<p>Any parent wisdom to send along with a co-ed group of 17 & 18 year olds taking a road trip across several states to an annual meeting of their religious denomination/youth group? Parents of these kids would especially welcome ideas/experiences about finding overnight accomodations or other road trip hazards we might caution them about…</p>
<p>Hmmm. I have to think about this. I just returned from a 15 hour roundtrip dropping my 18 year old and two of her childhood friends (also now 18) in Phila. where they loaded up a car to drive all the way to Alaska! They have mapped out their trip and have researched and reserved accomodations…lots of camping but some hotels as well. We are talking a 4500 mile trip they are making. They left this morning and reached their first destination thus far. </p>
<p>If you have more specific questions, I can try to help or say what they have done. It is late now but I will try to check back tomorrow. </p>
<p>As far as accomodations, I suggest lining up in advance when possible. My D and her friends mapped out the route they wanted to take and what they wanted to see and where they wanted to stop and how long it took to get from one stop to the next. For each area, they then researched places to stay or camp. Lots of this was done online. AFTER mapping it out, she joined AAA and got a trip tic which is maps showing her entire route based on the intinerary she submitted. She received many books (WAY MANY given where she is traveling) for each region she passes through with everything she needs to know about that area and places to stay, etc. She had already lined most things up before getting that information but now has these resources to take along, plus the close up maps of their sections of their trip. She ALSO printed out specific written directions from MapQuest from point X to point Y to have in addition to the specific maps. They also have cell phones and will call me each time they reach that day’s destination. I have a copy of their intinerary and numbers for each place they plan to stay. I also recommend traveler’s checks. Let’s see, that is a start…also having a packing list. The girls could not believe they actually fit everything into the car which is not a big car but they had lots of stuff due to camping gear too. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>PS…you and I are brave parents!</p>
<p>join AAA and get the kid their own card( about 20$ more/year )
make sure they have access to a credit card with an unlimited spending limit (such as American Express) for dire emergencies
make sure the car has jumper cables, an emergency road kit (ie flares,tire inflator,etc) and someone knows how to change a tire…also make sure the spare tire is inflated and usable!
D found glass cleaner wipes useful on her road trips, for cleaning the headlights and windshield of those nasty bugs …you now, the ones the windshield wiper fluid just csnt get rid of!
Some kind of collapsible ice chest, you can buy them cheap.Able to be filled with ice, cold drinks each day but folded up and put away when not needed
Flashlights for the glove compartment
Confirmation if stopping overnight that the place they intend to stay at will rent a room to 17-18 year olds</p>
<p>These are all great suggestions–and will have the added credibility of now not coming from one’s “own” parents–who of course will be perceived as being “over-protective” or “intrusive”!!</p>
<p>Any advice about managing the “won’t rent to 17 or 18” year olds will be especially useful since as a co-ed group of this age I am sure this could come up. They will be travelling through some very conservative communities.</p>
<p>While I understand why rental car agencies and motel owners set limits–it bothers me that we can send kids to war but wont’ rent them a ride–or can refuse to rent if they have younger peers.</p>
<p>mmaah, </p>
<p>maybe it would be a good idea to look up some churches of the same denomination along the way, and email the pastors ahead of time-- just to have “emergency friends” whom your kids could call if something went wrong far from home.</p>
<p>Yes–a sort of “over-ground railway”. Doing the research on this option would be good for MY anticipatory anxiety. Thanks for reminding me I could do this…</p>
<p>Not a big problem, just call ahead to the motels likely to be stopped at and ask their policy (ie Motel 6, Sleep Inn Days Inn,etc.)
