Road Trip

it's road trip eve right now. my better half and i are packing up and heading to las vegas for thanksgiving weekend. i've always been a sucker for road trips -- yes, partially because i'm too cheap to fly but moreso because i've just always enjoyed road trips. i thought it would make an interesting blog to write about some of my favorite things about the good ol' road trip - and i will spare you the maudlin "it's the open road and this country is so beautiful when you just drive it" stuff*

anyways, i's sure both of you have been on a road trip or two, and maybe you can relate to some of these...

1. your food standards go down. way down.

now i'm no health nut by any stretch of the imagination. i belive that in times past i have actually seriously believed that we should put colonel sanders on the $10 bill in place of alexander hamilton, but when you've been on a freeway for 150 miles, all of a sudden hostess cup cakes, hot dogs on rollers, and overcooked coffee that has been there for about 6 weeks seems way more reasonable than, well, pretty much any other time in your life.

2. the idea of "making good time"

i'm sure you've been on the road somewhere and at some point, usually at a lull in the conversation, somebody will ask what time it is and remark what great time you are making on the trip - even if you're taking the same amount of time to get somewhere that you always do. in the eternal optimism of the road trip, as long as you're not stuck in traffic all the way there or your car doesn't break down, you will always be right to say that you're making great time. case in point - ever since i was a kid, it has taken us 5 hours to get to my grandparents' house. it doesn't matter when we leave, or what route we take, it has always taken, and will always take 5 hours. i'm pretty sure if we left my parents' house, headed due west until we hit ohio, cut through pennsylvania and drove to my grandparents' house through canada, it would still take 5 hours. (once, my brother insisted he made the trip in 4 and a half hours; he didn't. it can't be done) as long as it looks like we'll get there in 5 - 5 1/2 hours, we're making great time - nobody will dispute that.

3. the name game

everybody knows some variant of this game - and for some reason, the only time you ever play it is when you are on the road somewhere, or if you're in college, you've probably played it as a drinking game (then again i played chutes and ladders as a drinking game in college, so take it with a grain of salt.) it's good to kill about a half hour on any road trip, or until someone names malcolm x and the next person to go sits there puzzled for 15 minutes before changing the subject to something they just saw on the road.

4. travel onset delerium

anytime i'm in a car for a long enough time (4 hours and above,) inevitably the cabin fever sets in and something completely illogical comes up. all of a sudden, 45 minutes later you're still laughing about the fact that someone at the last rest stop made an innocuous comment about splenda's market share in the artificial sweetener market. the thing is, whatever you were joking about for so long is never that funny, and when you try and retell the story to other people, even though you never realize it at the time, its always a had to be there story.

5. the travel mix

whether cd or ipod playlist or (if you're still driving an 89 sentra) mix tape, for a long trip, chances are, someone will end up making a travel mix. done well, this could be the only thing you listen to all the way there, but done poorly, you'll be skipping tracks on the first listen. so please, if you're making a mix, do it right. your passengers will thank you.

i'm sure you have others - i'd love to hear them. i'm off to pack :-)

* even though there is a nugget of truth to that sentiment - i just dont want to write a maudlin drippy blog