My kids are now 11, 8, and 5. No road trips last year with Covid. One coming up next week for fall break. But this will be the first one with all the kids old enough to open snacks and feed themselves and entertain each other well. We have done a few more day trips and i already know it’s better. So this is one trip I’m really going to enjoy.

It can get better assuming you adapt. Drove from Pgh to Holden Beach (basically myrtle beach) every year with 4 kids (once the youngest was 4). I leave at 7PM, drive through the night. They all sleep. On the way back, Wake early, light snacks in the car. We do not stop to dine anywhere. Bathrooms when needed.

We travelled a lot by car when I was a kid. We didn't stop much. My mom packed lunches - no McDonalds for us, although this was 50 years ago and there weren't as many choices. We stopped at the roadside rest areas for lunch and ate our salami sandwiches. We stopped for gas. We didn't even always stop to pee - my mom had a can and we peed in it, which was then dumped overboard. Maybe that was extreme, but my dad did not like to stop.

When I travelled with my kids, we did stop to pee, but my kids are boys, so we just peed on the side of the road and kept moving.