Brace yourself. What I am about to tell you is not for the fainthearted…
We are DRIVING to Disneyworld.
Yep. DRIVING. Three days. Three kids. One rented Suburban. An, um, economically-minded (read: tightwad) Darling Husband, and moi, who is making endless lists so we don’t forget some critical item that we will suddenly need in, say, Kansas at 3 am (when we’ll still be driving).
The reasonable question is, of course, WHY?? Well, it all started when my Darling Husband looked at airfares for our trip. We were going to use his frequent flier miles for one of the tickets, which left us only having to purchase 3 (I totally milk that “no ticket ’til they’re 2″ thing). No problem and yay! that all the business travel might pay a small dividend! Turns out he hadn’t actually earned enough miles for this ticket. Darn.
So, my Darling Husband spent some time crunching numbers and found that it would be almost $1000 cheaper to drive, even with the added expenses of hotels and meals. Well, that’s pretty much like saying “sic’em” to a dog. With all the various vacation expenses starting to rear their ugly heads, no amount of my daily cost-comparison on airfares would dissuade him.
(As an aside, my dear and very travel-savvy sister sent me the following link for keeping an eye out on airfare: Airfarewatchdog.com).
We leave Thursday evening. Currently, I have instigated military-level packing. On a previous long trip to CA last year, I discovered the joy of gallon-size ziploc bags. For our 11-day trip, I have packed 6 outfits for everyone with plans to do laundry. Because we travel so much, each person has their own packing list and the girls are in charge of their stuff, mostly. Also, packing snacks and toys and such into clear plastic crates seriously decreases the mess in the car, which I hate. Wow, reading this paragraph makes me sound a bit AR….(anal retentive….)…
We are fairly well-prepared, I think. All the children (even the Toddler) have various electronic devices to amuse them, so I hope we maintain sanity. We decided to rent a larger car and ended up getting a Suburban, which kinda scares me. They are SO stinkin BIG, but it makes me feel safer and it will be more comfortable, I think.
Off to finish last minute packing…
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
You are the queen of packing, truly. I am a piker next to you.
Wowzers. A suburban, three kids, and almost a whole country. That is a story for the grandkids.
Yea! Coming to my neck of the woods! Have a safe trip honey! I wish we could buzz over to Orlando to say hi, but money is sooo tight right now! *sigh* Have so much fun!
Talk about nuts, we’re considering driving cross-country with the 5th wheel trailer next year for sabbatical. Hmmm… After the trip this last week we’re going to have to give some serious considerations though.
I love the thought of seeing the country, stopping as you will, and being able to actually “SEE” things.
Will be watching your trip closely. :)
Jen–I really hope that your neck of the woods was cooler! Ack! :)
e-hug!
Jason–how fun! I think your idea is good one. You guys are a hardy, adventerous lot, so I think you would be fine. :)
Um, how many weeks would you be going for? *grin*
Stay tuned….:)