Who doesn’t love a road trip? Whether it’s a quick day drip to the city or a month long excursion, we have all gotten in our car and left home at some point. But should we plan it or wing it?
We’ve done both. We’ve
done day trips that are planned months in advance, and we’ve done 10 day long
voyages that have brought us through 10 different states on a wing and a
prayer! But… What’s the right way to do it? Is there a right way to do it?
Truth: There is no
right way.
There are plenty of things to consider, but no real RIGHT
way to road trip. That’s the best
part! It’s YOUR trip. Not your neighbors’, or co-workers, or even
your grand-dads’.
Are you a planner?
Do you like to schedule your day out? Or maybe you live life at the edge
of your seat and find spontaneity to be the only way. I like to think I am somewhere in the middle
of those. I like to have my calendar
readily available to schedule a night out with friends, or to know when we have
a wedding coming up, but I also need that calendar to show me that I have 10
whole days wide open and vacation days to burn – so let’s get on the road!
There are definitely pro’s and con’s to both sides. I’ve found that for our family, it depends on
what we are looking to get out of the road trip. Is it the destination, or is it the actual
time on the road?
Day Trips
If you wake up one morning and decide that you want pizza
for dinner, the best pizza you can find – grab your kids, friends, spouse, or
go it alone – get in the car and drive to NYC.
Be a little spontaneous! You
don’t need any more information than directions, and now a day’s you can pop
that up on your cell phone as you’re buckling your seatbelt. A trip like this requires no planning. It’s a destination based day trip. Drive to NYC, stop and eat pizza. Maybe you walk around the city for a
bit. Maybe you park on the wrong island,
and have to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to get to the pizza place the guy on
the dock suggested. It doesn’t matter,
you take the day, and made silly goofy family memories that 6 years later, our
son still talks about, and we still laugh about. Totally spontaneous and totally random.
If you sleep late one day and wake up deciding to hop in
the car and drive to Niagara Falls, you are in the same situation as going for
pizza. The water fall is always
open. It doesn’t shut down at
night. All you need are those pesky
directions! Or so we thought… A little more planning should have taken
place before hopping in the car and taking off.
For example, did you know that the lights that illuminate that water
fall that never closes DO shut down at night?
We did not… and unfortunately, we learned the hard way. We drove 8 hours stopping for gas and coffee
only to arrive at the Falls 5 minutes before those light shut off. We were left standing in the grass of the
American side with nothing to look at except the city lights of Canada. Back in the car for an 8 hour drive
home. A definite road trip fail, and
only one example of the many we’ve made.
Thankfully, in this case, our time in the car was absolutely epic, and
the lights shutting off just became the icing on the cake for the stories we
got to tell. As for our lovely
destination based road trip, not planning created disappointment.
Week Long (or longer) Trips
Now if you have vacation days to burn, and you want to
spend them all with your family or friends traveling the countryside, that may
require at least a little planning.
Winter break of 2014 we took our very 1st long road
trip. We took 12 days and touched 20
states and spent over 500 miles a day on our butts. I wish everyone would wander the way we did
on that trip! But as much as we
wandered, we had a plan. We had never
done this before! There were parts of
the country we had never been too before!
It was Christmas time, would places even be open!?!
We each sat down, and picked some places we wanted to
visit. Vegas. The Four Corners. Crater of Diamonds State Park. The Grand Canyon. The Cadillac Ranch. Then, Doug and I decided that even if
everything else in the entire country was closed for Christmas day, at least
Las Vegas would be open… And we planned
around that. Make it to Vegas by
Christmas. We decided that we would make
very few stops on our way out, and fill up the return trip with more of our
destinations. Done planning? Not so much.
For this trip, we did a little pre-mapping. We determined which stops would be done in
which order to maximize how much we saw with minimizing our wasted time driving
in circles on the road. If hotel stays
are important to you, I would also suggest looking into those as well. We didn’t.
We just planned on tent camping if the weather permitted, or staying in
a Motel6 along the way. Definitely a
successful trip and the pre-planning proved to be a good idea.
What if I just want to get in the car and get lost for 2
weeks? You can do that too! Doug and I have decided that once our son
graduates from High School that is just what we’re doing. We don’t want a plan! We want to go wherever the wind takes us, and
just take it from there. You’ll have to
watch for updates on how that experience went.
Overall, our suggestion is to have a plan that you’ve written in pencil. Don’t be upset when things don’t go as planned. And don’t worry that you drove right past 6 stops that you probably would have loved had you done the research and planning and known they were there. Maybe one day you can re-road trip your previous journey and get to see all of those things that you flew past last time. Road trips are an adventure! Start Yours!
