10 Tips for Road Trips
So many people fly everywhere these days that you might think the African road trip is a thing of the past. This is not actually
the case. While it does seem that the “On the Road” experience of
getting a car and just going for the sake of going is in decline, the
statistics (and the number of cars all around you) prove that more travellers than ever are taking to the roads for vacations and family
visits, albeit apparently for more frequent but shorter trips. And
frankly, with airline customer service unquestionably in decline, many
Americans would rather drive than fly.
Stats aside, there is no denying that the lure of the road is undeniable and probably eternal; it almost seems embedded in our very makeup. There is a richness to traversing the land an inch at a time that is absent from the experience of climbing into a metal canister and climbing out at your destination. To get the most of your experience, don’t miss these road trip tips.
Go ahead, leave the napkins and gum wrappers under your seat. Leave
the receipts from your last business-related drive in the glove box.
Don’t sweat the dog hair in the back bed … but you’ll be sorry. A few
days into your trip, when the old gum wrappers are joined by new fast
food wrappers, when the glove box starts overflowing with hotel receipts
and local maps, when dog hair starts sticking to your luggage and your
gear, you’ll rue the day you failed to pull out the Shop-Vac.
As your trip proceeds, take time every couple of days to purge your car of undesirable flotsam and jetsam. Even if you can tolerate some chaos (as I can), the accumulated junk and minor filth will start to drive you mad in the close quarters that define a road trip.
About a week before you leave for a long road trip, have your
mechanic check your car’s fluid levels, brakes, tires and anything else
that could cause problems. Be sure your spare tire is fully inflated and
that you have jumper cables and extra wiper fluid on hand.
Delays are the one thing that you can count on when driving
significant distances. Admittedly, the archetypal “BRIDGE OUT” sign is a
rare sighting these days, but the flashing “Road Work Ahead, Merge to
One Lane” message is not. You don’t have to have seen a lot of Chevy
Chase movies to know that things aren’t always going to go your way. If
you overschedule your road trip, you’re almost guaranteed to find
yourself slogging the last few miles long after you had intended to be
asleep, trying to cancel one hotel reservation so you can pay for
another well short of your originally planned destination.
On the other hand, having no plan at all is only recommended for the most hardy souls. On a trip through New England a few years ago, our plan was simply to pull over when we got tired to crash in a hotel; after taking three exits without success, we finally stopped at a place at which the front desk person asked, “Are you staying the whole night?” Ugh.
Unless you have a specific destination and a strict schedule, there
is little point in hitting the roads to see the country if you don’t
spend some time on the back roads. However, some “blue highways” (as
certain back roads were called in the popular book by William Least
Heat-Moon) are not much more than endless strip malls.
Most U.S. road maps have some indicator of whether a “back road” is an interesting one; the map I use most has small red dots along those roads recommended as scenic routes. I have found these recommendations to be fairly reliable; most have at least a few miles of interesting local scenery, offer driving experiences ranging from a rambling bucolic feel to truly stunning views of America the Beautiful, and pay off handsomely for those with the time, patience and inclination to wander a bit. Roadtrippers.com, which is both a website and a mobile app, can also help you find such scenic drives.
However, that being said…
When I was a kid, my family took a trip down the East Coast by
cutting inland to take the Skyline Drive. The Skyline Drive is certainly
beautiful and occasionally visually stunning, but after a few official
overlooks and an intensifying bout of car sickness on the winding roads,
the kids in the car were ready to come down from the hills. It was also
fantastically slow going; average speeds were about 35 m.p.h., which,
starting in New Jersey, gets you to Florida in about four days of
10-hour drives. After about 600 sharp turns surrounded by a whole lot of
trees and mist, I-95 never looked so good.
If you are grinding out long miles on a road trip, it’s not hard to
find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time — like trying to
cross the Hudson River at rush hour, or driving the long bridges to Key
West on the Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend. You’ll want to
plan ahead so you cross the Hudson at, say, 10:30 a.m., or blast down to
Key West on a Thursday.
The days of regional radio offering a musical or informational
palette that you can’t find anywhere else are almost all but gone, so
tapping into the local vibe via radio is far less satisfying than it
used to be. That means you’ll want to make sure your phone is set to
keep you entertained over the long hours of driving, whether you’re
tapping into your own collection of music, streaming tunes via an app
like Spotify or Pandora, or listening to your favorite podcasts.
If you’re road tripping in your own car, you probably already have a phone charger that will plug into the console and keep you powered up. If you’re renting a car for your road trip, be sure you have the right technology to plug into whatever power outlet is available in that vehicle (cigarette charger, USB port, etc.).
Some people are good at navigating; others couldn’t read a map if
they tried. Some people are good at planning meals, while others think a
big bag of chips counts as a good dinner. Know who does what well, and
what really matters to your traveling companions, and you will divvy up
tasks in a way that gets things done efficiently and to the satisfaction
of all.
