My family has been traveling all over the West the past two summers. We have been to South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Colorado, the 4 corners, Wyoming, California, Nevada and Idaho. And with all this travel I finally figured out one thing:
The overnight bag
Often when we travel, we take a two day journey to get to our destination. With little kids it helps to break up the trip into two legs. Like last year, we stopped off in Colorado for an overnight stay before we made it to Philmont Scout Camp. Or this summer we stopped in Lander, Wyoming to visit my grandma before we went on the the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Last year, when we stopped at the hotel in Colorado, Chad had to unload every one of my kids’ suitcases out of the car top carrier to get out their pajamas and their outfits for the next day. Then he had to load them all up again the next morning.
So this year I finally wised up and packed an overnight bag.
I put in the kids pajamas, toothbrushes and outfits for the next day (having them in Ziploc bags made this so much easier- see this post) in the overnight bag so that was the only suitcase we had to unload when we pulled in to our mid-way destination late at night. And it was also a lot easier to leave in the morning because we were only worried about one bag to repack and load.
The overnight bag came in handy later on our trip as well. As we left South Dakota and headed towards Nebraska, we stopped off at a natural hot springs to go swimming. The bag doubled as a swim bag for all of us. Then it was a dirty clothes bag on the way home.
Packing an overnight bag for half-way stops along the way seems so obvious, but sometimes we just need a reminder of the simplest ideas.
![I spoke in church today and said the Atonement of Jesus Christ is the greatest act of Charity. I read Moroni 7:45-47 to make my point. But wherever there was the word ‘Charity’ I substituted it out for ‘the Atonement of Jesus Christ.’ See if these scripture verses now have new meaning for you:
“And the Atonement of Jesus Christ suffererth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth in the truth,
[The Atonement of Jesus Christ] beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not the Atonement of Jesus Christ, ye are nothing, for the Atonement of Jesus Christ never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail-
But the Atonement of Jesus Christ is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.”
So Easter really reminds us of love. The first and greatest commandment.](https://www.raisinglemons.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
We do a three day/two stop drive to Michigan from Texas each summer, and I do the overnight bag for the hotel stops, too. SO much easier than lugging everything in! Of course, we usually end up forgetting something in the “big” suitcase and have to dig around in it, but at least we have almost everything we need in one small bag!
My husband and I were just discussing last night a trip we are taking in a few weeks and he wanted to break up the 11 hour drive by staying overnight in a hotel and I wanted to drive it all in one day for this very reason! I hate having to unpack all the bags for us and our 4 kids and then having to repack everything just for 1 night. This is the solution that will keep everyone happy! Thanks for sharing this tip. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t think of this years ago!