Packing is a breeze, if you are a proficient mathematician that can figure out the density factors for fitting everything you will need for ten days of travel into one (or two, if you don’t mind paying the extra fees) relatively small suitcase.

At Cruise America, we are grateful for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for their concern for the safety for all of the flyers out there. However, given that, and given today’s security concerns, the lines have gotten very long—two hours or more in some airports. So give yourself, at the very least, two hours to get up to the scanners. Once there, you simply have to:

• Remove any jackets or coats from your kids and yourself and place them into a couple of bins.
• Next, off with the belts.
• Now remove all of the shoes off all of all the feet that are in your traveling party, and place them into a separate bin.
• Remove your computer from your suitcase and place it into a separate bin.
• Go through all of the carryon suitcases and remove anything that may present themselves as “questionable,” including liquids and anything that looks like it could be a dangerous item. This list includes aerosols, blasting caps, chlorine, dynamite, electronic cigarettes and vaping devices, any compressed gas cylinders, fireworks, flammable liquid, gel or aerosol paint, flammable paints, fuels, gas torches, torch lighters, gel-type candles, lighter fluid, lighters, liquid gel, hand grenades, liquid bleach, replicas of explosives, recreational oxygen, matches, spillable batteries, spray paint, tear gas, turpentine, paint thinner and vehicle airbags. Just because you may not carry many of these items on the plane, TSA still must search for them.
• Now you must make sure that you and all the kids are free of any objects whatsoever in your shirts or pants pockets. These are things like wallets, glasses, coins, makeup, pills, toys, gum, mints, keys or folded up paper.

Now it’s time to walk through the scanner. If there is one thing that is detected on you or your kids, you will then be hand patted down to assure you don’t have any of the heretofore mentioned items on your person. Oh, and if there is anything questionable in your suitcase, plan on a wait while TSA officers go through your carryon and examine everything until they find out what was questionable. Oh, and just before they do, they will swab your hands and suitcase with a drug-collecting wipe and place it into a machine for evaluation.

Once you finally get to the gate (assuming you make it), it’s time to sit and wait for the plane to arrive. Hopefully you won’t experience a delay, but then again, there are no guarantees. Delays affect the airline industry on a daily basis, but hopefully your flight won’t be significantly delayed, or cancelled altogether due to weather, mechanical issues, unruly passengers or mishaps of any kind.

When you finally make it onto the plane, you will need to get several bags up into the overhead compartments for transport. Because you are traveling with multiple passengers, you may have several bags to contend with … all while the other passengers behind you are waiting for you to take your seat—no pressure!

After the flight, it’s time to play the “let’s wait for our suitcases to slide down to the baggage carousel, and grab it if we can get past the crowd in time, if we can decipher which black suitcases are ours” game!

From the airport, you must figure out where the car rental place is located and catch a shuttle. This is to get an automobile to carry you, your significant other, your kids and everybody’s carryon, as well as checked luggage around with you. This car will be used to take you around town and maybe out of town, looking for a hotel that has two rooms to accommodate your group. If you can find a nice one, great. If not, you are in for a very long night!

Not that this all doesn’t sound like a complete blast, but there is another way of travel that people are finding much more enjoyable. It’s as easy as reserving your Cruise America rental RV, and there is a size just right for your family. Here are the steps you must take once it is rented:

• Go to the Cruise America rental center in your area
• Listen to the instructional orientation we offer
• Load up anything and everything you want to take along
• Hit the road and let your desires be your guide
• Let your kids stretch out and play video or travel games while in route

True, you’ll have to miss the early check-ins, the compressed luggage and the long security lines, the possible postponements or cancellations, and the kids being bored to death.

What you will experience is the stress-free relaxation that comes with being in command of your schedule, doing what you want, when you want and enjoying the gorgeous views out the window as you travel in supreme comfort.

At Cruise America, the journey is the reward!