Road Tripping with Baby and Toddler: Pure Madness or Stroke of Genius?

It’s summer of 1980, heat wave has hit Finland and the old Datsun 100A is fully loaded for the thousand and then some kilometers trek from southern Finland along the Gulf of Bothnia to northern Norway. The two kids, toddler of just under two years, and baby of 9 months, are hanging out in the back seat, happy about the extra play and crawling room, provided by  the luggage filling the back seat leg room. Car seats for kids? Unheard of.

The family is not the first to arrive to Yyteri, Finland’s answer for Costa del Sol or any other southern sandy beach paradise, and the campsite has already ran out of hot water when their small grey car swerves into the parking lot. In the summer’s heat, the lack of hot water would have normally not been a problem, but in the space of the first 130 kilometers, the baby has already gone through all of his spare clothes due to an unexpected feisty stomach bug.

In no time, the Datsun points back to the starting point and another 130 kilometers later: home sweet home.

As history has tendency to repeat itself, just last week that then two-year old packed her own toddler and 4-week old baby in a fully packed van, and set off on a road trip.

Some lessons had been learned and security rules enforced in the years gone by though, and this time the kids were tightly tucked in their car seats. And the destination was not thousands of kilometers away, but rather yet unknown destination somewhere in the Norwegian coast, depending partly on if that stomach bug would make a reappearance, some thirty years later. The Datsun had also transferred to a Mercedes Sprinter with ample room for all the toys. Bikes, kayaks, hiking boots, that is.

Based on the experiences in the eighties you could say the whole affair was pure madness, and even now we did get doubtful looks that seemed to question our parenting choices from some acquaintances and neighbours.

But for me, road tripping with kids could only be described as a stroke of genius.

There’s no queueing for security, in which time the baby might start screaming, and the toddler disappear into the crowd, while you are still struggling trying to get under the bars directing the queue, with sweat dripping down your back as you also try to hold on to the baby and luggage.

You can stop for proper naps, lying down, anywhere you want. Or you could cook up a pot of stew if needed.

When the day’s drive is over, you are ready to set up for the night, anytime and anywhere, whether it is an hour or ten hours after starting the drive.

You can pack anything and everything you think you might need, as there’re no weight restrictions. And no matter how much you bring, you don’t have to carry it around at airports! We did leave all the kids’ toys home though, only couple of books and an iPad with games and Shaun the Sheep video clips made it for bedtime story time and emergencies, respectively.

And it does feel kind of adventurous, not knowing how far you’ll get or where you end up.

This time we did end up in our dream destination, in the very end of a windy road, at the edge of the Atlantic. A place that felt like it was the last place on the earth. Maybe it was.

But about that, I will have to tell you more next week once the fully packed camera memory cards are securely emptied to my laptop and stories to be told thought through. Until then, I hope you enjoy the other Instagram Travel Thursday posts, see the links in the end of this post. And if you want to participate (why not!), you’ll find more about that down below too.

On a different note, anyone in Dublin in the first week of October? We are having a small gathering for Instagram and travel lovers at one of my favourite cafés, The Pepper Pot (check out the interview on Skimbaco) on October 2nd, at 11:30. There are only ten places, so if you want to join us, make your booking now! It’s free of charge, but everyone will pay for their own lunch.

I’m part of the team co-hosting the Instagram Travel Thursday Linky, an initiative started with Skimbaco Lifestyle online magazine to connect travel and Instagram enthusiasts across borders and I would love if you joined us! Read the guidelines on Skimbaco’s site and get to know us co-hosts better by hovering your mouse over the interactive image below. And once you are ready with your own post, please add it to the Linky in the bottom of the page and check out some of the other participating bloggers! All images except the feature image are from my personal Instagram gallery, you can find me there at @todestinationunknown.