Settling into life on the road

“We should have gotten the SUV!” I shamelessly admitted the first two hours into our road trip.

My son, Dante, was thirsty and he was letting me know with screams so loud I swear the window shield was vibrating. I was looking for the water bottle but couldn’t find it anywhere in our rental car, which my kids had already transformed into a complete mess. They dumped the toys out of their perfectly organized bins—and coloring books, markers, stuffed animals, and puzzle pieces were strewn throughout the cramped interior of our Ford Focus. You think it would be easier to track something down in a small space. Not so! I'm sure the bottle would have been easier to find in a roomy Ford Escape!

Let’s just say the first few hours of the road trip were rough. Paris said her tummy hurt and she even pulled out the barf bag. Anthony couldn’t get the iPod (our only source of kids' music and Books on Tape) to function. And I was simply going stir crazy. Adapting to life in a car—especially for a San Francisco family who gets around on public transportation—takes time.

By about hour four, after the iPod was working and I turned on an American Girl story, we were finally relaxed and comfortable. Dante discovered the pirate coloring book and Paris was engrossed in an art project while listening to tales of Felicity. Then we all happily engaged in a game of car bingo, which I downloaded for free from AAA.com/roadtrip. At this point, the Focus's cozy interior was bringing our family together--so forget that I ever mentioned the SUV.