July 27, 2018, Post 1
Staying up too late! Too few days until we leave! I noticed many museums across the country have cheaper admission rates for students “with ID cards,” so I just made up some homeschool ID card with my kids’ pics and info. Here’s a png file if anyone wants to copy this idea. I used PicMonkey to make it. Tomorrow I will laminate! I hope this works–we will see! I asked for the “teacher” discount at Michaels the other day (I get it at Learning Palace, Apple, etc.) and the lady went on and on about how I’m not really a teacher as a homeschooler, so, no, I can’t have their discount. Grrrrrr. I hope the museums we visit are a little more accommodating!
July 27, 2018, Post 2:
OK! Here’s how we planned our trip, in case you want to know the tools we used.
1. I planned our whole trip on a program called Furkot. Kind of a strange name, but a great, FREE site! https://trips.furkot.com/ I downloaded the whole trip with turn by turn directions into a pdf and then had it printed at Office Depot, just in case we lose cell signal and need to know where we are going. (I also bought a large US atlas in case we get lost & don’t have cell signal).
2. I used AAA Trip Tik to find some fun stops along the way: https://ttp.aaa.com/TripTik/ so that our long driving days are broken up a bit. You don’t have to have a AAA membership to use this site. I type in the starting point, the end point, and then zoom in to see the little red dots that are places we could stop.
3. I started copying and pasting the details about all of these stops into a document and then gave up. TOO many details! Too much formatting, there had to be an easier way!
4. INSTEAD, I decided to find these places on Trip Advisor https://www.tripadvisor.com/ and saved a trip under MY TRIPS and put dates on it and I dragged each potential spot onto a day. If we don’t have cell signal between stops, oh well, I guess! This is where the document would have come in handy. The app will be so much better in the middle of NYC though!
5. I used the AAA Trip Tik info to write comments for us on Trip Advisor–cost of admission, mainly. Sometimes Trip Advisor has this info, but not always. I added it up for our family–“$32 total” or “$85 total” or “Free!” and I’m really liking all of the FREE ones! Our 3 boys (14, 15, 16) are counted as adults for most museums! Crazy!
6. I have shared this “Trip” on Trip Advisor with Karry & our boys who have phones (Isaac and Kaleb). One of us can read aloud the potential stops and vote as a family where we will stop each day. Or Karry and I can just decide. We will see how we do this!
I hope this is helpful! I didn’t know about all of these tools until we started planning & friends mentioned “have you heard about this website?” Hold onto these for when you plan your next road trip!
July 28, 2018, Post 1
The boys’ clothes are packed! So much laundry is going today. Karry cooked ground beef and taco meat and froze it in flat ziplock bags. 2 whole chickens are slow cooking to shred and freeze. Kaleb made 4 loaves of gf french toast and cookie dough balls and froze them yesterday. All 3 boys got haircuts today, Karry and I tag teamed that job. Ruby is getting extensions in now (all.day.long!). I’m not putting them in this time, since the young lady I pay to do it can make them tighter & they last longer. Extensions should last the whole trip & stay looking nice. They lock in the moisture in Ruby’s super dry hair. Briella’s hair is getting done tomorrow! Karry is cutting dog hair today (our 2 dogs are staying home w/a sitter), too. I’m resting for 2 min before I start packing girl clothes! Misc. shopping happening tonight, plus celebrating Ruby’s birthday early with family. We are picking up the motorhome and starting to load it *tomorrow*! Wow! Lots of work! This is gonna be great!
My checklist was so long!!
Our dog, Lincoln, after a haircut.
Our girls (left and right) after getting their hair braided.
Bins, ready to go on the bottom bunk of the RV (the RV sleeps 10, but we only need 7 spaces).