Carole gave us a fantastic topic this week: 10 Ways to Have Fun on Long Car Rides. I'm interpreting this as Road Trip!!
1. The most obvious: have a great take-along knitting project. I tend to bring simple shawls or socks. I like to be able to look around and enjoy the scenery while I'm knitting.
2. Stop at local tourist sites. On our drive from New York to New Mexico in 2004, Neal insisted that we stop at some quirky place every day. It was super fun to walk through a Rte. 66 Museum in OK. I'm a drive-until-you-get-where-you're-going kind of girl, but these little stops have made road trips more fun.
3. Start a sing-along. I tend to prefer tv-show themes and musicals, but Queen makes for good sing alongs, too.
4. Have a project going. On that same road trip out west, I sent postcards to two recipients every day in which I tracked miles travelled, states traversed, weather, town in which we were stopping, and average miles per gallon. My ex, a musician, once undertook a rate-the-reststops project with travel partner. Projects give purpose!
5. Get way off the highway to eat. The food will be so much tastier. I promise.
6. Try to find last-minute deals to stay at swanky hotels. We usually end up in not-so-swanky places on road trips, but with the magic of George the iPhone, this summer I found a cheaper rate at a boutique hotel than I could find at any of the budge places. Who wouldn't want to spend the night here:
7. Bring along something to read out loud. I like The New Yorker because there are lots of shorter pieces. Read, then debate. Repeat. (can you tell I prefer to be the passenger on a road trip?)
8. Make special Road Trip mixes to play. They should be energetic and relevant to the trip. They should include favorite songs of all who will be in the car. They should encourage sing-alongs.
9. Conversation. I love the time in a car because my chatterbox tendencies have an audience! When traveling with a girlfriend, it's a fantastic time to catch up and dream together. When traveling with Neal, it provides excellent time to do the same thing (only I end up doing most of the talking).
10. Bring good snacks. My dad always, always had Canada mints on road trips, and now I have to bring them along, too. I also like pretzels, fruit (grapes are my favorite in the car), and a big water bottle of ice.
How about you? What makes a long car ride fun?
I like the project idea, I hadn’t thought of that before. When I was a kid my dad worked for Necco and we always had Canada Mints at home, plus Rolos and Necco Wafers. Ahhh, those memories!
Get of the highway to eat! That’s our secret, too! We’ve found the best local restaurants are not far off the road and so much better than the big box fast food places. Great list!
Great list! Love the last minute hotel idea – great way to upgrade an overnight!
Great list! I like the project idea, too.
Your list is pretty much the same as ours. We play other games – like word and number games. But, basically … the same 🙂
Great list!
Our family road trip food was Twizzlers. They’re a must for me now 🙂
Great list…fond memories of Canada mints! I am about to take a quick road trip and the knitting ALWAYS goes! But some can’t do that in a car, thankfully we aren’t them! Great trip!
We haven’t road tripped since we got iPhones, but that would be awesome for scoring deals. Of course I’m not certain what kind of reception we would have where we usually road trip…
Good trip food is a must. Red Twizzlers were a requirement for school trips to sporting events etc. so they are my quintessential road food. We’re also partial to the thin pretzel sticks.