Rules of the Road Trip

[Anonymous]

1. Have a pre-game meeting

You need to have a brief meeting (or a long one) with everyone who is coming on the trip. You need to discuss basics like who's paying for gas and/or food along the way, what all you need to bring along with the max pieces of luggage everyone can take, your destination and the route you want to take, your stops in between, who's driving, who's navigating, and how its all going to work. This can stop a lot of fights and bickering if everyone knows the plan. Doesn't mean you have to follow it to the letter, but it certainly helps if everyone knows they have to pay for at least 1 tank of gas or that on the day you're loading up, they can't take 4 bags b/c you don't have room.

2. Everyone who is old enough, must drive

Road trips are a team effort. If someone is old enough to drive, they're driving! Divide the time up evenly before the trip and decide before the trip who's going to take which stretch. Think about it strategically. If you're a morning person, makes sense for you to take the morning shift, if you hate city driving, volunteer for the stretches in between. For most people 3-4 hours straight is max before you'll need to stop and switch around or take a rest stop break.

3. Pack an Emergency Kit and a Cover

No matter the season, unforseen weather conditions, accidents, or things like popped tires can come out of no where. Make sure you have your insurance for one, and pack a car emergency kit (and duh, know how to use it), as well as numbers for road side assistance. Most people don't know all of the places they will have to stop, and thieves are often just waiting for you to stop at a gas station, hotel, or rest stop or a McDonald's so they can break into your car and steal your stuff. Make sure you have some sort of cover up to hide your belongings, stow valuables or take them with you at your various destinations, especially at your hotels.

4. Pick your driving mates carefully

You are going to be trapped in a car for hours on end. The last thing you want is to be fighting with someone, or people breaking up with other people, or dogs with flatulence problems, or children who are too young and cry far too often for a long hours long trip. Pick people you get along with well, especially those whom you can already kind of guage how they will react to certain situations.

5. The driver rules the car

You need whomever is driving to stay alert so they can make sure everyone in the car makes it safely to the next destination. That means, the driver rules the car. They control the a/c, the mirrors, and especially the music.

6. Bring Food and Money

There are times where you will be stuck somewhere behind an accident, in a snow storm, in traffic, or just lost. Pack lots of fresh fruit, water, sandwiches and snacks for everyone in the car to have their own set, labeled if you have to. Gas stations and rest stops are notorious for hiking up the prices of everything and sometimes you just don't want to eat a burger all the time. Make doubly sure that those with any type of medical condition or alleries, have enough food stuffs. Pretty much everyone these days takes cards, but there are still places that don't or their machines are always down. It's good to have some cash on hand for the odds and ends along the way or emergencies.

7. Bring a ton of entertainment

There are some really awesome scenic routes to travel, but a lot of times, there is nothing but boring endless land between destinations. Either way, bring entertainment for everyone, but especially for kids. Pack it all in there. Video games, movies, music, road trip games, lap tops...anything to help boost the energy in the car.

8. You must have the three P's

Paper, Plastic, and Pillows. Bring paper towels for any and all messes including cleaning bug guts off your windshield. You need plastic bags for any and all trash. No one likes old food in the seats or tons of wrappers and other junk clogging up the precious little space you do have. And finally pillows. Pillows for your back, your head, your feet, for someone resting on your shoulder or lap (with their seatbelt on, saftey first), to sleep on. A car is not really designed for passengers to be able to sleep comfortably but you can't soften those hard angles with pillows and throw in a blanket or two if the a/c is up.

9. Plan for or surprise yourselves with a bit of stupid fun

There is always a bunch of weird stuff and side attractions and strange towns you can go to along the way. Have a couple of small adventures on the way to and from your destination.

10. Create the Mission

Long road trips can be tiring, boring, frustrating, even to those who are excited about them. Create a team mission for everyone on your road trip. For every stop, everyone picks out something in a certain color, or a team slogan which you throw all hands in and scream out before you go to each new destination, or make it your goal to do a pyramid and take a photo of it in each state you pass through, or proudly display a new flag for each state that you pick up at their visitors center inside the car. Find ways to make it a fun bonding experience for everyone, and most importantly, have fun!

