AMeh. I've been there, it's not nearly as good as our local one (who whoulda thought the number 1 science center in the US would be in Columbus OH..)

If we do stop... On the way BACK... It would likely be either the field museum, art museum, or Planetarium.

-congratulations on having the best science & industry museum who knew? very cool --

as i recall parking and navigating into the field museum and planetarium are easier than the art institute which is more downtown although they have valet parking there too--

cathy, yeah i guess it would be crazy to leave a cake in the car but while it would be secure temperature wise which is all i was focusing on at the time--it might be a target for theft and it would also be out of my sight which would be pretty nervey too--like leaving a kid in the car--but since it's undecorated... idk... if it was concealed and frozen solid...idk

but yeah you'll wanna "stow it don't show it" when you park--even your luggage --

It's way beyond cool of you to do all this, Debby...if you have time, maybe you could take a few pics of the packing up process so the recipients can see just how much of a labor of love it is  

ALol! I'll take a photo of the packed inside of the van once I get everything in. Right now I'm making piles by the door, trying to keep boxes of things organized as much as possible. The cakes will go in last, so they stay in the freezer as long as possible. ;)

I am mixing fondant color now, then have to cover three tiers tonight!  Still have to pack up supplies, do laundry, etc...  I got 3 hours sleep two nights ago, and 2 last night!  Thank goodness DH will be driving the first shift!

ALol! Yep that's been my last three days too.

We leave tomorrow morning early early! :)

Good Luck on your cake DebbieJG! I hope all goes well and that you and your family have a safe trip!

AJust wanted to follow up/update! I'm back from our trip to Minneapolis. I drove a total of 2,006 miles there and back, and the cake made it just fine! I took the advice given here and made the cakes ahead of time, torted and filled them, then wrapped and froze each tier. I wrapped them in plastic wrap, then foil, then put them into extra large ziplock bags (the kinds used for clothing storage.) I purchased large storage bins to fit the frozen cakes, and a 5 gal food grade bucket for the frosting. Moments before leaving, I loaded up the rental van, and I was thrilled to find that the cake bins and the large box containing all my tools, fit like perfect puzzle pieces in a recessed area in the back. I mean, perfectly-no wiggle room, but no squeezing either. I stopped at the nearby gas station and bought bags of ice to surround the cakes with, and then left for minnesota.

I checked the cakes with each stop, and they stayed completely frozen the whole trip, even in my day long stop to my sister's house in IL. (No, we did NOT go to Chicago, lol!) On Friday when I got to my hotel, I got everything wiped down with sanitizing wipes, then loaded everything into the kitchenette area. (After giving the porter a nice tip for helping haul everything upstairs. ) :) I put the cakes, still wrapped, in the room fridge.

Saturday I put the cakes together, and Sunday morning I drove the cake to the wedding. Everyone loved it and told me it was the best cake they ever had...which was good considering until I tried my slice at the wedding, I didn't even know if it would be as good as I'm used to or not. ;)

I'd say the only thing that went wrong, was that I should have let the cakes sit wrapped at room temp instead of in the fridge, because I woke up Sunday morning to find a huge air bubble on my top tier, so I had to scrape off the frosting and redo it, 10 minutes before leaving for the wedding. Not being completely defrosted, apparently, when I stacked the cake, air had gotten trapped under the frosting as it warmed up. Lesson learned there. Everything else went great! Thanks for all the wonderful tips!

YAY! I'm so happy everything worked out Debby! I'm going to copy and paste everything you did for future reference when traveling with cakes  

yay!!! awesome--dang 2006 miles--hurray--multiplied congratulations ♥ ♥  blue hearts for the ice hahahaha

AThanks! And since someone asked to see a photo of how I packed it all in -Here are a few photos. [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3233066/width/200/height/400[/IMG] [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3233067/width/200/height/400[/IMG] [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3233068/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

AWhat a heroic effort! I was completely impressed just by the long drive with the kids nevermind trying to transport and decorating a cake! I hope the family appreciated all your work - amazing job ;-D

I've actually done this.  Baked then wrapped and froze my sons wedding cake tiers, packed them in large boxes filled with frozen ice packs.  Made huge containers of icing and stored it in large screw-top jars (canisters).  The only problem with icing a cake in a hotel room is that the sink is so small.  I used he bed as my counter for storing items not needed while icing the cake on the desk.  I wouldn't have wanted to be the person degreasing the counter tops after we left but it all turned out beautifully.  My son has been happily married for almost 20 years now and my long distance cake didn't hurt anyone.  :-)

AI had a room at an Embassy Suites, which had a nice sized kitchenette. Thankfully. :)

So glad everything worked for you!  I too had great success!  We had rented a crossover size vehicle, and they upgraded us to a Suburban.  We needed every inch!!  

Your cake is lovely!

DebbyJG, Icubed83, DeniseNH you all have may deepest respect for having done this for loved ones. They don't make enough Xanax for me to attempt a road  trip with cake anytime soon. It was hard enough delivering them in my own metro area. Kudos for jobs well done!

I know  you said you sanitized the work space BUT.......did you know that those wipes say to actually kill germs the surface they are used on must remain wet for 5 full minutes??  Most of us just casually rub the wipe over the counter and call it done but it might kill a few germs but to be considered fully sanitized it must remain wet for the full 5 minutes.

I've been checking to see if you had recovered enough to let us know how it went...so of course on the day you followed up, my internet was out for most of the day.  Glad it went well - hope they appreciated the incredible gift!