My sister is getting married on July 16. She wants me to make her cake. I love this idea, so excited. I have agreed and we have a plan on design. Fortunately she doesn't want anything over the top, just a tiered cake in butter cream and no special fillings. I am concerned about the time constraints and travel. I live in Texas, she lives in North Carolina. With the kids, it'll be about 20 hours on the road, give or take. 20 hours of hot...it's the south and it's July. I would like to prepare anything and everything I can before we leave. I don't want to spend my limited family time in the kitchen. Plus I haven't used their equipment, so I don't know how many possible disasters that could entail. We will be on the road all day on the 13th. Her wedding is on the 16th, so that will leave me the 14 and 15th. I have a rather large cooler. Right now I think my plan is to prepare the butter cream ahead of time. I may do fondant pearls, so I will do those as well. I can bake the cakes on the 14th and stack and decorate on the 15th. Is there any possible way I can complete more of the cake before we leave? I would love to have it baked as well, but I am unsure if that's even a possibility. Any ideas or suggestions about what I can do ahead of time would be greatly appreciated.

One more piece to the puzzle. We will be taking a pick up truck,so everything will have to go in coolers or containers in the back of the truck. TIA!!!

You can bake the cakes ahead and freeze. I wrap well and freeze them on cooling racks so they stay level. You can pop the frozen cakes in the cooler. Yes, make the buttercream ahead of time.

I wouldn't want to bake after traveling for 20 hours. Then all you need to do is assemble and decorate.

Congrats to your sister! Travel safe!

Well, I'm no expert, but a few things I do know...
#1 I live in VA and you are right, hot, hot and humid so unless you are using indydebs buttercream, fondant might be a better choice.
#2 I would bake and freeze prior to the trip and keep in coolers for the ride, leaves more time for decorating etc.
#3 Make sure you make a list of everything you might need, sounds like you won't have much time for last minute trips to the store!
Have a great time and don't forget to post pics

Have you thought about getting some dry ice to put in the coolers? Bake and freeze the cakes, make all the decorations and buttercream and then put the wrapped, frozen cakes into a cooler with dry ice for the road trip. I know HEB (i'm in austin not sure where in TX you are) has dry ice you can purchase.

Just a suggestion and good luck!!!

I have transported several cakes for 8 hours. Not 20 hours, but the only difference would be possibly adding more ice along the way. Your plan was the most successful for me - baking and freezing the cakes and taking buttercream, fondant, and completed details to apply on site. I have a huge cooler that I packed the cakes in (cakes were well-wrapped and placed in plastic bags so there would be virtually no risk of water damage from melting ice), and I even had room to put the tubs of buttercream in that cooler. The "naked" frozen cakes were still frozen when we arrived. DH did build a slatted platform to put in the bottom of the cooler that lifted the packages a couple of inches off the bottom and allowed water to collect and be drained off easily. We did not need to add additional ice, but you probably will on your long trip. Have a safe journey and enjoy the wedding.