Road Trip Tips + Tricks From Megan Schiller of The Art Pantry
We recently had the opportunity to speak with the inspiring, innovative, and creative Megan Schiller from The Art Pantry about her swoon-worthy family adventure. Megan and her family were selected by Airstream to travel the country on a sponsored trip, documenting their experiences for social media, and after three months of exciting exploration, Megan has a lot of great ideas and insights for anyone planning to hit the road with kiddos in tow.
1) What are your top three on-the-road activities to do with your kids?
1: We love having an accessible art area in our home, so I created one in our temporary trailer for the girls. It made a huge difference to have art supplies out in the open for whenever they were bored or inspired to create.
2: We loved meeting our neighbors at campgrounds. If they had a dog our 5-year-old was in heaven and if they had kids, our girls had instant friends. This was the best.
3: Exploring the places we were in without an agenda and being able to choose activities spontaneously.
2) How did you facilitate and plan this big adventure?
I picked a date on the calendar about a year away and started researching. At the time, I thought we would do a 3 month trip in Australia, New Zealand, and Bali, but after realizing how expensive it would be, I began looking into doing a road trip across the US. My husband knew someone who did marketing for Airstream and took him out to coffee to ask for advice on pitching a sponsored trip. It turned out that Airstream had an incredible campaign called Endless Caravan where they lend out a truck and trailer to a family for up to 3 months to tour around the US and share the experience on social media. So we applied for the campaign and It turned out we were a perfect fit!
3) What are two things that make being a traveling family unique?
1: The amount of time we spend together as a family. We were pretty much together 24/7 for 3 months and it was so much better than I even imagined. This sounds terrible to a lot of families, but we didn’t have to deal with a lot of parenting issues that we deal with at home because it was a completely different experience. Our children got along better than they do at home and we gave them so much more undivided attention that everyone was more pleasant and helpful. Of course, there were unpleasant moments, but far less than at home and we got over them much quicker.
2: Our kids get exposed to so many different people and lifestyles. It has really opened their minds and helped them see the world beyond our home life.
4) Which of your personality traits come in handy when out on the road?
Definitely my easy-going nature. There were times when my husband was stressed out about where we would stay (if we didn’t have a camp reservation) and other things like being responsible for Airstream’s trailer and truck. If I had been stressed out too, there would have been many more tense moments. I believed that it would all work out and was able to calm him down most of the time.
5) What is your process for researching great kid-friendly activities when traveling to a place you haven’t been before? How far in advance do you begin preparing? What are some resources that would be useful to other traveling families?
We actually aren’t big planners when it comes to activities. I would do a quick search online either right before or when we arrived at a place. Sometimes I would find great travel blogs with kid-friendly information, but mainly we just played it by ear. We had only one day to explore Savannah, GA. and our 8-year-old decided that she would plan the itinerary for the day. She did research online and planned an outing to an ice cream parlor and a ghost tour at night (which we didn’t even end up doing because we were all too exhausted). We also had a ton of recommendations from friends for various places so we tried to follow those as much as possible.
6) What is your favorite memory from your big trip?
That’s such a hard question! I have so many favorite memories. I’ll list a few, so I don’t have to choose!
The first one is hiking down to hot springs on the banks of the Rio Grande in Taos, NM and going skinny-dipping in the deserted pool.
The second was co-hosting a family collaborative art event at a friend’s home studio (in her backyard) in Austin, TX. All the families created huge collaborative canvases together and it was so much fun.
Another favorite memory was spending my birthday on a gorgeous beach in the Florida panhandle with my sister and her husband who flew out to travel with us for a week.
And I have to mention watching the sunset at White Sands National Monument. It was an other-worldly experience.
7) What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned from being on the road with your family?
How important it is to spend time together as a family. Also how travel has a way of opening our minds and allowing us to grow exponentially.
8) What should a traveling parent always have in their backpack?
Water, a snack, wet wipes, money, something to keep kids entertained (for us it’s markers and paper).
9) What would you do differently for your next big family adventure?
We would move at a slower pace. Because we were working along the way and had events scheduled in various cities, we moved quickly. I would have loved to have been able to spend at least two weeks in each of our favorite places.
10) What advice would you give a family who would like to travel extensively?
If you really want to do it, you can find a way. Set a date, begin planning for it, and things will start to fall into place. When you are traveling, say yes to unexpected opportunities and be open to meeting new people. Also, you don’t have to see all of the sights and cram your days with scheduled activities. Take it slow if you want and go at a pace that works for your family.
Thanks to Megan for sharing her fantastic story with us! If you are interested in learning more, check out Megan’s work on her website The Art Pantry, and on Instagram + Facebook!
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