[Anonymous]

Numbers 4 and 6 I could not agree more. When I was in high school me and my closets friends would talk about going on a road trip across the united states. As of right now I would never want to go on a road trip with them if I had a choice. We're still good friends but I know them good enough that I know it'd be a bad idea. One example was of an overnight trip that wasn't suppose to be overnight. My friend wanted to a popular tourist spot 4 hours from where we live for her birthday. The year before I planned the same trip for myself but it was canceled because of car problems. So she asks me for the information I gathered so she could use it. I send it to her. Fast forward to the day of the trip. I arrive at the house with another friend at the given time yet. We end up leaving 2 hours later because of the other people arriving late. Now were in the car and they haven't set the GPS to where we're headed and I find out my friend never looked at the information she requested from me. So back to the GPS. We're driving around for 30 minutes because their phones are sending them in circles (don't know why). This could've been avoided if they used our mutual friends phone from the start but they rejected it because they said it would add 30 minutes to our drive time. Notice how long them fulling around with their phones cost us. After telling them to suck it up and use the first phone we finally got on track. Now here comes the second issue. Remember the information I sent she never looked at? Yeah, she should've looked at it. She never really told us what she wanted to do but while in the car 2 hours away from the area she says we can just go to the beach. I told her they're aren't any public beaches in the area except at the nature preserve. She chose not to believe me. Guess what happened? When we finally arrive we can't find any public nor beach goer friendly shore lines. It's now an hour before night fall and the closet public beach is another hour and a half drive. My friends sister suggest we spend the night. I have no issue with this until she suggest we spend the night in the car in an empty parking lot. Um, no. I'm not trying to get robbed or given a ticket by a cop (even though I'm not the driver). Besides the sanitary issues I speak up and have them realize the logical choice is to combine our money and find a cheap motel. One of the passengers was against it because all she had was $20 on her but she had to suck it up. The following day was better.

[myTake Owner]

Omg, that would have "driven" (pun intended) me nuts. I'm a type A person. I have the list checked off, the emergency stuff set up, numbers for hospitals, routes both printed out (in case GPS loses signal, happened to me once twice) and every location we want to go programmed into GPS, extra food, back up food, everything. Even though my friend is sooo not type A, she gets this. She comes prepared, but she is like your friends, will show up 2 hours late (if I let her), so usually I offer to drive first and then just chuck her sleeping body in the passenger seat so we can get out on the road on time. Oh my gosh, no, you definitely don't want to do long road trips, ones that would have their own complications with people who can't even manage to get through a 3-4 hour one. I might even suggest that.. if you don't know your travel mates all that well, to do a small trip and see how it goes...

[myTake Owner]

I mean I wish I had known about my best friend's life or death rivalry with her sister when I took one of my first road trips, a 16 hour drive, with her family. I'd never met her sister before except in passing, but as soon as we got in the car, they were going at it over every little thing. I think her mom thought I'd distract my friend from her, but she thought wrong. It got so bad, that by day 4, well after we'd settled into our destination, after all out screaming fight and brawl between them, I just started crying I was having such an awful time, and as a peace maker, I just couldn't stand it. Her mom lost it because of course, I was a guest and guests probably shouldn't be crying, lol, so she pulled them apart, and for the rest of the trip they were not allowed to talk to each other, literally. Everything was just really really awkward after that, and her mom kept apologizing, but I was so glad to be home at the end, lesson definitely learned for my many future road trips.

[Opinion Owner]

Yes, I was super annoyed but since I wasn't the driver and this trip wasn't my idea (technically) I kind of took it easy until it started getting really foolish. Our mutual friend told me she was so happy I was there to talk sense into everyone.

Hahah, yeah your way more type A then me. I never checked the number of hospitals on route and I used to print the directions as well but stopped. Being late to anything drives me crazy so I try to avoid inviting people I know who are notorious for this.

Yes, doing a mini 3-4 hour road trip is a great idea to figure out if you can survive a full one. I can only think of 3 friends I wouldn't mind going on a road trip with because of their considerate nature. I would've included a 4th but she can be a buzz. If you invite her somewhere she wants to know the exact time you'll be leaving and when that time arrives she wants to leave right then and there. So doing the fun little side road attractions will result in a complaint.

[Opinion Owner]

Oh wow that's horrible! I would've broke down crying as well dealing with that for 4 days! :(

[myTake Owner]

yeah, I wish I could have just left early, but I was unfortunately 10 at the time and trapped on the trip. I would say above all else, definitely pick your crew carefully! Happy Road Tripping!

[myTake Owner]

Oh, and yeah, never take buzz kills are people who have to stick the schedule because things happen so often that are unplanned or you just want to do something with a plan, that people who were like, but you said we were leaving at 8, and its now 8:03... yeah, no. I think you'll get your good crew and your trip will be absolutely amazing. I've never come back from one where I didn't feel like my life had changed just a little bit, because you can have some amazing conversations in the car about life with no distractions and of course the shared experience is one for the memory books.

