Step 7 - Have fun in your destination.
Rule 7 - You're a tourist, and tourist attractions are fun (for the most part)
It's probably a good idea to have something in mind when you go, a few goals to achieve. On this last trip, one of my goals was to hit the Water park at West Edmonton Mall. It's a major tourist attraction at a major tourist destination...it was easily achieved. One of RR's goals was to eat at a Red Lobster...again, easily achieved. But sometimes things aren't always known beforehand. Sometimes you stumble on things, which bring me to the next rule.
Rule 8 - Seize an opportunity.
Nothing exemplifies this more than my trip to London. We were heading to the Churchill museum and Cabinet War Rooms (highly recommended if you go to London), just down the street from the Parliament Building. On the way was Westminster Abbey. It's pretty impressive from the outside, but (despite the insistence from my mother) I was not planning on going inside. There was a giant line to get it (the British do know how to queue), and I figured, "meh...it's just a church." But on the Abbey grounds is St. Margaret’s Chapel, which was open and had no line. It was significantly impressive to make me say, "Screw it...I'll wait in the line, but I have to see the full Abbey." Fortunately the super long line was for credit card and debit. The cash line had about 10 people in it and we all made it in very quickly; and boy am I glad we did. It was VERY impressive, and a good example of how seizing the opportunity worked out in our favour.
Step 8 - Start the return trip home
Yes, now the vacation is winding down and it's time to start heading home. If you haven't planned it out already, the return route may be open for some debate. With places like LA or Portland, there's less choices for a route back than someplace like Edmonton or Calgary. On this latest trip, RR was thinking about taking an alternate route back. As a good road trip companion, I followed Rule 9.
Rule 9 - Sometimes you have to sit back and let the other guy have carte blanche with everything.
I told him that he could pick whatever route he wanted and I would drive it, stopping wherever he chose for the night. He ended up scrapping the idea and we just went back the route we went out on. Oddly enough, on every road trip RR and I have been on, the trip back is always faster than the trip out. Neither of us could tell you why. It's not even that I drive faster (on average I'm always 10 km/h over the limit), nor does it just seem faster...it actually is faster. On the way back from Barriere, we even stopped for lunch an hour outside Vancouver, and we still arrived back earlier than I thought we would.
Step 9 - Arrive home
Now your trip is over. You're back home. Congratulations on successfully completing a road trip. There are a handful of other rules which didn't fit into the narrative, so here we go.
Rule 10 - If you're travelling to Edmonton from Vancouver, bring your own food or prepare to eat a lot of A&W.
Rule 11 - If there's something you really don't want to do, let the other guy have his fun while you wait and/or do something else.
Rule 12 - Make sure you get windshield wiper fluid with bug dissolving agents in it.
Rule 13 - There's only a couple of you...you know who "dealt it", so just admit it.
Rule 14 - Use cruise control...a lot.
Rule 15 - Don't let music be your only entertainment. Discussion and trivia can stimulating for the mind and helps keep you awake on boring highways.
Rule 16 - When you get gas, use the bathroom, regardless on whether or not you need to.
Rule 17 - Bring bottles of water, because some rest stops don't have sinks.
Rule 18 - Always steal the hotel soap
Rule 19 - If you road trip with someone who snores, bring earplugs.
There might be more rules later....If there are, I'll make a special post about them.
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