Just survived a two-day, 1,000-mile drive to Florida with my husband and three children ages 1, 3 and 6. The most challenging of situations involved—what else?—the potty and my 3-year-old daughter.

On our second day of driving, we made it through Alabama and finally arrived in Florida. We stopped for a potty break at one of the nice rest stops in the panhandle area. We hadn’t been to this particular rest stop before and didn’t know where to park, so we chose the “lower level.”

Apparently, that was the wrong choice. Our parking spot was pretty far from the bathrooms. For me, the walk was a welcome change from sitting in the car. But my 3-year-old felt differently. On the way, she got a leaf in her sandal. From her screaming, you would think that she had been bitten by a fire ant. I carried her in my arms the rest of the way to the bathroom. Once inside the stall, she quickly threw off her shoes before I could stop her. As a mom with a slight paranoia about public bathrooms and cleanliness, I felt ready to scream. Instead, we got the shoes back on, finished our rest break, and piled back into the car.

After another hour or so, I heard the dreaded words: “I need to go poopy.” “Really, are you sure?” I asked? “Yes, really bad,” she said. I took this as an emergency—we need to pull over now! Of course there wasn’t a great place to stop, except a fast food restaurant. I ran her into the bathroom as quickly as I could. She sat on the toilet and said, “I’m just kidding!” (She at least went “number 1,” so the stop was not for nothing.)

The next “I need to go potty” came as we were heading south on I-95. We took an exit that said there was a gas station 0.4 miles away. The signage was blocked by thick foliage and we drove right past it. There was nothing else down this road and she was squirming. We pulled over on a farm’s dirt driveway. My husband held her over the ground using his arms as a makeshift toilet seat to keep her from getting wet. Boy, did she have to go! She pointed down at the ground and said, “Look Daddy, I’m making mud!” Of course, she stayed dry, but my poor husband’s shoes got wet.

When you’re traveling with toddlers, you never know what additional stops need to be factored in for travel times. We made it to our destination and had a wonderful time—and on our way back, I knew exactly where to park at the rest stops and which locations were better for all those “potty breaks.”

Sarah Mulkey is a child neurologist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. She and her husband, Brian, have three wonderful children who make each day extra fun and full of smiles.