How To Get Clean Drinkable Water While Traveling

For the last 7 years or so, our family has been traveling and going on tour with my husband who is a musician. Until this year, our weeks on the road had extended to 5 weeks at a time. This was done with kids, so we have found some helpful tips for living on the road and traveling with kids. Namely, how to find drinkable clean water while on the road.

First - We used to buy the big jug of clean water at a nearby grocery store that allowed refills for about .60 cents. Or, we did the whole buy the bottled water thing. For starters, these jugs were bulky to travel with when we would leave to go from hotel to hotel, and the bottled water was the same issue. Plus, the costs add up as well as all of those recyclable bottles crinkling and taking up space.

So, we began to look for solutions.

We discovered that many hotels have a workout room that has clean water dispensers. This was a very doable solution, but the only problem is that sometimes these jugs of water run out and the hotel  doesn't always replace them, especially not on weekends. It also requires a trip down to the workout room at all hours of the day or night, sometimes after we are already in pajamas for the night.

The most recent discovery for us that has turned out to be a win-win situation for all. The only problem is the fear that it will crack while traveling, and it does take up some amount of space in the van, but we keep it inside its original box while transporting and made the room because, it's wonderful! We can use either the workout room's already filtered water or just draw from the faucet. If there is a fridge in the room that isn't filled up with food yet, we can even keep the water cool. It's a Brita filter pitcher. The price of the original pitcher and filter were not overly expensive to begin with, so if you are traveling by plane or extremely limited space, you could even just pack a filter and buy the actual pitcher when you arrive at your destination, and then donate it to a thrift store before you leave your destination. For us, we just made space in the packing because so far we absolutely love the Brita pitcher choice for clean, drinkable water while on the road.

Where's Peara - Getting Random and Water Parks

Where's Peara now?

Today, Peara shows up at a very random location....  No, seriously! there is really a place called Random. Well, OK. It's called Random Lake, and it's in Wisconsin just a little Northeast of Port Washington. From there, we headed to one of our favorite Country Inns and Suites hotel in Appleton, WI. It has a really fun small water park, which means water slides, and well.  Yes, a plush pear can go down a water slide.

For those of you new to Peara's adventures, let me introduce you.

Peara is a stuffed, plush, yellow pear with googly eyes. We received her from my sister-in-law years ago, even before we had children, I believe. See, she was going through her kids' toys and Peara was about to take a visit to Goodwill. Before this happened, my sister-in-law asked if we would by any chance be interested in finding a home for Peara. And, the rest is history.

Well, almost history...

As we began traveling with our children, we sort of adopted this plump yellow pear as our travel with kids mascot.  And, thus began our journey of "Where's Peara?"

Random Lake, WI

The name of this town was too much for us to pass up. As a family, we often joke about how we just randomly blurt out whatever enters our minds.  So, spending an afternoon in Random Lake was right up our alley.

Notice how her eyes are a  bit off center and random in this pic.  And, you can see her reflection in the picture below:

This is Random Lake.  Actually, quite a nice little town. We couldn't help but have fun with its name. Though, we really have no idea of how the name came to be. We were immediately struck by how the population is a somewhat random, odd, number.

Amidst the random conversation and randomness, I did manage to capture some of its true beauty.

But, my daughter quickly noted that if she went to Random High, her year book quote would be:

Random is as Random does....Squirell!

OK - So, maybe only those who have seen the movies Forest Gump and Up, will get that joke.

 

From Random Lake, Peara ended up in Peshtigo, a town who was wiped out by a fire years ago, but seldom talked about - At least, I never heard of the Peshtigo fire when learning about the Chicago fire and all.

Time to cool off. Back at the hotel...

Peara had to go down the slide as well.....

Truly the result of my animating/coding son...  We sent Peara down the slide with my daughter holding her and then my son photoshopped out my daughter. So, no pears were harmed in the making of this blog.

MyBuckleMate Review: Making Buckling Up Easy For Little Ones

I received a 2-pack of MyBuckleMate in exchange for my honest review. I tried out the product with my daughter, and here's what I discovered.

MyBuckleMate is a MADE IN THE USA product, so you can take pride in your own country while knowing your child is safely and easily secured. The idea was developed by a mother of three, who wanted to make getting kids into the car easier, especially when you have three in a row with at least one in a booster or car seat.

This product lifts up the hard-to-find end of the seat belt, and keeps the buckle part - where the metal clip clicks into - in an easy-to-reach spot.

It is great for little hands, but it is also designed to help adults with limited mobility and arthritis. It even fits into those very tight spaces, in between booster seats to fit three across.

For starters, this short video clip explains what MyBuckleMate is all about:



It is a new product on the market, but has already won awards, like the 2014 National Parenting Publications Awards Silver Winner and the Mr. Dad's Seal of Approval.

Exciting, right?

My first thoughts were, "Oh, how I wish I had this product when I was cramming three carseats side-by-side in the back of a Ford Escort Hatchback.  Those were tricky days, and buckling in my children properly was always an ordeal. It would have been delightful to have a product like this that clips securely around the floppy seat belt clip to raise it into a clickable position, easy to secure and easy to locate at all times.

The product arrived as a 2-pack, which works great when trying to secure two seat belt ends side-by-side.

          

The instructions were super easy to follow. I opened up the package, and unclipped the first MyBuckleMate to get it ready to install.









It clicked into place very quickly and was ready to use.

The end result was a secure child, and no hassle for mama!

I didn't try to fold down the seat with the MyBuckleMate in place, but the product claims to stay secure without need to remove the MyBuckleMate when folding down a seat.

This product retails for $13.99 per 2-pack, and comes in Black, Cream and Tan to match most interior  vehicle options.

Find MyBuckleMate online at MyBuckleMate.com, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Where's Peara: A Great Lake State