Family Gap Year Post #18: 5,000-Mile Road Trip—Lodging & Food (June, Part 3)

Today I share the highs and lows of our lodging and food situation during our 5,000-mile+ road trip.

Lodging

Highs

We stayed in AirBnbs throughout the entire month, and I loved it! I have loved being able to cook at home, curl up together on couches, and make things like a birthday cake, breakfast smoothies, and muffins.

Ha, ha…that previous sentence made it sound easier than it was! We had to make the birthday cake and frosting completely by hand (with not even a whisk!). And I had to buy a cake pan. And at one of the houses I had to use an immersion blender and a bowl to make my smoothie. It was very messy! And the muffins were made without a proper muffin tin, so they looked more like deflated balloons than muffins. But everything was tasty!

Several of the AirBnbs were even better than the pictures! I’m really grateful to the hosts who take it very seriously—the ones who go to great lengths to stock the kitchen with everything, for example.

We have stayed in a variety of AirBnbs—some with two bedrooms and a pull-out couch, and some with three bedrooms. Matt and I have learned that we don’t actually need a king-sized bed to be happy.

The systems that we put in place at every house have worked really well. For example, we immediately set up a centralized laundry bag. Each of us only has a carry-on bag and a backpack, so we are rewearing our clothes constantly. As a result, we do laundry all the time.

Lows

The only bad thing about our month on the road in AirBnbs was how expensive it was. I’m honestly not sure we would do it again.

I didn’t notice how expensive it was until I was about a third of the way through booking them. The short amount of time spent at each house was what made them so expensive. We were paying a cleaning fee + service charges every couple of days.

I don’t regret our trip. I give it a 10 out of 10! My personal formula for a good road trip is at least 3 or 4 nights (and at least 2 or 3 full days) per location. It’s a nice amount of time to settle into a place and build fun rituals and then move on to the next novel thing.

Matt gives the trip a 9 out of 10. Henry gave it a 6. And Tate gave it a 4.

For the same amount of money, we probably could have rented a Tuscan villa with a private pool for a whole month! So that’s what we might do next time.

Food

Highs

When you plan to travel for an entire year, you can’t eat like you’re on vacation. It’s not good for our bodies nor our budget.

We put a good system in place. We traveled with a small cooler in the car, as well as a snack bag, and paper bags full of dry grocery goods.

I kept a list of commonly needed food items in the Notes app. I would check the boxes if we needed them and uncheck them when I put them in the cart.

When we first rolled into a town, we would make a quick stop at a grocery store (preferably a Trader Joe’s). I would usually run in by myself to make the trip super-quick and more likely to stay within budget!

I’ve mainly been making myself breakfast smoothies: Greek yogurt, frozen cauliflower, spinach, frozen mango, half a banana, and berries (usually strawberries and blueberries). The boys have been eating a lot of cereal.

For lunch, I’ve been eating cheese and crackers with fruit. The boys have been eating things like chicken or corn dogs with fruit.

For dinner, we’ve made really easy meals like heat-and-go items from Trader Joe’s: gluten-free ravioli, frozen pizza, taquitos, arepas, etc. We usually have an easy salad, too.

To save money, we’ve only eaten out once in each location.

Lows

The hardest part has been only eating out once in each location! All of us love eating out. We love eating in restaurants, but we also love getting take-out and picnicking in the park. But, alas, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Stay tuned for next week’s post when I talk about our Exercise & Budget. In the meantime, you can see daily update on Instagram or weekly updates in my newsletter!