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Sanity Saving Advice When Driving Through Desolate Regions

 

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

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Taking a Side Trip Up North on The Big Island Hawaii

Activity Review: Fun Activities in Honolulu 2020 

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