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Old 02-22-2018, 09:36 PM   #1
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Traveling with 2yr old.

This summer I have a relative getting married in Taos, NM, and we live an hour north of Kansas City, MO. Mav will turn 2 in August and is fairly used to 3-4 hr drives in the truck locally.
I have a couple of questions regarding travel with the little one and the 5th wheel.

By Google it's a 12 hr straight through drive
If I was by myself I'd do the trip in 1.5 days with the 5er but with the wife and little one I'm at a loss on what type of distance I should aim for on daily mileage. I'm thinking we might take a week off total to head out there and back with some sightseeing. Thoughts?
Hopefully we'll have him facing frontwards by that time (he's already 30lbs and right on the cusp of kicking the seat) so that should help a little with boredom.

Also, any campgrounds along 54/400 or 56 hwy that would be recommended? Will probably stop in Hugeton KS one direction to visit a buddy and his family.

Also, any other tips would be great! I've pulled to Colorado plenty of times to go Jeeping but haven't taken the camper that far yet. It's a '13 36tbok

Thanks in advance!
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Old 02-22-2018, 09:50 PM   #2
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If your main goal is the wedding and not camping, compare camping cost vs hotel cost with gas saved not towing and leave the camper at home. Just a thought. Have a good safe trip and have fun.

Gas adds up quick when you are towing along way.
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Old 02-22-2018, 10:12 PM   #3
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Our twins are 2.5 and they do great in the truck when we travel. We normally take camping trips from 2-7 hours drives from home. We stop every few hours to let them out of the car seat and stretch....unless they’re sleeping then we take advantage and just keep driving. We keep a couple books in the back for them to flip through and they get a choice of a stuffed animal that gets to ride with them. My wife downloads some of their favorite cartoons on the IPad and we prob that on the center armrest as a last resort if they get restless and we need to keep driving.

If your kid senses you’re excited and happy about the trip, he will be too.
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Old 02-22-2018, 10:17 PM   #4
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If your main goal is the wedding and not camping, compare camping cost vs hotel cost with gas saved not towing and leave the camper at home. Just a thought. Have a good safe trip and have fun.

Gas adds up quick when you are towing along way.
The wedding is definitely the primary goal, but making it into a camping/sightseeing trip also is part of the attraction of taking the 5er.
I'm well aware that there isn't really any savings with the camper vs hotel. If we drove and didn't take the camper unless we rented a car we'd still be taking the dually (we use it as our "going to town"/distance vehicle) so fuel savings is a moot point. It works into an extra tank of fuel each way.
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Old 02-23-2018, 04:41 PM   #5
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Our granddaughter was 2 last September and she is a wonderful traveler. Either in their motorhome or vehicles she is like a wee long haul trucker. She has movies on the iPad, a favourite toy or two, snacks at hand and away they go. They take breaks as needed if she's awake and drive on if she's asleep.
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Old 02-23-2018, 04:52 PM   #6
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When we had 2 youngsters (1 & 5) we headed out at 10 pm for an 8 hour drive. Worked like a charm because they fell asleep after about 45 minutes and even stayed asleep when we took a break at 4 hours for gas.
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Old 02-23-2018, 09:56 PM   #7
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we traveled from NM to WV a lot of times when our kids were little. make sure you stop every couple of hours and let the kids walk/run/play for about an hour to keep them from getting sore 9which results in unhappy kids) you should make it with one overnight each way with your distance. we did the NM to WV in 2 days (long days) but getting the kids out to walk around, (include meal stops and fuel stops). will make it a great trip. in those days I would record (videotapes) long play of the Disney channel shows they loved, we had a small tv with a VCR built into it and we would play the tapes the whole way and read books to them to keep them occupied. our oldest was 2-3 years old the youngest a baby. worked like a charm. we had a minivan and strapped the tv on the console between the 2 front seats
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Old 02-23-2018, 10:42 PM   #8
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Max. 2 hours before letting them out to run off some pent up energy. Movies and books worked for us. If they are old enough, observation games work great, too. My DW always sat beside them in the back seat to help entertain, get them snacks and drinks and to generally get “quality time”, while I drove.

Kids are all different. Some kids travel well, others hate it or are nervous travellers. It’s just the luck of the draw.
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Old 02-23-2018, 11:12 PM   #9
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Traveling with 2yr old.