[NearlyNapping]

I agree with most of this. However, it really depends on the people. What makes a good road trip for one person doesn't necessarily make a good road trip for another. This is where #4 really comes into play. I'll also point out that a lot of people (like me) take solo road trips. I think for me it's about half and half.

On #1, one thing I disagree with (and people are very different in this regard), I NEVER plan routes and stops. For me, a good road trip is 99% spontaneous. It's the explorer in some of us. If I see a road that looks interesting, or maybe I've just never been on it, I take it just to see where it goes. A lot of interesting places can be found that way - and a lot of boring roads can be found that way also. But when exploring, the mundane comes with the territory. Every now and then there is a pot of gold at the end of the road.

#2 - How long a person can drive without needing rest is VERY unpredictable. I'd say if you pick your partners well, and everyone is chipping in, then driving time should be played by ear. Sometimes a person can drive for hours, and sometimes they can barely drive at all. Which leads to #11 (which should probably should have been #1)

#11 - Safety first - always, with no exception. Know your limits. Never ever drive when you are too tired. Even if it means reaching your destination late, or not at all. You gotta stay safe. It's sooooo easy to get road weary and hypnotized on long stretches of road. I fully admit I've pushed the limits several times, when I could barely keep my eyes open - but that is dangerous to the extreme.

#3 (yea I'm going out of order) - I'd also add a set of basic tools, and even a car repair manual. And related to thieves and auto repair - watch out for scam artist mechanics. In some areas it's common for a mechanic to point out the noise your car is making, or the way it's steering, suggesting that you have it repaired (by them of course). This MIGHT be legit - so if you have little background in mechanics, this is where common sense comes in. If you run into this, go to a different mechanic to get a second opinion - but don't be too specific or mention that another mechanic brought it up. You know your car and how it normally sounds and feels - so put the road trip enthusiasm aside for a moment, and stop to think if it all makes sense.

[NearlyNapping]

#6 - Along with fresh fruits, bring some dried fruit. Dried fruit is good to munch in the car and doesn't drip juice everywhere. But more importantly it keeps, even in a hot car. Some granola or nuts work well too. Even in relatively moderate weather, cars can get very hot when sitting in a parking lot for a coupe hours in the sun. Keep that in mind when planning your food stocks. Also, it's easy to get constipated on long road trips. Keep that in mind when planning food - and make sure you stop long enough to relax and make sure that what goes in comes out.

#7 - Yep, music, music, and more music. But also keep in mind that it can get on your nerves after 10 hours straight of cranking up the tunes. For many people, a good road trip means totally chilling out, and getting in the sloooow frame of mind. Very often the sounds of silence and just taking in your surrounding is by far the best entertainment.

[myTake Owner]

Some additional good tips for sure. For #1, that's why I mention you don't have to follow a plan to the letter and there is #9 which advises you to have some stupid fun and to definitely take it off the map every once in a while, but the reality is, if you are trying to get from New York, to say Texas, getting in the car and driving with no direction at all would be pretty dumb unless you already know the route that you can take to get to your destination, if that makes sense. You have to at least know the basic route, unless you're familiar with the territory. I whole-heartedly agree with your number 11. I actually wished I'd added that if you are driving with other people, at least two people should be awake at all times just in case the driver gets fatigue, starts drifting, etc.

[myTake Owner]

I'm sort of a half/half person myself. I work in a very stressful environment where I am always on call, literally. I've actually gone to other places, and heard a radio and reached for my hip to answer it... that's how bad it is, lol, so I've had several road trips where it was just me and silence. I even took a 5 city tour on vacation once where in total, I drove some 26 hours in one week alone. It was great, but you do have to be more vigilant and never drive while tired, absolutely.

[admles]

11. If someone needs to pee, then you pull over and let them pee (or stop at the next rest stop).

My dad used to be notoriously bad for this!

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

use the cup!!!

[SunsetRose]

This makes me want a road trip!!!

[Anonymous]

Really I rutinally drive 13 or more hours non stop

[myTake Owner]

Yes, and so do truck drivers, but when you are on a road trip with more than just yourself, you have other people to worry about, other people who need to eat, sleep, stretch, and pee... so 3-4 hours is usually right about the time when people need breaks.

[PizzaGuy22]

No...
Only I drive