Surviving a Long Car Trip

I'm gearing up for a 10 hour car trip this weekend, but I'm not dreading it at all. I've literally been taking trips like these since I was two weeks old. And they were longer back then. 12 hours from CT to NC, and later in life 15 hours from NH to NC. So 10 is a breeze. But if you aren't used to spending the majority of any given day crammed into a car, it could sound like a prison sentence - life without parole. So I thought I'd share some of the ways I pass the time as well as some other popular suggestions.

Sleep. That's my personal favorite. It's amazing how much time passes when you're sleeping. As the passenger, of course. Not much time at all will pass if you're sleeping as the driver. But even as the passenger, be careful when you choose to sleep. If your driver is sleepy, you should stay awake to help keep them alert and to watch them should they start to doze.
Music. I can't even drive to the grocery store without the music on. Pick some music everyone in the car loves and turn it up. The average CD will eat up at least 40 minutes of time. If I plugged my iPod in I could drive for three days straight and never repeat a song. That'd get me to where...midway between Washington and Alaska?

Games. The most popular games I always play in the car are the Alphabet Game (call out the letters in the alphabet as you see them anywhere outside the car, first to Z wins), Car Bingo (create your own boards with anything you might see on the trip, first to cross off their whole card wins), and story telling games. Some other popular games go like this:

• Tell a story one line at a time, following the letters of the alphabet. Ex: Player 1 "Alice took a walk in the woods" Player 2 "But she got lost." Player 3 "Concerned because the sun was going down..." You get it.
• The old "I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing" game. Each player must say what they're bringing, following the letters of the alphabet, and repeating what everyone before them is brining. Ex. P1 "I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing an aardvark." P2 "I'm going on a picnice and I'm bringing an aardvark and bamboo." Etc.
• Lisense Plates. Write down each state you see and try to get to 50 (I've never made it to 50 before...not many people drive to the states from Hawaii.)
• Counting Cows. I've never done this because the majority of my trips are through cow country and it would be like just counting from 1 to a million. But if you're driving through say, California, it might be...interesting. A point for every cow you see, and if you're the first to spot a graveyard everyone else must subtract ten points. 20 points to you if you see a white horse. Bend the rules and make new rules all you want.
• Board Games. If there's more than one person not driving in the car (I just feel as if these disclaimers may really be necessary) there are some popular board games made minature and magnetic.
• Mad Libs. Just a couple of dollars for a book, and lots of entertaining fun for everyone in the car.

Reading. Leaves everyone else in the car high and dry, but you'll be entertained. (I won't say it, you know if you're the driver you shouldn't be reading) But if you want to be nice to the person hauling you around, you could get a book on tape, or more likely CD or iTunes. Under reading falls all the other things you can do by yourself in the car - crossword, word search, soduko, and 8 million other mini car game books you can find in a book store.

Pit Stops: If you can afford the time it's always nice to get out of the car for an hour and do something. You can make the trip to your vacation a little sightseeing trip, especially if you pay attention to billboards on the interstate. I've been able to spend an hour on the battlefield of Gettysburg, visit a drive-through zoo, see the Natrual Bridge in VA, and several other things just by getting off the interestate and driving a few miles. It really can re-engergize you for what remains of the drive.

So don't dread that drive you have coming up, just get yourself prepared and try your best to enjoy the ride. Afterall, they say it's as much about the journey as it is the destination!