I wish we had had this when we got our last minivan.
Our minivan is a Chevy Venture. It is the only minivan that seats eight. This Christmas we will try to go to Tucson, AZ with all the seats full of children under the age of eight. The only reason why we are attempting something this insane is that the next step up in size is out of our price range right now.
It’s not so bad… we took our 5 little ones over a few thousand miles.
A friend who does a lot of traveling with his large family gave me this advice – and it worked nicely:
Eat breakfast, play for about 30 minutes. Then push the miles in the morning until lunch, then take 2-4 little play breaks (15 minutes) between lunch and an early dinner, then more miles in the evening.
Rest stops (depending on the state) were usually pretty nice and clean I found – and a lot easier on the wallet than McDonalds.
We managed ~350 miles per day of easy driving, and some days up to 500.
Good luck!