Last week I had the amazing opportunity to drive a brand new Honda Accord to California for my family vacation courtesy of Ken Garff Honda of Orem. I packed our stuff (which was to last my 2 kids and I through a full week, with a bit extra in case we ended up staying a few extra days). Once the car was packed up I snapped a pic, because there was still SO MUCH ROOM in the trunk!
We woke up at 4 AM and started our journey to Southern California! My sister and I traveled in a caravan so that I felt a little more at ease driving so far with just myself and my young kids. I started out the trip on a full tank of gas. In Cedar City, my Sister’s car needed gas. I was at half a tank. My niece (who is 12) hung out in my car a) because otherwise she would have had to share a back seat with her 2 brothers and b) so she could help me out when the kids needed a drink, food, etc. I highly recommend traveling with a 12 year old who can help (and take pictures)! I had her snap this picture of the amazing gas mileage we got.
So Michael… what do YOU think about our car’s gas mileage?
The thrill was short lived…
After I filled up in Cedar City, UT I traveled with my Sister and her car and they had planned on making it to Barstow, CA before they needed to fill up again. They made it slightly past Baker, CA and ended up needing gas at a super tiny little gas station in the middle of nowhere. The gas station was about $5.00/gallon, AND they only took CASH (no cards!) Needless to say, I still had plenty of gas and wasn’t about to waste my money at this stop. I proceeded to make it to my brother’s house in Huntington Beach, CA. Then I drove to Disneyland in Anaheim. Then I drove back to my brother’s house. All without needing to stop for gas SINCE CEDAR CITY, UTAH!!! I finally had to fill up with some gas on Wednesday of our trip (we left Utah on Sunday morning).
One of my other favorite features of the car (besides the amazing gas mileage) is the Bluetooth connection to my phone. It was fantastic to be able to answer a call from my Sister in the car ahead with just a push of the button on my steering wheel! She would call to tell me where they were planning on stopping for gas. Also, with the Bluetooth connection I was able to listen to my music from my phone without even having to find the auxiliary jack to plug into. Starting and stopping the car would automatically start and stop my music on my phone!
This Honda Accord also features a backup camera (with 3 different angles of viewing), a side camera to check your blind spot (complete with lines to tell you just how far that car to the right of you should be before you merge into that lane), and automatic locks. Let me just explain about the automatic locks. If I have the key on me, and I approach the car, the car automatically unlocks. Without me having to search in my purse for the key. I will say, this didn’t always work perfectly. I found that if I keep the key in my pocket instead of my purse it triggers the unlock much easier. Sometimes when it was buried in my purse it wouldn’t trigger it, and I’d have to dig the key out anyway.
Now that I’ve told you about my favorite features of the car from my trip, I will tell you my #1 go to road trip tip of all time…
My daughter gets carsick. Almost every time we are in the car longer than an hour. She’s thrown up in my bosses new Mercedes, she’s thrown up on the way to Oregon, on the way home from Oregon, on the way to California, if we have taken a road trip there, she’s thrown up. She even got us out of a ticket once when she tossed her cookies right as the cop was writing out the speeding ticket for my husband. We have learned to keep a box of gallon size Ziploc bags right next to her on ALL road trips (sometimes we even bring ’em if we are just heading up to Salt Lake City!). The beauty of the Ziploc is that she throws up right into the bag. We seal it up, and while it’s not ideal, we can just keep it in the car until our next stop, where we toss it in the trash. We don’t have to stop along the side of the road, and it keeps the car nice and clean. We also use the Ziploc bags for messier trash such as an empty cup from a restaurant or a yogurt container. On one particular road trip we even used up the rest of the bags on her last throw up, and we had to stop at a grocery store IMMEDIATELY to buy a new box. Seriously, it took us several trips before we finally figured this out, and so I pass the learning onto you! Never leave for a long road trip without them!
Disclosure: Ken Garff Honda of Orem allowed me to use a Honda Accord for the duration of my trip to California. No other compensation was provided.
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I really enjoyed reading your blog and about your brand new car features.My 1 yr old son gets carsick too even on just short trips.So I just place a cool cloth on his forehead and this make him feel so much better.