Unexpected Travel Plans-What I Learned

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Three generations, an ear infection, subzero temps, a rental car and 448 miles. Sounds fun, right?!

This past holiday season my family took a risk and flew out for the holidays. The plane rides there were fairly easy, however at the end of the trip, my then 7-month-old had an ear infection. I didn’t want to put my baby in that much preventable pain. We made the decision to drive back from Milwaukee to Columbus and Tim Gunn would be proud because we “made it work.”

Travel Tips I Learned:

 

  1.  Car seat anxiety

When we flew we brought a portable car seat and checked it for free. I had heard horror stories of people traveling and being stuck without a car seat. After a long trip flying, we were at Ikea levels of frustration with attempting to put the seat in. Pro tip: outsource this to the rental car associates.

 

  1. You have to return the car and then re-rent it.

My husband and mother made the 40-minute trip back to where we rented the car and explained our situation. It wasn’t cheap but it was better than waiting a few days and missing work or flying with an infant in pain. It was also comparable to switching plane tickets- which is a whole other issue.

 

  1. Have snacks and toys

I was worried my baby would have a few breakdowns but he was fighting the infection and was easily entertained with all of his toys from Christmas. Pro Tip: his favorite calming method is reciting his favorite books back to him (even if you don’t have a hard copy of them). Thank you, Bill Martin, Jr for your masterful rhymes of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Every time he would get fussy, we’d sing those songs and he would calm down. My son also sleeps a lot in cars so he was soothed by that. We kept him inside as much as humanly possible. We’d rush in places with him wrapped up in several layers and it was like we were in an old painting.

 

  1. Eat, drink, but be a little choosy.

I don’t eat at fast food restaurants that much, however, I have my go-to favorites: McDonalds Crispy Snack Wraps and a Wendy’s Grilled Chicken. We found out that not all McDonalds have snack wraps (which was a bummer for me) but the best place to stop if you can is Culver’s. My family is from Wisconsin so I can tell you-they love to take foods over the top. Cheese curds? Fry them and dip them in ranch. Bloody Mary’s? Have an entire sausage as a garnish. Ice Cream? Why not frozen custard? So in Wisconsin, they took the idea of a burger and added butter to it. However, if you are trying to watch what you eat Culver’s has really good salads. The service tends to be good and they had a clean high chair on the ready.

 

  1. Be a team and be flexible

We weren’t planning on traveling with a sick infant. We had to make frantic phone calls to our bosses and hope for the best with the weather. We were driving through sub-zero temperatures. It would have been easy to lose our tempers with each other. I get really carsick in the back seat so my mother and husband took turns sitting in the back with the baby. The car ride also gave us time to process the holiday and talk about things we needed to talk about. I lost my father three years ago so the holidays are different. My Mom and I got to spend time talking about my Dad, singing along with seventies music, and bonding. My husband and I had fun using our iTunes accounts (which true story we stream everything now and we didn’t want to use Wi-Fi) and listening to the music we liked years ago.

We put my son’s needs first and the rest fell into place. It turned out to be the best decision for our family. I’m a new mom and I’m still adjusting to the grind. I love my son with my whole heart but I am learning every day that the choices you make as a family have to work for you. I’m lucky that my husband agrees and my mother is such a huge part of my life. I doubt my son will remember this trip- but we’ll tell him about it when he’s older.

End of car trip


Guest Writer: Alison has lived in the Columbus area for five years and absolutely loves the city. She lives with her husband, baby boy, and two cats. She loves cooking, baking, solving mysteries on British crime procedurals, reading, fashion, and discovering new music. She has enjoyed seeing Columbus in a new way with her family.