MON 17DAL → MCO · pool afternoonTUE 18Orlando day · evening flight to Gatwick19 → 1Paulton · 14 nights · wash 23 & 28WED 2Paulton → LGW → MCO · short nightTHU 3MCO → DFW
Everything here assumes laundry in Paulton and a Boots run on the way through. That is what keeps this to one small case and leaves the rest of the allowance for the children.
DOCS
Before anything else
Sort these weeks out, not the night before. Two of them can stop you boarding.
CAR
The hire car
SUV booked, seats coming with you, Sapphire covering the cover. What is left is the driving itself.
WORN
On the plane
The bulkiest things you own, carried for free — and carry-on is the only free allowance you have on either airline.
CARRY-ON
Orlando, 32 hours
You land Monday lunchtime and do not leave until Tuesday evening. Keep these out of the checked bag — if it goes missing, you have lost the only reason you stopped.
CASE
Clothes
Four days' worth, washed twice. Fourteen nights changes the laundry rhythm, not the pile.
CASE
Shoes
Two weeks is long enough that one soaking should not strand you — and this is village lanes and steep hills, often wet underfoot.
CASE
Running kit
One set. Technical fabric washes in a sink and dries overnight, so it covers a run every few days. Expect hills — this is the edge of the Mendips, not a flat towpath.
BOOTS
Buy it there instead
All of it is at your mother's house already, or a short drive to Midsomer Norton. Not a village-shop errand, so make it a proper trip rather than assuming you can nip out.
One ETA to apply for, two to verify. ETAs run two years or until the passport expires, whichever comes first — and they are tied to the exact passport used to apply. Confirm the two existing ones against the passports actually going in the bag, then apply for the younger child. £20, usually decided in minutes.
TUE 18
Checkout around 11:00, Norse does not leave until 20:30 — a nine-and-a-half hour gap with children and all the luggage. Sort late checkout or bag storage in advance.
WED 19
The riskiest hour of the trip. Land 10:00 off a redeye, then two and a half to three hours to Paulton with no relief driver and two shattered children. Sleep on the plane if you can manage nothing else. Stop and eat before the M4 — arriving an hour later has never once been the wrong call.
FLEX
Bath runs six hours ahead of Dallas. A normal 9–5 back home is 15:00–23:00 where you are. Pick your online days deliberately — an afternoon start eats the whole evening with your mother, so mornings-plus-early-afternoon overlap is usually the better trade.
SUN 23
First wash, day 5. UK machines run smaller than American ones, which is what makes two cycles necessary rather than optional.
FRI 28
Second wash, day 10. Do it Friday — the bank holiday weekend starts the next day, and this load has to last until the flight.
MON 31
Summer bank holiday. Bath fills with day-trippers and the roads crawl. If you do go in, use a park and ride rather than hunting for a space — and note the Clean Air Zone does not charge private cars, so the car itself is not the problem. Parking is.
WED 2
Paulton to Gatwick by road for a 14:00 departure, in back-to-school week with the M25 in it. Allow three and a half hours plus fuel and drop-off, so leaving around 06:30 — and you are driving all of it. Refuel before the airport, where forecourts charge a premium. Land MCO 18:25, hotel by 20:00, up again at 4:15.
THU 3
06:30 departure, so a 4:15 alarm — but your body clock is still on British time, where that is 09:15. The easiest early start you will ever have. You left from Love Field, so sort the ride home from DFW now.
FLIGHTS
The legs
All times local. Separate tickets, so bags do not through-check.