By the way this is another reason someone needs a credit card…motels won’t rent a room w/o one.</p>
<p>Sometimes if they don’t normally rent a room to those under 21, they will do it if you agree to accept all charges incurred, and give the motel your credit card #.</p>
<p>“Any parent wisdom to send along with a co-ed group of 17 & 18 year olds taking a road trip across several states to an annual meeting of their religious denomination/youth group?”</p>
<p>Suggesting that they pray probably wouldn’t hurt.</p>
<p>Ha! Thank you mini for making me laugh.</p>
<p>Since they are Unitarian Universalists, some will pray, some may question the origins of prayer or to whom or what prayer is directed, they may have a lively debate on what to pray for or whether collective prayer is more powerful than individual prayer–in any case it will keep them alert and hopefully not be distracting to the driver…</p>
<p>And the parents will definitely be praying…</p>
<p>MMaah…just again, a suggestion for your peace of mind is to have your child call home each day as he/she reaches the destination for that day. I would make sure that the group has a cell phone. I would want the itinerary in advance along with the phone numbers of each place of accomodation. As mentioned, my child is now driving 4500 miles from the east coast to Alaska, along with two other 18 year old girls. She has called me without fail each time they arrived at the next stop on her itinerary. She even called once as a heads up not to worry as they don’t expect to arrive at X destination until a certain time which may be later than I had thought and so not to worry when a call did not come yet at that time. Right now, she is enroute from Colorado to Wyoming today and she has checked in every single time and they have had no problems. Yes, our job is to worry (or pray) but it helps when the kids are responsible to call at every destination upon arrival and that there is a way to reach them as well. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>More money, less stuff. Cell phone, medical insurance and phone card. Have your home number in their luggage and wallet for emergencies. I lost a wallet once and an honest person saved the day. Sometimes colleges will rent a room to visiting students. You could probably book rooms in advance and speak to managers to make sure there will be no problem getting a room, incidently the cheapest hotels may not be the least expensive for the trip. Sometimes a slightly better hotel will offer free breakfasts beyond the donut and coffee in the lobby. Use an awards card if you can book into one chain, use the internet to find specials. Good luck.</p>
<p>Not a parent, just a kid who has driven up and down the entire East Coast:</p>
<p>*Get AAA. Absolutely, get AAA. You can call them and they will find overnight accomodations for the kids.
*Get a car charger for the cell phone. Make sure that the cells have good coverage in the areas which the kids are travelling through. T-Mobile, for example, didn’t work through most of the Carolinas on Rt. 95.
*Get a really, really good atlas.
*Could you possibly make the motel reservations for each stage, and give the child your credit card to swipe there? Mostly, the motels are worried about liability and just want to be able to get reimbursed if something happens.
*About motels in general: have the girls and boys get separate rooms. When they check in, tell them to look nice - if they have to change into khakis and blouses in the Exxon rest room a mile down the road, that’s fine. No spontaneous beards, goatees, or the like. Have an 18-year-old in each room, if possible. If a group of quiet, polite, clean-cut teens walk in and ask about the reservation that you made (while explaining the situation), most motels will allow them to rent.<br>
*Limit driving each day. Have the kids switch off every few hours.
*If there is room in the car(s), pack coolers full of good food. Trust me, you can only eat gas station food for a few hours before you are ravenous.</p>
<p>Regarding renting to 17 year olds, yes, you may need to give your credit card number, but we have also had to fax a “permission note” over a signature for this to happen. The best defense against this is to enter the office with a calm, mature demeanor and go about your business. </p>
<p>Soozie, where is your daughter off to? I would be happy to stand as an Alaskan “emergency friend” as we are near the Alaska Highway. However, as you no doubt already know, Alaska is a HUGE state, and just because we’re in the same state doesn’t mean we’ll be close. Just closer than you! ;-)</p>
<p>MomOf1,
That is such a sweet offer from one mom to another! I did not know you live in Alaska but then again, I have not see your posts before. My daughter will be taking the AlCan highway to Alaska, final destination is Anchorage. However, she and her two friends will spend one week traveling IN Alaska once they get there with their home base being Anchorage, before flying home to Vermont to attend her sister’s HS graduation and then to go off to a summer program herself. </p>
