OP here, figure I’d report back on what we ended up doing. We live in a north houston suburb. i prepped sandwiches, snacks, fruit, drinks, etc.
thanks to disboarders here, we were able to check rest areas etc.
630am (CDT) left houston, arrived in Lake City at 920pm (EDT). Took 2 stop for gas (Baton Rouge and somewhere in Florida), three biobreaks at rest stations, and a slight detour at lake city to pick up take out food (weird tradition the kids like chinese take out in the hotel room when we travel). We didn’t stop to picnic lunch, just ate in the car to keep going. It was also intermitttently raining hard during the drive. didn’t do bio breaks at the gas stations (we have smaller kids that would touch things). We also didn’t stop at Bucees because we thought they would be packed...(and we would have definitely bought slushees).
we also don’t like driving at night - a stop at night to just rest, decompress and shower is great. My DH records every little detail and doing an after vacation review, we think this plan is repeatable and will do this for future trips. Our other potential stopping point was tallahassee if we were making poor timing.
on the way home, we left the park late at 3pm and ended up staying at Pensacola. If we left at 1pm we would have done Mobile, AL and then have only 7.5 hrs to drive.
stayed in the Hampton suites in lake city. Hilton is putting “stickers” to seal the doors. Things were pretty clean, but you can always bring wipes to double down. The free breakfast was pickup and bring to your room. breakfast sandwiches and heatable premade omelets, bagged oatmeal, etc. The stickers only do so much though, on the way back, we did Home2 (our go-to chain), found the trash not emptied and dirty dishes in the dishwasher. I would still pick a hotel over a rest area.