Our Cross-Country Road Trip With Kids- Plus Tips

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In May of 2022, we moved from Washington State to Georgia with our four children.

This was the trip of a lifetime- and we took so few photos!

Near the end of May, we emptied our house and fit everything we thought we might need for the next few months into our van and truck. The rest of it went into a moving van to be stored in Atlanta for however long it took for us to find and move into a new house.

At the time, our oldest was 9 and our youngest was 11 months.

Because we were taking two vehicles, both Daniel and I had to drive the entire way. This meant we would each not have a passenger to help out with distributing kid’s snacks, and managing tablets, and all those tasks that are hard to do while you’re driving.

Thankfully, we’ve done enough road trips in the past to have a few tricks up our sleeves to make a long road trip a little bit smoother.

The whole trip was a really cool experience and I like that I can say that I drove all the way from one end of the United States to the other (minus a few miles on each end!) Surprisingly, everything went smoothly and as planned, with no hold ups or car trouble. 

Considering we had two vehicles, 6 people, and drove approximately 2800 miles, that was a huge blessing!

First Stop- Idaho

Our first stop after leaving our empty home in Washington was Daniel’s parent’s house in Idaho.

Our golden retriever, Luna, rode in the truck with Daniel there, and we left her in the capable hands of Daniel’s brother for the summer.

We stayed in Idaho for four days and enjoyed time with Daniel’s parents, siblings, and nephews. The kids did a lot of walking and hiking on the trail behind their grandparents house.

We knew with so many miles to cover over the next several days that we should get out as much energy as possible!

Second stop- Yellowstone

From Nampa we traveled to West Yellowstone in Montana, and stayed at a hotel with an awesome water slide.

One of the best things about the midwest is the abundance of hotels with water slides! Highly recommend.

We were there one night, and from there we traveled through Yellowstone National Park. We were lucky to get to go through Yellowstone just a week or so before it closed due to severe flooding.

It was a beautiful clear day, and we saw so many bison! I love bison. I was hoping we’d get to catch a glimpse of one, and so when we drove by three sitting right by the road, I think I freaked out and teared up a little.

You can ask my kids, although they’re still probably embarrased by me for such an extreme reaction to seeing an animal. Whatevs.

We saw so many bison, however, that we stopped keeping count and lost some of our enthusiasm, especially when we had to wait in a long line of traffic because a small crowd of them decided to cross the road.

They were everywhere, it was very cool.

It had been years since I’d been to Yellowstone and I’d forgotten how beautiful it is and how the landscape changes so dramatically!

We stopped several times to get out and walk, and to check out the epic geysers.

Next stop- Cody, WY

From Yellowstone, we stayed in the beautiful town of Cody, WY. I found it was super difficult to get decent pictures because I was always driving, or so tired by the time we stopped somewhere that I didn’t think of it.

We didn’t spend much time in Cody, as we needed to get moving for our next destination.

The next day, we drove from Cody to Rapid City, SD.

Waterpark Break

We stayed for two nights at a hotel attached to a waterpark named Watiki Water Park. It was recently renovated and beautiful!

The water park area was HUGE! We could walk to it easily from our hotel room. We all agree that it was the highlight of the trip- we Wuoris love a water park!

We spent hours in the lazy river and going down water slides and just having the best time. It was a great way to break up the trip.

Just a few minutes away was Bear Country where we saw an abundance of bears and other wildlife!

It had been over a decade since my last visit, but I fondly remembered it as one of my favorite stops along our route to the mid-west as a young teen.

There’s a shocking amount of bears there- surprise, surprise!

We were a little tired, but ready to hit the road after our fun water park stay, and had decided to do a really long day of driving. Our destination was Kansas City, a 10 hour drive away.

12 Hour Day

We drove through cute small towns I’d never hear of, and saw an abundance of beautiful farm lands.

We also stopped along the way to visit some cute prairie dogs. You can buy food for them, and the kids loved feeding them nuts.

We took a scenic detour through the Black Hills to take a short hike around the Badlands. It added to our day, but getting out of the car and letting the kids run (or crawl) was vital to keep everyone semi-sane.

12 hours later, we were a bedraggled mess of emotions and exhuastion as we dragged our stuff once again into a hotel, set up the pack ‘n play, and tried to grab something to eat before falling into bed.

Kansas City

We were all beginning to feel weary of dragging our stuff in and out of hotel rooms and being in messy, cramped vehicles.

I don’t remember anything about Kansas City except that our hotel had a record number of young baseball players with loud parents and there were just too many people.

Last Stop- Kentucky

Our next stop after Kansas City was Hopkinsville, KY. This was about an 8 hour drive which felt much more manageable, and we arrived at the hotel in time to get in a good swim and dinner. I found this area so pretty!

Hopkinsville was our last stop before arriving at our final destination in Georgia. We really enjoyed driving through new states, even if most of it was farm land and rather uneventful.

We would have loved to have stopped in big cities like Omaha (Nebraska seems delightful), St. Louis and Nashville. Some day, we’ll backtrack a little, and get to do more exploring.

By the time we were driving through these states, we had been on the road for 10 days and ready to be done.

And, our vehicles were SO dirty and full of so many crumbs and so much garbage that we could have been traveling with a family of rats that were ALSO relocating to Georgia and we’d have had no clue.

The break from reality had been great- but it was time to get to our final destination.

Finally there!

Finally, on May 30th, Memorial Day, we arrived in our new home state of Georgia!

At the time of the trip, our children were 9, 7, 4 and 11 months. Our youngest is by far our busiest! He’s generally good in the car, but every kid has a limit, right?

Read our post all about Tips For Roadtripping with Little Kids!