What worked & What didn't

Recently our family went on a few vacations which we drove as our means of transportation.  Our time in the car started to add up.
I have a sister who is fearless and drives her tribe of 3 around, far and wide. Not much complaining from them. As the little sister I'm slightly competitive but not even half as confident.  But we survived.
Here's what worked and what didn't work:

Worked:
-Thomas the train lunch box filled with "new toys" every time he opened it
-Passing windmills for an hour, he looked, talked and imagined
-Snacks and water
-The polar bear board book
-The dvd player. We used it once each way.  He was quiet.
-Stopping to eat.  He's too young to eat a meal in the car. And I get car sick if I try to turn around
-Both cars.  We took the big car on the shorter trip and the smaller car on the longer trip. Both cars worked for this travel.  Although the smaller one would not have worked if we had to bring stroller, pack n play or booster seat.
-Stopping at a sit down restaurant for a nicer/bigger meal vs. attempting fast food AGAIN.
-The GPS  (LIFE CHANGING remember Sarah?)
-Cell phone-riding for 6 hours straight....as a passenger of course-anyone who texted me helped pass the time. Thanks!
-Books on tape for Andy. (Boring to me) but he drove the full 6 hours the first night because he was listening to a book on tape.
-Changing his diaper in the gas station because the car was so packed there wasn't room to lay him on the seat.  Each time I gave him a different body part to hold on to. When I laid him down I told him to hold his ears. His nose or his chin. that way he wouldn't touch any dirty parts of the cahnging table in the restaurant or gas station.Ick.  Taking him in the bathroom when I needed to go, I made him hold my knees while I peed so he couldn't touch anything. 



What didn't work:
-Any sort of music.  We just haven't found anything to play for him to get excited by. Any ideas?
-The repeating...seriously everything we said. everything he said. everything he thought. everything he saw. he would repeat. repeat and repeat again.  I finally found myself telling him not to say it again.  I tried to sound excited and answer every time. Sometimes I just agreed with him. I even tried sounding bored.  But the repeating was definitely a little mentally disturbing. 
-Ignoring.  After a while, the repeating got so old that we tried to ignore it instead of responding.  It didn't work.
-Setting up the DVD player on top of a sleeping bag on the console between Andy and I. No fun.  It was uncomfortable for all of us except Eli.  I swore only once.  Good thing our new van has one built in, enough of this positioning and fast forwarding and falling and strapping etc.
-Being gluten free and pregnant on these long trips.  So cranky about lack of choice for stopping.  10 hours in the car and it's only so long that nuts and water and candy hold me over.
-Eli's naps-he only takes 45 min-1 hour naps in the car. He wakes if we stop the car to get gas or even slow down at an exit.  He also doesn't fall asleep unless we travel past 10 pm.  That means...after your long driving shift and you just want to shut your eyes-it's almost worse to be in the passenger seat.  He won't be sleeping. So you have to deal with his repeating, grabbing the snacks and constantly turning around.
-Temperature: I'm always cold and Andy is always hot. Our new van will fix this problem too.

Both trips were great and successful. I hope the above didn't sound too negative. I hope to be able to look back when the next one is around 2 for travel tips-that's all.
I cannot imagine how this list will change NEXT year when we travel with a 3 year old and a 6 month old!