Hey! We are driving from Texas also! We flew last year to WDW so this will be the longest road trip for our family.
We live in the DFW area. The shortest route would take us through El Paso and Phoenix. We decided that with the current border violence that we would take the slightly longer route through Amarillo, Albuquerque and Flagstaff. I know that it is probably perfectly fine. I am a worrywart though and it makes me feel better. I am disappointed though that we won't be able to make a quick little run into Mexico. When I was a kid, I thought that was so amazing to be in a different country. I know that my children would enjoy that too.
We are leaving after my husband gets off work and driving 6 hours to Amarillo. We will drive 9 hours the next day to Williams AZ. The last day, we will drive another 6 hours into Anaheim.
I am going back and forth on the whole driving thing. What keeps pushing me to drive is the cost of the rental car if we choose to fly. Why are rental cars in LA so expensive?
Also, the cheapest airfare is a little under $1000 for the 4 of us out of Love Field.
There are not any direct flights out of state from Love Field so we would have a stop, probably in Phoenix. I am not crazy about flying and our daughter isn't either. I don't like taking off and landing any more than I have to! All the NS flights from DFW are closer to $300 per person plus fees and fees for checked bags. It ends up being more like $1400 for the four of us.
I am such a complete goofball. I have the drive planned out with the stops along the way. I went to the McDonald's website and searched for the ones with indoor playplaces. It will be the end of June when we travel so things like parks may not be a bearable!
We are going to have a theme for the day. Each theme will have a set of movies that relate to the theme. One day we are going to watch HSM 1,2,3. (My husband MAY jump out of the car.) We are doing this on the day we pass through Albuquerque. Some of our other themes are; Under the Sea day, Future day, Adventure day and Zoo day. I have been stashing little activities and crafts for the trip that go with each theme.
I know that sounds a little OCD, but I think that the kids will do better with a plan! We may not always stick to the plan, but we will have one!
I am also planning on buying my 8 year old a couple of nice long books. He just read the first Harry Potter book so I will probably get a new one of that series. I will have to see which one he is ready for then.
My 5 year old daughter loves to read too but she can't read longer books just yet. She will have some books to read too. She loves to write stories and draw so I am going to make sure we have plenty of art supplies for the car.
They both have Nintendp DS games. I might let them get a new game before the trip. Probably not though, they have quite a few and they really play the same ones over and over anyway.
My other terrible secret is that I have stashed some of their Christmas presents for the trip. They get so many things from extended family members that they didn't even notice when I packed up the paper airplane kit and the origami set. Both of those things should make for interesting road trip activities.
We are driving from Texas.
My kids took their first "long road trip" to Florida last year. We always flew before. They wanted to drive, so we did. They
LOVED it and now they are planning a trip to CA and/or Colorado.
I just thought it would be fun to share our tail of woe.
While waiting for our next trips