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We finally got home from our "vacation" yesterday (also known as a "road trip" including 2-year-old). Including only the long-distance drives (over 100 miles), we went about 1700 miles, from Oviedo to Fredericksburg, VA, then to Banner Elk, NC, and finally back to Daytona Beach, FL. We learned several things about driving long distances with a 2-year-old:

• Only take the trip if there's a good reason to go. For example, I would not drive a two-year-old 800 miles to go to the nearest Toys-R-Us. However, a good reason would be that you are going on a vacation, or to see some family, or to see one of the seven natural wonders of the world. For us, the first and second reasons both applied, plus we were throwing a surprise birthday party for my Mom.
• Get a portable DVD player.
• Take control of what DVDs are played and how often they are played. Our daughter wanted to change the DVD or listen to some music ("Goo-ik") after only about 15 minutes. If we chose the DVD and resisted her requests to put something else on, sometimes she would settle down and actually watch an entire video.
• Pray that your little one can sleep in the car. Ours slept approximately 120 miles out of the 1700 that we drove. We were hoping for more napping and less yapping, but things went reasonably well, except for the day we started out in the afternoon, without giving Savannah a nap. If your child doesn't nap in the car, don't leave home in the afternoon without giving her her nap.
• At mealtime, stop at a rest area and eat, either food that you brought with you, or fast-food that you pick up and bring to the rest area. Our daughter did much better if we let her get out of the car every few hours and run around.
• Don't try to drive too much in one day. I'm sure that this varies by child, but our daughter maxed out at about 500 miles in one day (on the way there). On the way back, you might want to cut that back, because the kids might tire of driving more quickly.

All in all, we had a great trip. We did some humourous things, like forgetting that we'd have our dog with us on the way back home from Daytona Beach, but we enjoyed the mountains, and really enjoyed Mom's retirement party. We'll try to have pictures up on the Gallery in the next few days.