Unorthodox road trip tips from the one I just did
The inspiration for this piece came 6 hours into our drive from Reno to Salt Lake City and it was entirely due to boredom. I didn’t have service (preliminary tip #1: don’t rely on Snapchat or YouTube for entertainment in the car. You’ll be disappointed) and I couldn’t fall asleep so I opened up Notes on my phone and started tossing thoughts out. We had caught a beautiful sunset and my friends were jamming out to good music so I was inspired to write. There will be no structure whatsoever to these tips so don’t expect a check-off list or a detailed walk through. I’ve also left out obvious tips you’ll see elsewhere and included some more unique things that we discovered.
Pick the right people
Although I said there was no order, this is probably one of the most important aspects of a good road trip. There will be stressful moments. You’ll have to rely on each other. You’ll be exhausted. You’ll be antsy. You’ll be hungry. You’ll have to poop when you’re in the middle of a desert and have no toilet paper. You’ll want a haircut. You’ll want your bed. You’ll be more irritable than a poked bear. You’ll want to shower. You’ll want a steak dinner. You’ll want Facebook. You’ll want your pillow. Trust me, if the group of people you plan on spending 8 hours a day with in the car isn’t the best group of friends/family you have, one of two things will happen: they will become your best friends, or someone will get very close to getting tied to the top of the car. Choose wisely ahead of time.
Download Music
For those of you that don’t know, those 5 bars of high speed LTE coverage you have back home actually don’t exist everywhere. In fact, an overwhelming majority of your time will be spent IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE where you’d be lucky to come across a gas station within 100 miles, let alone service. So prepare ahead. Bring CDs, bring someone who’s a really good singer, or download your playlists on Spotify ahead of time. Pro tip: Spotify allows you to make Collaborative Playlists where you can create a playlist and share it with your friends so that they can add songs to it. Let me tell you, this is incredible. With the exception of one of our friends adding “I’m Going To Be” 74 times to the playlist, this worked flawlessly for us. Check ours out below.
Plan on spending more
Whatever you think your budget is, increase it. I promise you. Gas prices fluctuate from state to state, you get tired of the food you brought and buy more, you buy spare shoes because you went hiking in a mudslide, etc. We planned on camping two nights in the Red Woods, one in Tahoe, and one in Utah. It poured the second night in the Red Woods, it was blizzard conditions in Tahoe, and we couldn’t go off-roading in our Subaru Legacy to find campsites in Utah. Just the three extra nights in hotels probably doubled our expected budgets. We also had a night in Las Vegas and yes the money you bring with you to Vegas stays in Vegas. That’s why Vegas exists. You cannot beat Vegas. And even if you don’t gamble, let me also remind you that you’re allowed to openly carry alcohol in Vegas. I rest my case. Road trip through Vegas = triple your budget.
Take turns driving
Perhaps the most important thing on this list in terms of safety, I cannot stress this enough. DO NOT TRY AND ACT COOL BY DRIVING MORE. Split it up evenly, be honest with how everyone is feeling, and take frequent breaks. There are so many subconscious things that happen when you’re tired or haven’t slept and you have no way of sensing them. When you’re cruising at 85 miles an hour with a heavy car you can’t afford mistakes. The other aspect that goes along this is always keep the driver engaged. Play music, tell stories, anything but falling asleep and letting the driver sit in silence for hours.
Make up Stories
This is probably one of the best things we did the whole trip. One person sets up the setting of the story. Then going around the car each person gets two sentences to add to the story to take it in any direction. And that’s it. 7 hours later we had these Hollywood-worthy plots.
A group of pirates, one of whom was a shape shifter who relied on continuous reincarnation to stay alive in the story while the rest of the group occupied a new planet all during a pirate zombie apocalypse that took over the Earth.
A jungle version of Wizard of Oz consisting of cross breeding of Macaws and Pythons, an Amazonian who was cursed to eat his own tribe, and the eventual discovery of the beach which somehow managed to seamlessly blend this story into the beginning of the above story as a prequel.
A time-traveling adventure where a poor caveman from 4000 BC has his wife and children stollen by a villain from the future and a group goes on a journey across America and across time to save the caveman’s family.
A future alien story where a poor child on planet Xion gets rudely abandoned by his adoptive father, discovers he’s fallen in love with his biological mother, then becomes the hero of his planet only to be later exiled.
A group’s race against time to save their dying friend where they must fight giant chickens, collect poisonous mushrooms, and seek advice from Arctic shamans
Certain details were left out to keep those summaries rated PG but story telling easily erased 7 hours of a boring drive so I highly recommend trying it. You’ll be surprised how much creativity comes out when you’re bored.
Look at forecasts and pack accordingly
This section was added 5 minutes after all four of us got out of the gas station in Utah in 31 degree weather severely under-dressed. Don’t overpack, but be ready for any kind of weather.
Don’t over-plan
This is another extremely important one. Don’t book too many hotels ahead of time. Spontaneity leads to the best adventures. Our second expected night in the RedWoods turned into a night in Sacramento. Our planned night in Tahoe turned into a longer drive straight to Utah instead. And our stay in Park City had to move to Salt Lake City again due to weather. Going across the country in a car instead of a plane gives you valuable mobility. Don’t lock yourself in by booking ahead of time.
Listen to Comedy
Even with hundreds of songs on our playlists, 50 hours of driving still got us tired of music. Comedy is another one of those gems that we discovered that turned countless hours of driving into a great time. Chad Daniels was easily one of our favorites for much of the trip
Bring Earplugs
If I hadn’t already been aware that all 4 of us snored A LOT, I would have thought there was a band of bears walking around our tent when we were camping in the Red Woods. I was actually impressed with what I was hearing because I didn’t think it was possible for humans to emit such sounds. All jokes aside, if you’re going to be doing any kind of camping or sharing of hotel rooms, earplugs are an absolute must.
Before you go…
This list is most definitely not complete, and this road trip will most definitely not be my last, so I’ll be sure to come back and add any new discoveries I have. If you have any unique/unorthodox/unexpected pieces of advice for journeys in automobiles, please comment and help any future road-trippers have a great time!
