Comments on: The Five Universal Truths of Road Trips

By: annegb

annegb — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:06:56 +0000

This reminded me of some blogger’s road trip where their child kept throwing up and they threw the grocery bags out on the New Jersey highway.

By: Jo

Jo — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:12:17 +0000

BrianJ – Regarding Credit card companies should be informed in advance of your plans to run up charges in 11 different states.
I learned this in the most inconvenient way, by having my credit card and debit card locked down at the same time. Out of town checks are not accepted easily in restaurants.
Also, new construction also means fewer road signs. My SIL nicknamed My daughter’s and my shopping excursions in Seattle as “The blonde leading the blonde” due to our difficulty navigating his hometown, and calling him when lost. GPS solved that problem.

By: Eve

Eve — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:09:54 +0000

Could this thread be expanded to include “horrible things done to siblings on road trips”?

Yep, I’m now having flashbacks of the trip Lynnette describes in which she refused to get into the van as long as I was there. Let’s just say, she had her reasons.

(How did our mother survive??)

By: crazywomancreek

crazywomancreek — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:18:51 +0000

Could this thread be expanded to include “horrible things done to siblings on road trips”? My favorite was not a road but a canoe trip. I was 13 and deeply in love with Mists of Avalon. My older brother and I had dropped our Dad off on an island to fish. I amused myself by standing at the bow of our tiny canoe, pretending to be the Lady of the Lake while my brother hissed at me to sit down, I would imperiously command him to “keep silent, peon, men are not permitted to speak in the Lady’s presence.” He finally tricked me into debarking on an island where he left me for two hours, my recently half-shaved head burning a shade of unflattering tomato red. The Lady was not amused.

By: Lynnette

Lynnette — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:33:58 +0000

I really like road trips too, and reading this brings back some entertaining memories. I often find driving somewhat soothing, so I think it’s kind of fun to go places just by myself. On the other hand, it can be pretty entertaining to have sleep-deprived siblings around.

One of my less fun road trips involved a drive from northern Indiana to Utah in August, in a car with no A/C. I would pull over every hour or so to sit in some shade. I remember in particular driving across Nebraska. It felt like I’d been in the state for so long that I was sure I was at least halfway through. I pulled over at a rest stop and looked at the map, and realized I was barely into the state. I almost cried. (The trip got better, though, when the weather cooled off, and I finally made it to Wyoming.)

Elbereth, your comment about Walmart reminded me that I used to have an atlas of the U.S. made by Walmart that I took on road trips, which conveniently noted where the Walmarts were. (I didn’t actually buy it for that purpose–I bought it because I wanted an atlas and it was cheap–but the bonus info made me laugh.)

Re #14–I believe I remember that trip. Was it the one to Las Vegas, to see Star Trek The Experience? And the one in which Kiskilili talked about imaginary creatures named “bullpigs” (?) the whole way back? I also recall a much earlier trip, when I was about 13, to Bryce Canyon–in which I stood outside our old orange VW van and declared that I would would not get back in as long as Eve was there.

By: Eve

Eve — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:24:29 +0000

Hilarious, cwc!

By: crazywomancreek

crazywomancreek — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:36:11 +0000

Your Peter De Vries quote reminded me of this:
Ring Lardner, on taking road trips with his father: ” ‘Shut up,’ he explained.”

By: Jim Donaldson

Jim Donaldson — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:51:05 +0000

The thing we do is download many many free MP3s of Garrison Keillor’s News from Lake Woebegone from Prairie Home Companion and burn them to CDs (generally about 1 month per disc) and play them. They are all on line (by week on the PHC site) which means there are hundreds of them. I say it cuts the perception of the time on the road in half. They also contain many laughs, which is always a good thing. Mostly we burn the ones that have been broadcast since our last road trip since we miss the weekly broadcast almost all the time.

By: annegb

annegb — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:51:21 +0000

I’ve had great road trips with my sister. We get along just fine. She drives and her driving doesn’t scare me or if it does, she hands me the Xanax bottle. We never fight when traveling. But she’s fun to talk to. Bill can’t hear and I have to repeat everything and then he has to look at me and doesn’t watch the road. It’s very hard to have a conversation on those terms.

I’d like to take my sister on a road trip of New England in the fall.

By: Mark Brown

Mark Brown — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:03:14 +0000

I love road trips. I’ve been on three of them already this Summer and plan on at least two more. I could drive forever through NE and WY. Sometimes my wife tells me that I missed my calling in life as an over-the-road truck driver, and she may be right.

I love stopping at every single roadside marker. I like stopping for the night in little towns instead of large ones. I like eating the weird stuff on the menu in diners, and have only been sick twice in my life because of it. (Once in Maine the clam chowder had HUGE pieces of clam in, so big that the neck was identifiable. ‘Nuff said.)

I am currently in the middle of a comparison test between Rock Star and Red Bull. The idea came to me last year when I was somewhere on I-80 between North Platte and Ogalalla, working on my 3rd energy drink. I’ll let you know the results.