper backpack
  • Clothes in 2 plastic boxes for fall/winter (these are the boxes I use to organize our closet)
  • One duffel bag of clothes
  • Scrubba, laundry clips, kids’ hangers (Read more about Scrubba here and how we did laundry here)
  • Some educational items
  • Some kitchen items (Read more in our Minimalist Kitchen post)
  • Bicycle (link) for our toddler (here’s more info on how we chose the bike if you’re interested)
  • Bicycle that I rode when I was younger (hubs rode it)
  • Stroller
  • Boxes of water
  • Box of milk, cereal, PB
  • Cans of tuna
  • Rice cooker, measuring cup and rice
  • Disposable utensils that have been collected by my parents over the years from take out

In total (if we don’t count the days we stayed multiple days in the same place and look only at the days traveled), it took 8 days for us to get from the East Coast to the West Coast with two kids. We drove during naps so they’d only have to sit awake in the car seat for an extra 1 – 2 hours depending upon how they were doing. If I had a sense that they needed to get out sooner or would be hungry, I’d make sure to find a closer destination to get them out of the car seats. If they seemed good, we’d drive longer. Otherwise, the majority of the driving happened while they were sleeping. Knowing our kids sleep a total of 12 hours, I knew that if we drove anywhere from 6 – 8 hours each night, we could sleep 4 – 6 hours to get us moving forward. We’d make sure they were physically active during the day as much as possible so they would be outdoors, getting sun (it was summer so we didn’t encounter any rainy days) and playing.

Our schedule roughly looked as follows:
Wake up, eat breakfast/brunch, outdoor activity, lunch, outdoor activity, nap in the car, outdoor activity, dinner, more outside activity, kids start sleep in the car seats while we drive and we transfer them into the RV once we’re too tired to keep going.

You can read posts by location and in order of visit from East Coast to West Coast.

Enjoy!

RV Trip

18 Sep 2021

Here’s some of what we brought on our trip, knowing we’d “start a life” wherever we end up living. We also packed the car in a way that would help our kids be supplied with whatever they may need on the car trip if they weren’t sleeping.

What we brought:

  • Toddler has a backpack that we filled with his toys (update: see contents of his backpack here)
  • Under 1 has a backpack that we filled with his toys (update: see contents of his backpack here)
  • Diaper backpack
  • Clothes in 2 plastic boxes for fall/winter (these are the boxes I use to organize our closet)
  • One duffel bag of clothes
  • Scrubba, laundry clips, kids’ hangers (Read more about Scrubba here and how we did laundry here)
  • Some educational items
  • Some kitchen items (Read more in our Minimalist Kitchen post)
  • Bicycle (link) for our toddler (here’s more info on how we chose the bike if you’re interested)
  • Bicycle that I rode when I was younger (hubs rode it)
  • Stroller
  • Boxes of water
  • Box of milk, cereal, PB
  • Cans of tuna
  • Rice cooker, measuring cup and rice
  • Disposable utensils that have been collected by my parents over the years from take out

In total (if we don’t count the days we stayed multiple days in the same place and look only at the days traveled), it took 8 days for us to get from the East Coast to the West Coast with two kids. We drove during naps so they’d only have to sit awake in the car seat for an extra 1 – 2 hours depending upon how they were doing. If I had a sense that they needed to get out sooner or would be hungry, I’d make sure to find a closer destination to get them out of the car seats. If they seemed good, we’d drive longer. Otherwise, the majority of the driving happened while they were sleeping. Knowing our kids sleep a total of 12 hours, I knew that if we drove anywhere from 6 – 8 hours each night, we could sleep 4 – 6 hours to get us moving forward. We’d make sure they were physically active during the day as much as possible so they would be outdoors, getting sun (it was summer so we didn’t encounter any rainy days) and playing.

Our schedule roughly looked as follows:
Wake up, eat breakfast/brunch, outdoor activity, lunch, outdoor activity, nap in the car, outdoor activity, dinner, more outside activity, kids start sleep in the car seats while we drive and we transfer them into the RV once we’re too tired to keep going.

You can read posts by location and in order of visit from East Coast to West Coast.

Enjoy!