Preparation – SEA 2 Shore

How’s it going?

Since I shared about the prep and organization I did before leaving, I thought an update after living in the car for a week would be good. We’ve traveled over 2,600 miles and here’s how things are working:

Snack bag: the individually bagged snacks are perfect. They have not only worked perfectly for the car, but I’ve been able to grab several baggies and throw them in packs for our hikes.
Shower caddy: very helpful to have everything in one place but it was too heavy carrying it in and out of hotels. I lightened it up by putting some of the lotions or extra bits into a suitcase.
Travel kitchen: this has been the best! Although we’ve had over 30 meals on the road, we’ve only had fastfood drive thru twice. Taking advantage of free hotel breakfasts and having a cooler we keep cold each day from ice at the hotels has helped immensely. We’ve stopped at markets and purchased cheeses and meats, fruits and veggies. We’ve even picked fruit in a National Park! Some of my favorite moments have been picnic meals wherever we are. Having the travel kitchen means we have plates, utensils, a knife and cutting board wherever we go.

This picnic started like this:

And ended like this thanks to a thunderstorm.

Extra toy bin: we wanted the girls to keep their car entertainment bags light and small knowing we’d be getting in and out of the car frequently. They pretty much are limited to a book, journal, coloring, and an iPad at their feet. However, we packed a small bin with extra books, games, and toys. They’ve only gotten into it a couple of times but it’s nice to be able to rotate out things to do.

Medical kit: this one is always good. And other than bandaids and bug bite cream, it’s stayed in the car.

Laundry kit: we’ve now done laundry twice even though it wasn’t due to lack of clothes. The laundry has been thanks to very high temps, hikes, and a lot of red dirt on everything.

Swim tote: I’m not sure if I had mentioned this before, but we have a tote that includes suits, towels, goggles, and sunscreen. It’s come in handy- especially not having to dig swimsuits out of suitcases.

Overall, things are going smoothly, kids have been happy and patient, and we’re loving our adventure. We should pass the 3,000 mile mark today!

Prepping

Knowing we’ll be living out of the car and various hotels for about two weeks before arriving at the Jersey shore, I felt like I needed to better prepare the family for the long days on the road. Today’s accomplishments included:

A trip to Trader Joes for non-meltable foods such as dried fruit, nuts, puffs (I mean really!), popcorn, and crackers. Upon arriving home, all food was divided up and packaged into smaller ziplock bags. All snacks are in their own bin ready for distribution. We are prepared for, “Mom, I’m hungry.”
A fully stocked (and not expired) medical kit. This includes a small drugstore and lots of bandaids. I even ordered a large roll of moleskin and included little scissors to make application easier.
A fully stocked shower caddy that includes soap, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, razors, lotion, and more. Instead of each person carrying their own soaps, having it all in one place should make hotel showers easier. Plus, no need to be filling up the little travel bottles every couple of days.
A clean up kit. For all sorts of clean up. Wipes, paper towels, barf bags, sanitizer,
baggies of all sizes, and Kleenex. Did you know you can order the hospital-like barf bags on Amazon. Super cheap, easy to open, and won’t collapse. I’m hoping we don’t need them, but I’d rather have them just in case!
A kitchen-on-the-go kit. We’re hoping to just have one meal out per day. For all other meals, we’re planning to find markets and use a cooler. For our mini car kitchen, we have a cutting board, knife, plates, sporks, towels, salt/pepper, and dish soap.
Fans!!! We have read up on the places we’ll be staying and there are a few spots with no air conditioning. Chris found some tiny, but powerful fans that fold down and are easy to pack. They’re definitely cute and I love the colors. I’m hoping they keep us from melting!

Two days to go

We’ve read the guidebooks. We’ve created the spreadsheets. We’ve had the car tuned, purchased necessary items, and created an organized system for what to pack. We’ve studied maps and secured hotels. I think we’re ready. The 27-day journey that will take us from Seattle to the Jersey shore and back home through 27 states and 13 national parks is quickly approaching. We’ve created this blog with hopes of sharing our experiences with family and friends. We’ll tell it how it is- the good, the bad, and the ugly of traveling almost 8,000 miles in a Ford Expedition. We hope you enjoy the ride.

Written By: Bronwyn