A Long Road Trip from Cincinnati to Treasure Island, Florida with Four Kids

I decided to take our three kids and my baby sister to Treasure Island, Florida. I allotted for three days for the trip down. I was the only one driving, Octavia is two, and my sister, Faith, had never traveled with us. There were so many unknowns that I felt better giving myself an extra day. I packed things to keep the kids busy on the road. We did items in small paper sacks, a large dot-to-dot activity book, a book of MadLibs, and a clipboard for each kid with games on them for the older three. You can read more about our road trip activities here.

We left the greater Cincinnati area very early in the morning. We had all slept in comfortable clothing that was acceptable to wear on the first day of the road trip. Day 1 is for putting in as many miles as possible for me. Anything that can make that first day less stressful and allow us to go the farthest is acceptable. We got up, brushed our teeth, said goodbye to Michael/Dad and Jack (our dog), and loaded in the car.

It was still dark out and the little girls fell back asleep in the car. We were south of Lexington, KY when the girls woke up. We stopped off for a quick bathroom break and to change Octavia’s Diaper. Then we got back on the road. Ivy passed out the muffins I brought for breakfast and the clipboards so the big girls could start their games.

We made it a little way into Tennessee before I needed to stop for gas and coffee. We talked and decided to wait for a late lunch. I packed plenty of snacks for the trip. The girls shared snacks and made it through a couple more of the bags. We stopped for lunch in Chattanooga at our favorite diner, City Cafe! Ivy and I both had a Gyro omelet with potatoes. Octavia shared with me. Isabella had the ham and cheese omelet with potatoes. Faith had chicken fingers and fries.

We shared a couple of their amazing desserts before hitting the road again with our stomachs full and our sugar levels riding high. Our original goal was to make it to at least Chattanooga and we had made it. It was afternoon. We all felt much better and more energized after our stop. We decided that we would keep going. We were sitting in traffic in Atlanta, GA when we unanimously decided that we were going to stop for the night in Macon, GA. Ivy got online and booked us a hotel with a little bit of guidance.

We stopped for a gas and bathroom break. We filled up the gas tank before stopping next door at a McDonald’s for a break. They had a play area for the little girls to run off some pent-up energy. Octavia was way more amused by birds in the parking lot than she was by the playground.

We stopped in Macon for the night. We ate dinner at Mellow Mushroom. We shared a large pizza and an order of bruschetta. We went to sleep right after getting to the hotel. We got up early and ate breakfast at the hotel the next day before heading south again. The girls finished their clipboard games. They kept busy with a few more bags of activities. We stopped at a Wendy’s for a quick, easy lunch. We were so far ahead of schedule that I found a cool place to stop that day. We went to Silver Springs State Park and it turned out to be one of my favorite trips ever. You can read all about it here.

After spending the afternoon at Silver Springs State Park, we booked a hotel in Tampa and finished the last couple of hours on the road for the day. You can read our review of that hotel here.

It was a very decent road trip. I’m so glad that my girls are such good travelers. We had planned for an additional day on the road and didn’t expect to make it to our final destination of Treasure Island, Florida until the following afternoon. I love it when things work out better than expected! Stay tuned for the rest of our week-long trip to Florida.

Happy Travels!