Spring is just around the corner. The weather is warming. The nations white, barren and snowy planes are melting into beautiful luscious greens and colorful flowers. Animals are waking up and coming out from hibernation, stepping into a fresh new season. And like those animals, it’s time for both you and your car to get up and out of the house. It’s time for you to stretch beyond the living room. It’s time for a road trip.
Here are a few tips on how to plan for an amazing road trip.
1. Clean Out Your Car. Do this before and during the trip (depending the size of the trip). See those gum wrappers under the seat? Trash ‘em. See that water bottle collection you’ve been building? Trash it. See that pile of parking tickets in your middle compartment? Tra- No. You should pay those...
2. Buy A Map. I suppose you can use a GPS system too, but a GPS is programmed to find the most efficient route, so unless you want to take a road trip on the parkway for a few hundred miles, go to a Wal-Mart or something and buy a road map of the US. This will show you all the main highway/parkway roads, but also all the back roads, too. And if you buy a Wal-Mart one, it shows you where all the Wal-Marts are, which can definitely come in handy.
3. Loosely Plan A Route. I say loosely because you want to know where you want to be on certain days and how long you want to be there for. This can help you plan financially when it comes to money. At the same time, however, you want to give yourself leeway for not only traffic, but if you want to stop and take in the scenery - do it. It’s your road trip and your moment to experience everything you can and you don’t want an hour by hour itinerary holding you back from that freedom.
4. Bring Cash. It’s good to have a debit card, but bad to get stuck in a place that only takes cash and only have a debit card.
5. Bring A Tent, Sleeping Bag, Pillows And Blanket. You might be the kind of person that only sleeps in hotels or motels, but camping can be a super cheap, totally fun and very efficient way to get some rest. And after driving hundreds of miles and spending a ton of money on gas - you might just want a super cheap, totally fun and efficient way to get some rest.
6. Bring Snacks Not Food. I say bring snacks and not food because you want to bring things that will last you and will not go bad. Good things to bring are bags of chips, pretzels, nuts, some candy and even fruit. Though if you bring fruit, you should keep it in a cooler and eat it within a few days. Bad things to bring are foods such as meats, poultry, eggs, and other things that quickly go bad. If it’s a day long road trip and you keep that stuff in a cooler with ice, that’s one thing, but even then the ice will eventually melt. For dinner or meals, stop at a local diner/ restaurant or buy what you need for the day at local grocery stores.
7. Clean Record. Don’t just clean your car, have a clean record before you leave, too. Any tickets or anything you haven’t paid, pay them. Make sure your registration and insurance is up to date and make sure your car’s headlights, tail lights, license plate, engine, tires, windshield wipers, etc. are all working and up to date. You don’t want your car to break down in the middle of nowhere, but most of all you don’t want to get pulled over and have to drive back to the middle of nowhere two months later just to go to court.
