Ten years ago, I started my company, Empowering Youth, Inc, which means the SPARK Peer Tutoring Manual has been helping schools train peer tutors for a decade!
To celebrate this accomplishment, we’ll release a new electronic version of SPARK Peer Tutoring – so be watching for this in the coming weeks!
Our family recently completed an 11-day roadtrip from Wisconsin to New York City, stopping at many interesting attractions along the way. The next few weeks I’ll chronicle our adventures and share how we did it and what went well (and what didn’t!)
Cooler and Grill
With four adult-sized eaters to feed, we knew dining would be expensive unless we figured out a way to cook our own food. Roadtrips aren’t ideal for this, but we thought it was important enough to plan for it anyway. We packed a good-quality cooler with fresh ice in the bottom, as well as a small gas grill. During the eleven days, we ate at a restaurant only four times, and that was when we were in the city (NYC and Philadelphia) and couldn’t fire up the grill. We ate quality, healthy food throughout the trip, and saved a lot of cash along the way.
Plugging In
The roadtrip itself was relatively painless, even though we traveled nearly 10 hours in a single day – twice! Electronics certainly make the long days more bearable – while I don’t recommend “plugging in” all day at home, on the road it was a life saver. We kept the iPods and computer charged on the car charger, and reminded the kids to turn off the electronics as we neared our destinations.
Breaks
Although we had a couple very long travel days, most were shorter and we tried to break up the long days with mini-stops we found on the map. We also forced everyone to get out of the vehicle when we stopped to get gas. Just walking around the gas station helped to get the blood circulating again.
Quality Hotels
It had been a long time since we’d done a family road trip with hotels. We typically stay in a condo when we vacation, and last year’s road trip was in a motorhome. So we made the decision to keep higher standards for the hotels, even if we wouldn’t be staying long. We used Priceline bidding almost exclusively and regularly paid between $50-70 per night for 3-star and better hotels. We just had to plan ahead a couple days, and this system worked pretty well.
Purchase an I-Pass
We bought an I-Pass transponder in Illinois and were able to use it in every state we visited along the way. The same device was used for all tolls throughout Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York – no matter what their toll pass is named. It saved us both time and money, as the transponder allowed us to take the automated toll lanes and the tolls were half-price. Ideally, you’ll buy the transponder before leaving on your trip, though, because the transponder didn’t work for the first 24 hours.
Wisconsin to NYC Roadtrip Series:
Roadtrip Tips
Gettysburg
Philadelphia, PA
Lancaster County
Princeton University
NYC September 11 Tiles
NYC Before Occupy Wall Street
Probably our most regular entertainment this summer has been our State and County Parks. We’re lucky enough to be just a few miles from two very nice parks, so we wisely purchased annual memberships at the beginning of the summer. This way our kids have been able to invite friends along on the Summer Splash Challenge as well!
When the parks are close-by and your car already has the sticker, it’s so easy to pack a picnic and jump in the car. We’ve cooled off many days at these parks and plan to continue doing so in the years to come.
Swimming, fishing and “fun at the lake” easily fit the bill for the “culture and environment” section of the Summer Splash Challenge. For more great ideas, check out the Parent Further Website.
