How to Survive a Long, Monotonous Road Trip
My
Dear Polite Travelers,
Ah,
the open highway. The wind in my face
and the long road ahead full of adventure.
Traveling for business and pleasure can be exciting, but it can also be
exhausting. This is exactly what I found
on my last trip. The trip consisted of
driving through two-thirds of California from north to south and then east clear
across the state. We then drove across
most of Arizona to
our destination of the most Northeast tip of the state.
Driving
from our hometown of Davis, CA to the farthest northeast corner of Arizona can
be beautiful but challenging. This is
especially true due to the many road-construction zones.
Collecting
License Plates
Even
though I enjoyed seeing the landscape change from California fields of green to the vast, mountainous desert, I didn’t enjoy the endless road construction which
contributed to even more congestion than usual. To keep my sanity and to stay awake, I
relied on some impromptu games.
Thankfully,
I was traveling with my business partner/husband making this a much more
pleasurable experience. Moreover, it’s
much more fun playing a game with a competitor.
The remarkable thing about road trips is the variety of travelers on the
road. These drivers come from all over
the US, and this is reflected on their car’s license plate. Therefore, about halfway through California,
we decided to collect all 48 contiguous states.
“Do
you have a Tennessee?” I’d ask. He’d
reply, “Nope, but I do have a Michigan.”
It broke up the trip a bit, but we did need a bit more excitement when
we hit the Mohave. So, I created an
addendum to the game.
Scrabble
Can be Fun!
Yep,
I challenged my poor road-haggard honey to create actual words with the letters of
each license plate. In truth, it was
brilliant because even though I’m the writer in the family, I’m terrible at
Scrabble. With my sweetie
driving, it afforded me a fighting chance.
My big win was with the word, Arizona. AZAN is a call to prayer. Yea me!
Semi-Trucks
Hold Secrets
Somewhat
like the license plate collecting game, we also collected semis. Not the entire
truck, but merely a visual snapshot of the driver’s door. Until this trip, I hadn’t noticed that the
trailer could be from one state, while the cab could be from somewhere else
entirely. On a long, somewhat dreary
road trip, this became a remarkably interesting revelation.
Besides
the registry on the trailer, we found some to have the cab origin listed on the
driver’s door or directly behind it. It
became quite fun to collect cabs. One of
mine was from Maine.
Not
that this was just all fun and games. Oh
no. Our knowledge of geography increased
greatly through our little game. Who
knew that there is a Coleman in Alabama or a Garland in Texas? Well, I actually knew about Garland, but I
didn’t let that secret out.
Caveat: Truck drivers may think you are looking at
them and become a bit paranoid. Of
course, that may have been just the truck drivers I encountered.
Wrapping Up
When
trapped inside a dusty, warm car for hours can lead a person to go a bit stir
crazy. Perhaps these games can get you
through your next desert in one piece—and hopefully sane as well.
More
by The Polite Traveler
From
Kona Around the Big Island to See the Volcano
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