<p>Here is the situation…My dad, who lived near Philadelphia, died 1 1/2 years ago of cancer. Right before his diagnosis (and he was a very healthy person at the time), he had bought a brand new car. When he was diagnosed, he told my niece, who lives in Anchorage (my brother and his family has lived in Alaska for a very long time), who was just 14 1/2 at the time (is now 16 1/2) that she could have his car if they found a way to get it there. At the time, my oldest child, who was 16 1/2 (is now 18 1/2) kidded around that she’d love to drive it out one summer in college. The car has been saved the past 1 1/2 years at my parents’ home outside of Philadelphia. Well, indeed, my daughter kept this idea in mind and got two childhood friends to join her. I drove them to Philadelphia last week to get the car and load it up (they have camping gear too). When my D was home for one weekend in March, she met with the two friends and planned out the trip and they communicated via email all spring, doing all the research of where they wanted to go, the route they would take, the reservations, etc. My D joined AAA and got a trip ticket made up and many resource books plus printed out written directions from MapQuest for each segment of the journey. My brother sent her The Milepost, which you must be familiar with, for the AlCan Highway portion and for when they get to Alaska. They stayed two nights with relatives/friends, and the rest is either motels or campgrounds. They reserved as many as possible ahead of time. She has printed out her itinerary withal these numbers for me as well. She was able to reserve the motels on her own using her credit/debit card (which she has now that she is in college). I asked her on the phone if there was any problem checking in so far at the two motels they stayed at and she said not at all. This past March, she also stayed with a college friend one night in Salt Lake City at a hotel with no problem. My daughter has cash and travellor’s checks and has her own credit card, plus mine as an emergency back up. She has a cell phone as does one of the other girls. They have a power box that plugs into the cigarette lighter and then they can charge the cell phones and IPods (of course) as they go. They are taking turns driving. They have passports to cross into Canada. My brother wrote out a letter that he had notarized that gives her and the other two girls permission to drive his car (which he now owns) and to drive it across the border. </p>
<p>The only part of their trip that is not finalized is the week in Alaska. They will arrive at my brother’s house in Anchorage and likely are going to be talking of what they want to do in Alaska as they are traveling now. They have all the information with them and my brother has made suggestions. My daughter went with us to Alaska for two weeks ten years ago when she was 8 and saw a lot. This time she has to pick and choose what they wish to do with just one week. They might skip Denali this time. </p>
<p>If you live anywhere enroute from her journey from British Colombia to Anchorage (going through Dawson Creek, BC, Teslin, YT and Beaver Creek, YT) or anywhere they might travel within Alaska when there…not sure yet, maybe Kenai Pennisula, other places in southern Alaska…let me know. You can always email me if you wish at SoozieVT which is at aol.com. Thanks for the offer. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Thanks for these many tips (and quips). Advice from so far and so many will probably be taken much more seriously than if it is just coming from the groups’ “worrywart” mothers (or dads). </p>
<p>I’ve been amused to discover how many staid and sensible parents I know have told me about some hair-raising trip adventures from their youth when this topic comes up–and they often close with “but don’t tell my kids about this…”</p>
<p>MMaah—thanks for the laugh about UUAs and prayer. I expect it’s not original, but our UUA (now emeritus) minister used to say “Unitarians are so open-minded our brains fall out.” I’ve always liked the fact that they welcomed this card-carrying agnostic humanist with open arms (I’m still on the books).</p>
<p>You should probably send along a list of parent emergency numbers and consents for medical treatment for the minors. (Copy w/each kid and one in the glove compartment) Kids should also have their health insurance ID cards on them. Hopefully not needed, but better safe than sorry.</p>
<p>A prepaid phone card would be good in case of poor cell service. Definitely AAA. Good luck.</p>
<p>It is a tradition that welcomes all, this Uncommon Denomination–as we found when we went looking for a faith community for a Congregational/Quaker/Buddhist (me) and my agnostic/skeptic husband. It had given the kids a good grounding in all faith traditions and a real committment to social justice.</p>
<p>I think one of the things fueling the worry in the parent group about this trip is that they imagine their kids, who tend to the religious left, could be in peril in Texas, which is percieved as on the far religious right. Until CC, the only Texans whose values I knew were my liberal Jewish brother and sister-in-law. But after reading this forum for 7 months, I feel authorized to assure my fellow parents that Texas is well-endowed with open-minded, good hearted people and probably just as travel-safe as anywhere else if you’re being a sensible traveler. (There are some Texans in Washington I consider threatening to my values–but I think we’d all respect each others’ well-being if stranded at a truck stop.) (Picturing George and Tom stuck at a truck stop might require a leap of faith…)</p>