Chicago to Vegas and back

[rspatel]

The family is driving our Odyssey to Vegas on 11/21 & turning around on the 27th. I'd love advice on:

1 - Is it safe to take the northern route this time of year? It looks to be a bit shorter, but goes through a lot more mountains.
2 - What's the best way to keep kids comfy when sleeping in the car over this distance?
3 - Is anyone familiar w/ Oklahoma City? We're likely to layover there for half a day & I'd love suggestions on what to see. The kids are 3 & 5.

We've driven to NY & Orlando w/ the kids. This is that next step further. Thankfully we have DVD player in the Odyssey!

Any other advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ash

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome Back to the RTA Forum!

As far as routes go, you need to remember that pretty much all of your routes go through mountains, and all of your route options have the chance of seeing winter weather. Going south to I-40 certainly does not avoid those risks.

Kids will sleep when they are tired, and so I wouldn't worry to much about that. You'll know your kids and their napping habits better than the rest of us, but really, at those ages, they pretty much just need to stay in their car seats.

Here is a great article about making the trip fun for everyone in the family. One of the key points I agree with is that parents tend to rely way way way too much on dvd and other electronics to distract the kids from the trip. We haven't banned dvds for our family trips, but they are limited to at most one movie per day, and generally after it gets dark.

[RoadDog]

Check out the Route 66 places in Oklahoma City. Plus, there is the sad memorial to the terrorist assault.

Plus, the Bricktown section has quite a bit of entertainment.

Close to OKC is Arcadia with the famous Round Barn and Pops, a new place with just about any kind of soda pop you could want as well as the giant pop bottle outside.

www.pops66.com

[rspatel]

Great feedback. I'm really glad I stopped by again. Time to go think of ways to interact w/ the kids during the trip now.

Can someone bless me w/ kind weather, plz! I'm the wrong kind of Indian...

Thanks!

rspatel