Chicago to College Station, TX

[flucoe]

Hi,

At the end of July we'll be moving to College Station, TX. We are two adults, a three-year old and a four-month old. We have four days to do the trip, so we are really not in a hurry, but we would also like to use this opportunity to stop at interesting/nice places both to sleep and for the three-year old to run around. Any suggestions about must-see attractions, parks, or anything that we should visit? Suggestions on places where to sleep?

Thanks.

[Lifemagician]

I am not familiar with the route, but here is an article on travelling with young ones. When our children were very young, one thing we made sure of is that we arrived at the accommodation well before bedtime, to give them time to familiarise themselves with the place where they would be going to sleep. It made for much more peaceful nights.

Lifey

[DonnaR57]

I'm not sure what route you are planning to take (and there are several available, all around 1100 miles). But if planning to go through St Louis, you could take your little ones to the St Louis Zoo and/or Grant's Farm. Both are FREE. My kids loved zoos, and so do my grandkids. St Louis also has the Arch and the Museum of Western Expansion, but that might be for when your kids are a little older.

I'd recommend stopping every couple of hours at a park that just has room for your 3-year-old to RUN. Lots of small towns have parks, and I noticed that quite a few rest areas have room for a supervised child to run, toss a frisbee, or even play on a playground (not common, but they have them).


Donna

[AZBuck]

The route you choose will matter not at all too your little ones, so you should pick one that is easy on the drivers first and foremost. To me that would be one that avoided the traffic hassles of large cities such as St. Louis and Oklahoma City. Fortunately, neither is on the most efficient route which would start on I-57 down to join I-55 in southeastern Missouri. Pick up I-40 just west of Memphis and follow that to Little Rock (the only large city on this route) and switch over to I-30 to Texarkana. Finish up on US-59 to Marshall TX, TX-43 to Henderson, US-79 to US-190 and College Station.

You could do that route in as little as two days of solid driving, so with four days, you can spend quite a bit of time stopping and exploring a few sites along the way. I'd probably do that and/or get into College Station a day earlier rather than use the time to add miles to the trip. If you do take that route, a few places very close to it that your three-year-old might enjoy would include Wayne Fitzgerrell State Park outside Whittington IL, Mud Island in Memphis, Hot Springs National Park in the Arkansas town of the same name or nearby De Gray State Park, Atlanta State Park in Texas just past Texarkana, and if (s)he enjoys trains then Texas State Railroad State Historical Park outside Palestine.

Taking four days would also let you break up your trip into quite manageable daily drives that let you stop in quieter small towns each night: Carbondale IL, Brinkley AR, and Linden TX (or others in the same general areas.)

AZBuck