Thank, for the tips, especially the stop every 2-3 hrs or so and let him run around. Usually right now we aren’t going over 3-4 hrs so we usually one-shot it for the most part. One set of grandparents is 2.5hrs and my mom is 3.25hrs away so he’s had to get used to travel.
He’s not much of a homebody for the most part he always wants to be going, especially in the truck. So far he’s a great traveler pretty chill for the most part. We have an old iPad loaded with a few movies for him we use them to set him up for a nap before arrival at destination or to keep him awake until bedtime/destination.
I’m really hoping to make it to Hugoton in one shot, looks to be about 7.5hrs to there. That would put me at a good point to make it to Taos the next day. Great sand dunes are on my list for the trip and I’m not sure where else yet.
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Old 03-10-2018, 10:41 PM   #10
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I have a two year old great granddaughter and what I wouldn’t give if she was traveling with us. That being said if she was traveling with us we would have to change how we travel. Four or five hours a day would be about all we could drive. We would have to take more breaks and probably get a dog. It would be a change for us for sure but one I wish I get the opportunity
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Old 03-10-2018, 11:00 PM   #11
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We did 3400 miles last summer from South TX to Yellowstone with a 2 year old and 2 11 year olds. All 3 have been great travelers and we could easily do 3-4 hours at a time. Lots of videos, a bag of toys that he's never played with before, and some snacks would go a long ways towards keeping the 2 year old entertained.
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Old 07-03-2018, 11:12 PM   #12
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2-3 hours at a shot is the most you can realistically expect before they have a wet diaper, get hungry, get bored, etc.

My daughter has no problem in the car, and never has. My son, on the other hand was a nightmare until recently. To this day, he will scream and cry until he gets what he wants. The only difference, we have started to figure out what he wants. We have snack catchers, and a back up within arm's reach. Same for drinks. Another thing I've found works well that may draw the ire of others (including me in most cases): Ipads. We repurposed two of our older ones, and will load them up with their favorite shows and a movie or two. My 3 year old daughter tells us what she wants to watch, we set it up and hand it to her. My 18 month old son, gets it after we engage "guided access". You have to triple tap the home button and type in a code for the touch screen to work. They both do well with headphones (models that limit how loud they get) but frankly, if they don't use them I'd much rather listen to "Frozen" and Daniel Tiger simultaneously while driving than one kid screaming.
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Old 07-04-2018, 05:45 AM   #13
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When we've taken long trips like that we traveled at night. The kids slept in the back seat and my wife and I took turns driving. The kids were rested when we arrived at our destinations which made life easier for my wife and I and we didn't have to deal with any fighting. We did this in the mid nineties and finding gas in the middle of the night was the biggest problem. Even though the kids are grown and out on their own we still plan long trips this way. Not having to deal with the sun and daytime traffic makes the drive a lot more fun.
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Old 07-04-2018, 06:16 AM   #14
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When we've taken long trips like that we traveled at night. The kids slept in the back seat and my wife and I took turns driving. The kids were rested when we arrived at our destinations which made life easier for my wife and I and we didn't have to deal with any fighting. We did this in the mid nineties and finding gas in the middle of the night was the biggest problem. Even though the kids are grown and out on their own we still plan long trips this way. Not having to deal with the sun and daytime traffic makes the drive a lot more fun.
That's how we traveled with our 4 kids in the late eighties, early nineties. It really did make traveling much better, as the kids did sleep most of the night drive.
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Old 07-05-2018, 05:43 PM   #15
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2-3 hours at a shot is the most you can realistically expect before they have a wet diaper, get hungry, get bored, etc.

My daughter has no problem in the car, and never has. My son, on the other hand was a nightmare until recently. To this day, he will scream and cry until he gets what he wants. The only difference, we have started to figure out what he wants. We have snack catchers, and a back up within arm's reach. Same for drinks. Another thing I've found works well that may draw the ire of others (including me in most cases): Ipads. We repurposed two of our older ones, and will load them up with their favorite shows and a movie or two. My 3 year old daughter tells us what she wants to watch, we set it up and hand it to her. My 18 month old son, gets it after we engage "guided access". You have to triple tap the home button and type in a code for the touch screen to work. They both do well with headphones (models that limit how loud they get) but frankly, if they don't use them I'd much rather listen to "Frozen" and Daniel Tiger simultaneously while driving than one kid screaming.


