At least once a year we take the 12-14 hour car ride back to Western part of New York to spend time with Jim's family. The first time Johnathan went on this trip he was 2 months old. I'm sure for a lot of moms of little babies would never have taken this trip. Remember I said that Johnathan was a good sleeper so that helped with the trip. Often when he slept in the car I slept too. When he cried we stopped for a bottle and diaper change. Yes that made the trip longer and the stops more frequent but it was worth it. As Johnathan got older we did have more issues that came about with travel but we have always found ways to work through them and never let our ability to go many places.
So here are some of the things that we have discovered about Johnathan and his traveling ability.
Johnathan loves to look out the window and see things. He can often be entertained by this so we don't need to plan as many activities for him to do in the car. The problems start when we travel when it is dark. Especially when we travel to New York we often end up driving the last couple of hours when it is dark. Since we are driving on the thruway there isn't many lights or things to see. This leads to Johnathan to get bored and wanting to get out of the car more. So we have learned a couple of strategies to help with this issue. When traveling we try to keep Johnathan awake as much as we can during the day. Especially since there are things to see and more to do then we want to keep him engaged in activities. That way when it starts to get dark he will likely be tired and will rest as we finish our drive in the dark. Other strategies we have done is leaving earlier in the morning, sometimes before the sun has even come up. Then Johnathan and Charles can finish sleeping while it's dark and most of our driving will happen during the daylight hours. We also bring electronics with us for those dark hours. Johnathan enjoys his tablet and it helps him keep his mind off of how long we've been in the car. Since he's usually distracted by looking out of the window during the day it also feels to him like he's being rewarded with tablet time since he hasn't had it most of the day.
Any parent will tell you it's important to keep kids entertained or they will get bored. We have found several activities that keep the boys from getting bored on long car rides. We keep a supply of books, crayons, and paper in the vans. That way they have things in the car no matter where we are going. We also have small games that we keep in the cars such as car bingo and magnet play sets. Most of these can be found in the dollar spot section of Target or at a dollar store (especially this time of year).
When the boys were younger we found a great hack that helped them with activities and eating in the car. We went to the dollar store and bought two baking sheets and got some magnets. We drilled holes in the top of the pans and got chains that contacted them to the headrests in front of their seats. Then we put magnets on the bottom of pencil cases, food containers, and a mirror. We filled the pencil case with magnet letters, pencils, and crayons. When we were driving the boys could place the pan on their laps, take out a piece of paper, and put the pencil case on top of the paper and the pan. Then they were able to write or color on the paper without the crayons and pencils rolling away or the paper moving. When we had snacks or meals the boys could put they food in the food containers and stick it to the pan. Then their food wasn't moving around or spilling on their laps and the floor. The mirror was a blessing for Johnathan because he loves mirrors. He would often play with the reflection in it and experiment with moving light around with it too. Since then we have found many more great hacks to use when traveling on Pinterest (I highly recommend this site if you are looking for ideas). **Disclaimer: The pan was a great help to us while traveling but there is 1 thing you have to be careful about. Obviously a metal pan kept in a hot car will get hot. We often removed the pan when not in use & also made sure the boys had a blanket/towel on their laps under the pan when using it)
As the boys have grown we have found the importance of planning ahead before we leave on a trip. No matter where we are going we always over plan activities that we can do at the location. This way we aren't just wondering around trying to find things to do. (This tends to cause Johnathan to get frustrated) We also plan what to do in case Johnathan is having an off day that could interrupt an activity. Such as when we went to the zoo in St Louis. Johnathan wasn't feeling well and needed to take lots of breaks. We had other activities planned for that day but due to the breaks we were not able to get to the other activities. We readjusted and tried to not become frustrated ourselves when things didn;t go as planned. We also make sure we research suggested activities. Again with our St Louis trip many people suggested the City Museum and the Magic House. As soon I researched these places I knew they were not the right places for us: large crowds, climbing areas that adults can't get to, and large overwhelming layouts are never ideal for an autistic child that may easily shut down if overstimulated. Last year was a great learning experience for us as we traveled to Branson, Missouri 3 times throughout the year. Each trip we took time to plan and each trip was different. We did some of the same things while there but we also discovered many hidden treasures too.
Even packing for a trip takes extra planning. Most times a person would pack an outfit for each day and maybe an extra just in case. When we pack we have to pack several extra outfits though because of so many unknowns. One of the side effects of the medication Johnathan takes is he has a harder time regulating his body temperature. Therefore he can get too cold or too warm easily. Therefore we have to pack an outfit for the weather forecast for that day but then we have to have alternative outfits to. Sometimes we have Johnathan dressed in layers and can spend the day adding layers and then taking layers off. Also there are many extras that we also have to pack for our trips. In Johnathan's bag we need to make sure that he always has his headphones. We also pack some comfort items for him so no matter where we are he has things that remind him of home. We usually travel with one or two of our fuzzy blankets because we have found he sleeps better when he has one of them. Each of the boys also pack a personal backpack that includes special items for them. These can include favorite books, mini games, or blank notebooks for making pictures or writing. Jim and I usually take a surprise bag with us that has some special trinkets in it to give the boys during our trips. Usually we give these to the boys during the long drives or after a long day of activity that we've made it through without meltdowns. Usually this are small items that we've picked up at a dollar store or sometimes a special item that the boys have been wanting. On top of all this we also pack a snack bag and a cooler (or two) of drinks for our trips. Between long periods of time in the car and getting back to our hotel late at night it's nice to always have a little snack or drink on hand.
- Illinois - Iowa - Missouri - Indiana
- Florida - New York - New Hampshire - Vermont
- Pennsylvania - Ohio -Wisconsin - Tennessee
- Michigan
This year we have trips planned to the Dakotas and Virginia so we will hopefully get them added to the list. People are surprised that all our trips are done with us driving to all locations. There is a good reasons why we drive to all of our destinations.
- So many of the greatest parts of our trips is all the great experiences along the way. It was on our Florida trip that we discovered how much we enjoyed the beauty of Tennessee. Many great food stops had lead to our favorite food spots to eat.
- I have a great fear of flying and truly make myself sick just thinking about having to get on a plane. While I know we will have to fly to some places in the future and happy that most of our travel continues to be from driving to the locations.
- We have not tried to fly with Johnathan. This is a big unknown as to how this experience would go with him. Knowing that my nervousness might affect him, figuring out how he'll deal with his ears popping, and being in the closed in space are all things we need to take into account. Our plan is to do a small flight to 'try out' flying so we can see how he does with a flight. Until then we are sticking to driving.
Even when we are not going on big trips we love being able to just jump in the van and drive for a day trip. Sometimes we have an idea where we are going and have a set location we want to get to. Often though we'll just get in the van and drive with no real idea where we will end up. Of course we don't do this without knowing that Johnathan might get frustrated. There has certainly been times when this has happened. Usually when he gets the most frustrated will happen when he gets hungry. Johnathan is pretty set in his schedule at what times he eats during the day. When that schedule gets thrown off it can be tough for him. When this happens we try to stop somewhere to eat. Sometimes this happens quickly and we find hidden treasure places to eat. Sometimes there's nowhere to eat and Johnathan can get so escalated and that our goal will become just finding somewhere to eat. We believe that when we travel it is nice to enjoy food from that area. Therefore we try to avoid fast food and chain restaurants if we can.
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