As many of you know, I recently moved to Houston, Texas from MD. Unfortunately, did not hire long distance movers for this journey. Instead, I opted for the more financially friendly approach use family, friends and kids. Don’t judge me! And yes, I made the kids work for pizza and ice cream sandwiches. I don’t age discriminate.

So when I first decided to move to Texas, I called up my brother and asked him to help me drive my belongings and car down South. He without question said,”When and I’ll be there?” Love that dude! So I reserved a U-haul truck and thought nothing of it. I knew that my brother (who had done this long distance drive twice before) would have this journey all under control. When I told my friends I planned on driving to Texas, they all gave me this, “Are you serious?” look. I replied, yep (with a how else am I going to get me and my stuff there smile plastered on my face).

However, as the day approached for me to embark on this journey I became nervous about traveling 22 hours in a U-Haul truck with a car being towed behind it. What was even more scary was we were told the maximum speed we could go was 55 mph. Really? But there was no turning back. The day before we were to travel, I made a Walmart run. I bought a cooler, a car charger for the portable DVD player and forgot to get snacks.

The next day, we made like a banana and split! We didn’t take the traditional route south, instead my brother mapped out another route. His route entailed us to go from Virginia, to Tennessee, to Georgia, to Alabama, to Mississippi, to Louisiana and then to Texas. Sounds like a lot? Well it was. We started off energized listening to the radio, then to my iPod and then we bought out the big gun (the portable DVD player) and watched movies. Ok, I watched movies my brother just listened, lol.

My brother and I began to get tired on the first day as we approached Chattanooga, TN so we stopped to get a hotel, not to my liking. Note, if the door of your hotel room leads you straight outside, it’s LOW BUDGET! Take that how you want to. And yes, ours was low budget. I was so dissatisfied I asked my loving brother to get my comforter and pillow out of the U-haul so I wouldn’t have to sleep on the hotel’s own. And of course he did!

We got up the next day and made our way on to Texas and arrived close to midnight. All in all, it wasn’t that bad it was just long as hell. During my trip, I had some time to reflect on some tips I’d like to share with you since it’s the summertime and some of you may be taking road trips in the weeks ahead.

1. If you have to travel for a long period of time (and your like me), make sure you’re traveling with someone who likes to drive more than you so you can drive for only three hours during a 22 hour drive.

2. Don’t eat Wendy’s twice within three days.

3. Don’t eat anything from SONIC unless you are near a bathroom.

4. Don’t let your brother convince you to stay at a LaQuinta Inn.

5. Wear deodorant.

6. Make sure you all like the same music and movies (if you have a portable DVD player)

7. Coordinate bladder stops! (yours, your vehicles and all passengers)

8. Eat at Cracker Barrel for breakfast.

9. Take pictures along the way.

10. Make the best of the situation and the confined space with the ones you are traveling with because you never know when you’ll be able to experience that quality time again.

Feel free to share some of your road trip rules and stories! Also, take a look at the pics below of the scenery along our road trip.