If you take enough road trips, eventually you will end up stranded
on the side of the road outside East Gibbip a few miles from Podunk,
equidistant from the four corners of Nowhere. Having that 800-number
that immediately ties you in to approved local tow services and
mechanics is going to save you a lot of hassle, and also shield you from
some of the dangers of the road that none of us wishes to encounter.
I don’t know about you, but it sometimes seems like my new insurance
card takes days or weeks to get into my glove box. If you are traveling
without current documentation of license, registration or insurance, you
could be in for a world of hurt if you are pulled over for any reason.
Further, you may want to clear up any old traffic and parking tickets
before you go; under the right (or perhaps wrong, in this case)
circumstances, your car can be impounded for your scofflaw sins.
Sorry for the hokey country song phrase, but sometimes on the road
you need to play the hand you are dealt. On an eight-week, 15,000-mile
circle of the border states of the United States in 1991, we were
driving up Route 1 near Big Sur with a mind to staying with friends in
Santa Cruz. We pulled over to stretch our legs near a restaurant/hotel,
fully intending to get back behind the wheel in short order to continue
grinding northward. It took only two or three deep breaths for us to
decide we were going no further that day. It ended up being one of the
best long afternoons of the trip.
However, later on the same trip, we woke up in a state park in Wisconsin with about a week to go with a plan to linger in Chicago and Detroit, cut across Canada to Buffalo, come down through the Finger Lakes region, and generally finish off our trip at a leisurely pace. As we headed for a gas station to fill up for the day, we turned on the radio to listen to the news from the previous evening that the United States had invaded Iraq to repel its advances into Kuwait. When we arrived at the gas station, we found that gas prices had spiked about 25 percent, and the proprietor told us to expect more increases in the next few days. We quickly made the decision to make a stop in Chicago — we couldn’t blow off one of the country’s greatest cities — and then to bolt eastward to get ourselves home. It turned out that the sight of our front door and our own bed was more welcome than we had anticipated; we weren’t home early, but rather right on time.
By ED HEWITT
Stats aside, there is no denying that the lure of the road is undeniable and probably eternal; it almost seems embedded in our very makeup. There is a richness to traversing the land an inch at a time that is absent from the experience of climbing into a metal canister and climbing out at your destination. To get the most of your experience, don’t miss these road trip tips.
1. Clean your car before and during your trip.
As your trip proceeds, take time every couple of days to purge your car of undesirable flotsam and jetsam. Even if you can tolerate some chaos (as I can), the accumulated junk and minor filth will start to drive you mad in the close quarters that define a road trip.
2. Check your vehicle.
3. Have a loose plan.
On the other hand, having no plan at all is only recommended for the most hardy souls. On a trip through New England a few years ago, our plan was simply to pull over when we got tired to crash in a hotel; after taking three exits without success, we finally stopped at a place at which the front desk person asked, “Are you staying the whole night?” Ugh.
4. Get off the highways — but beware the Blue Highways.
Most U.S. road maps have some indicator of whether a “back road” is an interesting one; the map I use most has small red dots along those roads recommended as scenic routes. I have found these recommendations to be fairly reliable; most have at least a few miles of interesting local scenery, offer driving experiences ranging from a rambling bucolic feel to truly stunning views of America the Beautiful, and pay off handsomely for those with the time, patience and inclination to wander a bit. Roadtrippers.com, which is both a website and a mobile app, can also help you find such scenic drives.
However, that being said…
5. …have an escape plan to get off country roads.
6. Anticipate trouble spots.
7. Preload your phone with entertainment options.
If you’re road tripping in your own car, you probably already have a phone charger that will plug into the console and keep you powered up. If you’re renting a car for your road trip, be sure you have the right technology to plug into whatever power outlet is available in that vehicle (cigarette charger, USB port, etc.).
8. Tend to division of labor.
9. Join a roadside rescue service.
10. Have your documents and a clean record.
10 1/2. Know when to hold ’em, and when to fold ’em.
However, later on the same trip, we woke up in a state park in Wisconsin with about a week to go with a plan to linger in Chicago and Detroit, cut across Canada to Buffalo, come down through the Finger Lakes region, and generally finish off our trip at a leisurely pace. As we headed for a gas station to fill up for the day, we turned on the radio to listen to the news from the previous evening that the United States had invaded Iraq to repel its advances into Kuwait. When we arrived at the gas station, we found that gas prices had spiked about 25 percent, and the proprietor told us to expect more increases in the next few days. We quickly made the decision to make a stop in Chicago — we couldn’t blow off one of the country’s greatest cities — and then to bolt eastward to get ourselves home. It turned out that the sight of our front door and our own bed was more welcome than we had anticipated; we weren’t home early, but rather right on time.
By ED HEWITT
If you are looking for Immigration to Canada from UAE. Then Nexus Migration can be the best option for you to choose as a immigration consultant.
ReplyDeleteFill free assessment form with us to check your eligibility https://nexusmigration.com/