Over the last 12 years, I've been on a good handul of road trips. All of them (except 1) have been with RR. We've been to Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Edmonton, Calgary, and a few other smaller places. We've seen dust devils and a California wildfire. We've driven through wind, rain, sleet, snow, fog, heat, lightning, and gloom of night...except for that one time just outside Canmore where it was getting dark and the rain was so bad that we had to stop (video explaination available here @ the 2:20 mark). We have road tripping down to a science, but we hadn't been on a solid road trip in years, so when RR had some vacation time and took his birthday week off, we went on a road trip. I guess this post is almost a guide on how to have a good road trip. I'll break it up into steps and rules.
First things first, you have to be in the right mindset. With everything on a road trip, you have to keep an open mind. Secondly, never reject any idea out of hand; always use careful consideration. Let's make that the first 2 rules.
Rule 1 and 2: Don't be a dick.
With this in mind, we come to the first big hurdle...where to go. I suggested Seattle. It's not too far, it's familiar ground, but on the downside, it's been done...almost to death, so already I wasn't married to the idea. RR (after careful consideration) rejected the idea, as this may interfere with my EI, but then suggested Edmonton. Seeing no downside, I agreed, and the destination was established. Now it was time to plan the route. Let's start numbering these things.
Step 1 - Choose Destination
Step 2 - Plan your route
This one was simple. We take Hwy #1 until we can get on Hwy #5, then take Hwy #16 into Edmonton. It's the most direct route and the whole thing would have taken about 12 hours if we had driven it straight. RR suggested we throw in a stop on the way. Keeping an open mind, I agreed and let him work his magic. He picked a chain hotel in a small town called Barriere, just North of Kamloops. It would take us about 5 hours to get there, which breaks up the trip nicely. One thing to note, only the drivers get to have final say about the route and how long they're willing to drive on it, but don't be a dick about it.
Step 3 - Plan your stops (including accomodations)
From there, my first concern was in car entertainment, particularly the music. Which leads up into the next step:
Step 4 - Bring enough music
Now there's many ways of solving this problem. You could just say "It's all Rush, all the time", but that seems a little uneve. Early on, we burned CD's, then later MP3 CD's of our favorite music. This had some limited success. We found that whenever an MP3 CD was played on random, songs by Collective Soul would frequently pop up. It became somewhat of a scourge and we've limited the number of Collective Soul songs on road trips ever since. My car can now read a USB sitck, so I just asked RR to give me 5GB of music. I meelded with my 5GB, tossed it in and set it to random. This was met with great success.
Rule 3 - Make sure the distribution of music is fair and balanced
Now I know what you're thinking, "What if there's crap that he puts on that I don't like?" This is why we came up with a 'veto' rule. RR and I allow one song to be vetoed every 1/2 hour by each of us. Follow Rule #1 and #2 and there won't be too much of a problem. RR and I have somewhat different tastes in music. He likes what he likes, I like what I like, and there's a whole handful of stuff that we both like. Usually on a road trip, I'm exposed to music I've never heard and end up enjoying quite a bit. I'm sure it's the same way on his side too. Which brings us to step 5 and rule 4.
Step 5 - Pack your bags
Rule 4 - Don't over pack your bags
Do I really need to mention much more about that? If you're going for a 4 day trip, don't pack like you're going on a jungle safari for 3 months. Remember to pack some snacks and make sure that some of those snacks include beef jerkey (the perfect roadtrip treat) and Red Bull (because driving in Alberta gets boring).
Step 6 - Drive (or Navigate)
Now you can finally hit the road. All the prep is done and the trip can begin. Getting the trip underway is such a rewarding feeling. I mentioned in an earlier post about Unemployment Depression; well nothing cures it like getting started on a road trip with your best friend. Roles have to be established though. Whoever isn't the driver is the navigator and gets whatever the driver needs, as long as he's not being a dick about it. It's trade offs like this that keep people from arguments on a fun trip. Which brings us to Rule 5.
Rule 5 - Whoever pumps the gas, the other guy does the windows.
This simple rule, and RR's mastery of navigation supremely impressed my sister while we were in Edmonton and Calgary. RR is attuned to what I need to hear as a driver that he can give me excellent directions. My sister, on the other hand, gives directions so poorly, that I don't know if she knows where she's going half the time. "Left turn in 200m onto 72nd st. You'll want to be in the lane to your left." is how RR would give directions. My sister on the other hand is more like, "Left...left..left.left.LEFT!LEFT!!LEFT!!!". I was unable to move into the left lane. So keep the next rule in mind:
Rule 6 - Taking the wrong exit and missing the right exit are equal amounts of fun!
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