In just over a week, we are heading out on our second road trip of the summer. While our first summer road trip (see HERE) took us to points west, this time we will drive east: driving from Colorado to Michigan. We’re all excited to visit our Michigan family, and spending two weeks on the shore of Lake Michigan will be a lovely bonus. I foresee lots of boating and relaxing on the beach in our near future.

Once we get there, there will hopefully be lots of time to unwind. Before we leave, however, there is a lot to do. While my packing list will essentially be the same for this trip as for our last one, there will be some variations (for example, we need to pack life jackets). The tasks of deciding what to bring, packing all of our bags, and getting our house ready for us to depart for a couple of weeks all take time.

For this trip, we have the added complexity of packing lots of food to bring with us. We’re pretty sure we can fit a second ice chest in the trunk of our car, and it will save us a lot of money if we bring our own ingredients with us instead of buying them – much more expensively – once we’re in Michigan. For some reason food prices are much higher in this part of Michigan than what we typically pay (though most of that is likely due to the fact that we do a lot here to reduce our food costs (see HERE) that you really can’t do when you’re on vacation). Plus, this way I know the foods we’ll be eating will be clean, so hopefully we can avoid most food-allergy troubles while we’re away. All of that to say, I’ll be doing a good amount of meal planning as part of our preparations for departure.

The other big difference in this trip is that while we can make the drive from here to California in one very long day, we cannot drive the over 1300 miles to our Michigan destination in one day. We’ll break up our trip into two days, doing the bulk of the driving the first day (to be read: driving as absolutely far as we can), staying overnight at a roadside motel, and then driving the rest of the way the following day. Our boys always have a tougher time with that second day of travel, so we try to make it as short as possible. I’ll make sure that I pack some fun surprises for that second day in the car, which will hopefully provide a bit of a distraction.

I’m excited to leave soon on another trip. Do you have any road trip plans for this summer?