How to do the classic cross-country family trip? Try breaking it into pieces

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"See America First."
That slogan was once plastered on posters everywhere. It was the tourism industry's attempt — 100 years ago — to get Americans to spend their dollars at home.
It was, at the time, famous. It was also premature.
It wasn't until 1956, when Eisenhower's Federal-Aid Highway Act authorized the building of a network of modern interstate roads, that it became possible for the average family to pack up the station wagon and head out west to visit Yellowstone, The Rockies, and The Grand Canyon.
America, the drive-able
The 1950s and '60s was the golden age of the cross-country trip. It was in the air. Books like "On the Road," even movies as different as Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" (1959) and "Easy Rider" (1969) have as their background an epic journey across the continent.
Do families still go on these kinds of vacations? Not so much, said Laura Stiles, a travel agent in Hillsdale.
"Not only are the kids busy with their sports and schedules and friends and all the stuff they don't want to leave behind, but the parents are also busy," Stiles said.
Like a tornado, a cross-country family trip is the product of certain conditions.
It requires reasonable gas prices. It requires a level of family cohesiveness, less common now than it once was. And it requires money.
"Everything is more expensive than you think it is," said travel agent Linda Chapman of Mount Arlington.
Anyone planning this kind of epic cross-country trip for their family — and some people still do, even now — should expect to spend $200 a night on hotel accommodations, and (for a family of five) at least $100 a day on food, she estimates.
"Very few decent hotels fall under $200 a night, Chapman said. "There might be small independent hotels somewhere that might be cheaper. If you don't mind the mess, or whatever."
Beating the clock
Most important, it requires time.
A trek across the country, putting in a full 8-hour driving day, takes a minimum of five days, probably more. So it's essentially a week out and a week back — before you even add in time for sightseeing, activities, and so on. How many dads and moms, these days, have that much leisure?
"People don't have the luxury of a long vacation anymore," Chapman said. "At least not the average person."
But families are still seeing America, Stiles says. They're just seeing it in bite-size chunks.
"I plan a lot of trips where maybe one year the family will do the Southwest, and another year they'll do the Pacific coast, and another year they'll do Yellowstone," Stiles said. "They're flying to their destination, and then renting a car and driving from point A to point B, seeing the national parks along the way. So I don't think it's gone away. But I think it's being done differently."
Attention must be paid
Whether you decide to swallow America whole, or divide it up into snack-size portions, there is one perennial travel problem that is more acute, now, than it was a generation ago.
That's the childish attention span.
Kids in the back seat of a car were always bored. That was true even in the Good Old Days before iPhones. Hence those little road games you probably remember from your childhood. "I Spy." "Count the Out of State License Plates."
But cultural and technological factors have conspired to make kids more distractable, less willing to engage, than ever. What point is there in showing America to someone who won't look?
"I think the hardest part is getting the kids to put down the phone and look up," Chapman said.
What to do? One thing, Stiles said, is to actively engage your children in the planning of the trip. That way, they're invested. "Having the kids get excited about it and helping with the planning is key," she said.
Another thing that helps: becoming less of a chauffeur, and more of a curator.
Your job is not merely to drive your kids to different attractions. It's to make them come alive. This — like so much else about a good trip — requires preparation.
Find out interesting facts and stories to share with your kids. Research fun activities to do when you're there.
Be pro-active
"Just getting somewhere and seeing it, getting out of the car, saying hi Grand Canyon, bye Grand Canyon, and leaving, is not the way to see something," Stiles said.
Do your groundwork, and you'll find all kinds of things to do at the Grand Canyon — to use that example — besides looking at it.
"The National Park Service runs programs for families and kids," Stiles said. "There's a whole schedule of activities, from guided hikes, to looking at the stars through a telescope, to painting the Grand Canyon at sunset. You meet at a certain point and they supply everything and you just do a watercolor."
Meanwhile, plan on stopping at a theme park or two. "They need to have something to look forward to, between the museums and national parks," Stiles said.
If it all sounds daunting to you — the working parent with limited patience and limited time off — there is good news.
You may not have the resources for a multi-week, cross-country expedition. But someone else in your family just might.
Grandma and grandpa, these days, are staying active longer. And that could be a golden opportunity — for them, and for your kids.
And for you, to see a little down time.
"There's a lot of trips going on where grandparents are taking their grandkids," she said. "It's a growing trend."
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: How to plan cross-country road trip with our experts' help
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