Tales of the Carry-On Kid: Drive Tech
These days the two predominate forms of transportation seem to be by plane or by automobile. No matter which of these or any other modes you choose, you have to think like a Carry-On Kid! Each of these presents unique challenges and by following some of these tips, I hope to save you some money and make a stressful time just a bit easier. Even with rising gas prices, for many people, the car is still the best way travel.
With the advances in automotive technology, the days of the long boring car trips full of the license plate game or I spy are long behind us. But even the built in DVD players, satellite radio, iPads and iPods require a bit of prior planning. If your vehicle has a built in or multiple DVD players, as a parent, your two of your planning considerations are movie choices and headphone/headphone jack operational capability. If you are going on a long car trip with kids and your vehicle has multiple DVD displays, double check those headphone jacks and more importantly, double check the headphones. If you have smaller children and you want them to wear headphones, there are many brands out there that are designed for children and have controls that will keep the kiddies from ruining their hearing. I recommend over the ear headphones as opposed to ear buds for longer trips. Children wearing headphones and watching movies is great because you don’t have to listen to the Sponge Bob theme 45 times over a 6 or 7 hour road trip. The bottom line is if there are headphone jacks, their use can stop quite a few arguments and increase the sanity level of everyone involved.
If you only have one display in your car, or don’t want your small children in headphones, then you have to be more selective about the movies that will be shown. When my girls were younger, they would watch the same movie over and over. At home I could manage it, but it would have driven me crazy on a road trip. When choosing movies, I recommend that the adult or adults get together and choose the children’s movies that they enjoy. This keeps the sanity meter at a reasonable level. Here is how I would manage this situation: I would sit down with my wife, separate out the kids/family moves we all like, then bring in the kids and let them pick out their favorites from our pre-screened collection. This is one of those times when giving your children fewer choices is the best way to go.
If you have a tablet or a laptop that you are going to watch movies on, follow the same rules. Because of the limited space on some tablets, going over the movie selection you are going to load with your kids is a good idea. This is another area where those headphones come into play. If you have passengers that want to watch 2 different movies and you have say a tablet and a DVD player in your vehicle, I recommend the in-car DVD player show the movie the youngest passenger wants to watch. A 2 year old child has a better chance of messing up your tablet than say even a 5 or 6 year old. The laptop, while harder to watch, normally has large amounts of storage space so picking movies becomes less of an issue.
Satellite Radio is an amazing tool for long road trips. Most providers have hundreds of channels to choose. I recommend getting on your provider’s web site and re-looking at all of their selections. After you have found all of the stations that interest you, or you and your traveling mates or family, program those stations into your receiver before you leave. I have had great luck playing the satellite station lottery, but I have also missed out on some great programming because I found a channel I enjoyed or felt like I could live with. If you don’t have satellite radio in your vehicle and are using an auxiliary jack or FM transmitter, remember to fully charge up your MP3 player and try to have way to recharge that player if the trip is a long one. I like to put together a few playlists that I think will keep everyone in the car happy. I always include some classics that most people will sing along to. Is it corny? Yes, but a few songs like Hey Mickey and I Want You To Want Me help melt away the miles. [Editor’s Note: Quality choices, right there --R]
If you want to stick with the normal radio waves, hit the interwebz and look up some of the major radio stations in the cities you will be transiting. This makes it much easier to find a station you will enjoy. I find it interesting to listen to local radio, not only to hear their news but to listen to their format and to hear what music is popular in different cities and regions. It seems like there are fewer and few of those bad radio reception areas, but they are still out there and there is nothing worse than losing reception in the middle of a great song.
Most smartphones have built in GPS. Many vehicles have GPS and many people own standalone GPS. People have their own preferences as to which kind they use, but no matter what type, you have to have power. If you are using your smartphone as your GPS and have no car mount or power solution, things could get dicey. I live in Kansas and often travel to Colorado for family vacations. Of the 9+ hour drive, most of it is spent on I-70 so there is no reason for me to run my GPS to know I need to stay on I-70 for the next 350 miles. By turning off your GPS function of your smartphone during these long stretches of road, you will save tons of battery life. I like to use the GPS to find local restaurants to sample instead of the normal roadside fare. However, even if you use your GPS, it won’t hurt to have some analog maps on hand just in case.
I’ve covered some of the major road trip tech items you might use on a road trip and the little things you can do to make them work for you.
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