That’s basically what we’re doing and figuring out, I hate using the iPad, but it is a lifesaver, I’ve even ran a power cord to it to keep it charged in its hanging case all the time. My wife is a lot more liberal with turning it on than I am. I try not to use it for short trips at all, but sometimes get overridden, I.e leaving the beach at 2pm today to go 3 miles back to the camper for lunch and a nap... he’s still back facing, so all he gets to see a lot of the time is the camper behind us on longer trips. I console myself with that he’s a highly active outside and they don’t watch any tv at his day care.

My cousins wedding got moved to December, so we won’t be taking the camper if we go to Taos, so lots of shorter trips this year for us.
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Old 07-07-2018, 01:41 PM   #16
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That’s basically what we’re doing and figuring out, I hate using the iPad, but it is a lifesaver, I’ve even ran a power cord to it to keep it charged in its hanging case all the time. My wife is a lot more liberal with turning it on than I am. I try not to use it for short trips at all, but sometimes get overridden, I.e leaving the beach at 2pm today to go 3 miles back to the camper for lunch and a nap... he’s still back facing, so all he gets to see a lot of the time is the camper behind us on longer trips. I console myself with that he’s a highly active outside and they don’t watch any tv at his day care.

My cousins wedding got moved to December, so we won’t be taking the camper if we go to Taos, so lots of shorter trips this year for us.
Ours only get them on long road trips, and maybe a couple times a week at home for a 15-30 minute time. Frankly, they're more than capable of entertaining themselves, and it's made the ipad a real privilege so they are on their best behavior if there's a risk of losing it.

My 18 month old prefers riding in the truck because the seat is high enough, that he has a nice view out the windows. That has helped, but I won't turn him around until he's at least 2 (law here) and may even keep him backwards longer because it's safer.

Our truck has a DC power plug for the rear seats and we bought an inverter at home depot. It was originally for my wife to pump on the road when she was breast feeding our children. It was less expensive than the pump brand's DC adapter, and far more versatile. It's a 500 watt, with one AC plug and 2 USB ports. It works well with one Ipad plugged into the AC, and 1 on the 2.5mAh USB. They are both older ipad mini's, so the batteries don't last long. They'll likely need a charge after several hours on the road.
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Old 07-09-2018, 09:29 PM   #17
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I agree with the travel at night suggestion. When our kids were small, we would leave out at about 10 or 11 PM and everyone except me would be asleep within an hour. I would just keep it running and sip my coffee until we needed fuel. Another advantage to this method is the traffic is usually pretty light, which really helps in cities such as Atlanta.
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Old 07-11-2018, 05:17 PM   #18
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I give my granddaughter my iPhone to watch YouTube for kids. Sometimes she will look at my iPad after she kills my iPhone. I wish she traveled with us. I hate to think the gigs she would use if we kept her all the time. So far the most she and I have used is two hundred gigs.
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Old 07-11-2018, 09:36 PM   #19
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I agree with the travel at night suggestion. When our kids were small, we would leave out at about 10 or 11 PM and everyone except me would be asleep within an hour. I would just keep it running and sip my coffee until we needed fuel. Another advantage to this method is the traffic is usually pretty light, which really helps in cities such as Atlanta.
Yeah, just by circumstances I used to pull trailers a lot at night jeeping or to and from the farms, but with the camper and the little one I hate driving all night like i used to, I haven't gotten the wife to the point of pulling the camper yet( she'll pull the flatbeds or her 3horse slant goosneck but they are only 25-30ft at the longest, so I'm always the one driving. I'm just not that high on pulling late at night like I used to when I was single or childless, back then it was no big deal if I slept in the truck if I had a breakdown or drove all night. (I'll drive late of the night if I don't have a trailer on.) I agree with you on the lighter traffic though.

as for the Ipad, it can definitely be a sanity saver occasionally. He was having a meltdown sunday as we were packing up the camper to come home, turned the truck on to cool it down and buckled him in, I had 5 min of things left to do before I hooked up the camper, nothing like the Minions to calm him down while I hooked up to head home .
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