Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Leaving on a jet plane...

Or maybe a train...
or Bus...
Or a Car??

This sounds like the book "Go Dogs Go" instead of a song from Peter, Paul & Mary.

But that's what we've been pondering lately. How to get from Here to There.
The "There" being 2600 miles away (round trip) to visit The Professor's family. *Sigh*

Airplane:
Tickets for a family of 6. PAINFUL. *MEDIC*
Travel time - less than 5 hours. Only perk to the thought.
Airport hassles just add to the pain of the ticket price.

What if we took the Train?
We would be spending 36 hours sitting in "Coach".
6 of us.
sitting.
36 hours.
*gag*
What if we got a bedroom?? The train has 1 family bedroom. So we'd have to get another bedroom.
It costs as much to ride the train as it would to fly.
36 hours Definitely not worth.

What if we took the bus?
Time of roughly - 1 day 4 hours.
No power outlets for must have Gameboys.
No guarantees of when we would stop for the kids to run around.
Headphones a must - indicating to us that they would like the bus ride to be quiet.
Excuse me?
The cost is right (compared to the other means of travel) - but we can't guarantee that we would have a seat on the bus. It says so on the website.

What if we drove?
Roughly 18 hours straight through.
While it doesn't sound pretty - actually it might be pretty painful - this is what we'll probably be doing in a few months. We'd at least be able to pack what we wanted to pack and they kids could make noise if they want to make noise (and they will).

I'll be doing some purchasing of items for the trip, I'm sure. DVD's and 1 or 2 Gameboy games. As I told the Professor, I can make anything work. :-) Mini-Me might be getting a portable DVD player for her birthday. And we could get some of those seat back organizers. And disposable cameras for the kids.

It could work.
It will work.
I'm just not sure how pretty it's going to be.

9 comments:

Henny Penny said...

After doing a similar car trip from here to Missouri in July, all I can say is... OUCH!

Hope all goes well! :o)

Christa said...

Maybe you could do a bit of sight-seeing on the way at least? Plus, you'll be trading off driving, but you won't be dependent on someone else's schedule, like you would on the bus.

You just made me very thankful that all my family is in Oklahoma.

TobyBo said...

oh, my. You need to post an itinerary, in case you are coming past Bananaland. :)

So far, BTW, no leopard seals have been spotted, and even math has not reared its head in an ugly way. The dreaded calc of last year has been replaced by stats and so far it is a relative piece of cake. :)

The Family Jewels said...

We drove on all of our family vacations growing up. There were no movies, gameboys or putting up with fighting. We left EARLY in the morning and drove most of the day. It was a great family time almost all of the time until we had to "camp" in the van in Canada one night...we will never forget those trips though.

Good luck!

Monkey Giggles said...

We travel every winter...about 2000 miles. We rent a vehicle (saves wear and tear on our vehicle) pack 3 kids..game boys..DVD players...Ipod's...PSP..and anything else with a plug. We are the digital traveling family. Plus we throw in two dogs just for fun...and we are off. Great family memories are made!!!!

PS...we also pack lots of snacky food for the kids...this is a big money saver.

justjuls said...

I made a 24 hour trip that took 3 days there and back twice with three kids - and once with four when we brought a friend home with us who flew back a few weeks later - by myself, meaning I was the only adult! If you have any idea what that sentence means you may be ready to embark on the 18 hour road trip! Good luck with that. Ugh. I don't envy you.

Melanie said...

There's always Benadryl for the kids. Just kidding. Kind of.

Anonymous said...

Our family of 6 is leaving on a 24hr Amtrak trip. It will be the first and is a surprise for the children (shhh...don't tell them). I'm hoping to spend a lot of time in the car with the glass ceiling for siteseeing. I'll pack maps, binoculars, gps, new podcasts for their nanos (iTunes has free podcasts on EVERYTHING. seriously.)sketchpads and colored pencils. This is the plan. And I'm sticking to it :-)

Anonymous said...

Just a quick update on our train trip. It was 24hrs and not a minute too short. The children did great, but me...Let's just say the novelty wore off quickly and I was more than ready to get off the train. In hindsight, I should have known that I could not live 24hrs on fast food. It was a treat for my children, but after one meal, I was dying for live food. We met other families who were traveling even further (3-5 day trips) and I was glad not to be one of them. I'm going to pack some salads for the return journey, and fruit. LOTS of fruit :-)