Tips for surviving a cross-country road trip-with children in the car.

Since my children were babies, I have been making a 1000 plus mile trip home to visit family up to four times a year.

The first five years, I was married to the children's father so we made the trip together. We found an amazing strategy to help with the two day drive home. We would tent camp at AAA campgrounds. The cost was low. The facilities clean and adequate. Toddlers and preschoolers love to "help" set up the family tent, fix dinner, and play on the campground playground or in the pool. And they quickly get worn out, so the children sleep well even though they've dozed off and on in the car all day.

After the divorce, I started making the trip alone, with children ages 2, 3 and 5. I wasn't brave enough to camp, nor did I have the energy to camp alone with all three children. So I chose another fairly unusual strategy. I packed our collie and our Labrador retriever into the back of the car with the children. One road in the back of our old Explorer. The other rode on the floor beneath their feet. The dogs were quite happy and the children were much more content for the entire trip than they usually were in car trips around town. The dogs were good for cleaning up food spills in my car, and for helping me feel safer on the trip. The car and the children did have a slight coating of dog hair everywhere, but all could be cleaned up.

The children are older now. And I do sometimes use a DVD player with them-but only for the last two hours of the day's drive. I find the children get bored with the DVD's more quickly than they do with another media option. For years now, we have been listening to audio dramas. They remind me of the old radio dramas, except these have much better sound effects and story-lines that appeal to the modern listener. We are all captivated by the stories-even mom gets to enjoy them all(in contrast to DVD). One of the first audio dramas we listened to was the 13 hour BBC production of 'Lord of the Rings.' Next we found the Focus on the Family dramatization of all seven of the 'Chronicles of Narnia' books(seventeen hour, I think). We also have enjoyed 'Adventures in Odyssey,' five of the seven seasons of 'Down Gilead Lane', 'The Last Chance Detectives', and 'Left Behind, the Kids.' When we are in the middle of a story when our drive is over, we almost wish the trip had taken a little longer.

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