It’s summer, which means many of you will be hopping in the car and hitting the highway for the holidays.
I like road tripping. I prefer it to flying because flying is the work of birds. When you’re on a road trip, you’re in control. You’re not being herded through the terminal like cattle, packed in a metal tube, and told you can’t use the bathroom because the seatbelt sign is on. You can live peacefully. You can see the scenery changing from plains to mountains and desert. You can pull up to see some of the Cadillacs stuck in the ground.
But a great road trip doesn’t just happen. Over the years of moving my own family across the vast expanse of the United States, I’ve discovered a few things that separate an easy job from a hard one. I also asked for some tips from a friend who has also done the same.
To make your long drives more enjoyable this summer, here are 30 rules of the road to follow:
1. Do a pre-drive test a week in advance. Check the tire pressure, oil, coolant and washer fluid and make sure they are all good. You want to avoid those breakdowns and blown tires that leave you stranded on the shoulder of I-40 between Amarillo and Tucumcari.
2. Start with a clean cabin. Set up your vehicle, vacuum its interior and wipe down the dash. Sure, after 500 miles, the inside of your car will look like a tornado inside Love’s Country Store, but there’s something about starting a trip in a clean environment that makes it feel a little more pleasant.
3. Pack a real paper map. Even in the cell-tower-dotted landscape of the modern age, you’ll encounter dead zones during your drive. GPS is great as long as you’re not crossing a point in the desolate west. A Rand McNally Road Atlas Never goes even once. Plus, it’s a great way for your kids to spend time watching it instead of staring at a screen.
4. Stock an emergency kit. We have a whole article on what everyone should keep in their car, and a road trip is exactly the scenario the list was written for. Stock jumper cables, a flashlight, basic hand tools, flares and at least a solid first aid kit.
5. Download what you need for entertainment and navigation and fully charge the device the night before. From podcast episodes to playlists to directions, download everything you want access to, even when your phone hits SOS before your departure. Make sure kids have downloaded the episodes Blue Or Gilmore GirlsAnd that everyone’s devices are fully charged the night before.
6. Prepare for a quality conversation. A road trip is a great time to have some quality conversation (QC). But QC doesn’t happen just like that. You have to prepare for this. For adults and older children, send them an article or podcast to listen to before the trip so you can spend some time discussing it on the road.
7. Bring more wet wipes than you think you’ll need. The gas pump handle is dirty, hands will be coated in Cheeto dust, and the public toilet soap dispenser will be empty exactly when you need it. There is no such thing as too many wipes.
8. Take it nice and easy. One advantage of driving over flying is that there is no pressure to leave at the exact time. No worries about missing the flight. so take it easy. Sure, have a general time you’ll want to leave and arrive, but there’s no need to get stressed out trying to stick to a strict agenda and Lapse in little irrational bouts of dad’s anger.
9. Drive when small children are sleeping. If you have infants or toddlers, early morning patrols and late night patrols are your best friends. A distance of one mile when a child is unconscious in his car seat is equivalent to traveling approximately three miles when he is awake and unmoving.
10. Everyone gets a turn to be a DJ. Either rotate through the respective playlists of passengers’ choice, or choose each song in turn.
11. Gas up at a quarter tank. Around town you can ride the Needle down the E and play chicken by the fuel lights. When you’re out and about and the next gas station is 50 miles away, be safe, and make at least a quarter tank of gas as you get.
12. Stick to mega travel centers for pit stops. When the family needs to use the bathroom and restock snacks, look for the giant signs of national chains like Love’s, Pilot, Flying J, or – if you’re lucky enough to live in their area – Buc-ee’s. You’re guaranteed a high baseline of restroom cleanliness, an exclusive, wall-to-wall snack selection, and brightly lit spaces. Leave dimly lit, poorly lit, one-pump stations as pit stops of last resort.
13. Clean the windshield at each fill-up. The sight of insects in the city may not bother you, but staring through a kaleidoscope of dead mosquitoes while driving into the setting sun is a recipe for irritation and impaired vision. Hold the squeegee while the pump is running; It takes 60 seconds and drastically improves visibility.
14. Everyone pees when you stop. Whenever you take a pit stop, Everyone Have to go to the bathroom. No exceptions. Not “I’m good.” Because the kid who was “good” will announce 30 minutes later that he was actually on the verge of not being good and now he needs to go.
15. When you stop, everyone moves. Your bladder isn’t the only thing that needs attention when you stretch—your hips do, too. Sitting in the driver’s seat for eight hours a day will turn your lower back into a rusty hinge. Take a walk around the gas station, touch a few toes near the pump or do some sit-ups – get the blood flowing again.
16. Run a dedicated trash bag. A designated bag for litter keeps the footwell from turning into a landfill by noon. Empty it at every gas stop. Replace with new bag.
17. Pad the timeline. If the GPS says eight hours, plan for ten and a half hours. Kids go slower, bathroom stops last longer, and the best way to waste a drive is to tie yourself to an arrival time you were never supposed to make.
18. Treat the screen as a tool, not a crutch. Although it’s tempting to let your kids sit in front of their screens for the entire trip, resist this urge. All children need to experience the boredom of a road trip and the joy that comes from watching the landscape pass by. Put them on a rotation, like turning the screen off for two hours every one hour.
19. Have an arsenal of games ready. Road Trip Bingo20 questions, machine gunalphabet game, magnetic checkers. Cycle through them throughout your journey.
20. Children must play mad Libs. At least once. It is a rite of passage of a children’s road trip.
21. The left lane is for passing. Consider this an unbreakable law of the universe, follow it religiously and teach it to your children as an example. If you’re not moving on from someone, move on. The republic of the road depends on it.
22. Use cruise control. This ensures you maintain a steady speed the entire trip and keeps you from drifting off to 90 without noticing, which is how you explain yourself to a state trooper while your kids watch in horror from the back seat, thinking their dad is going to jail.
23. Take a silly turn. Look for a state park, a roadside museum, or a giant fiberglass something-or-other brown sign, and do you have time? Get out. The world’s largest ball of twine may become a key memento.
24. Hotel pool is non-negotiable. If you have to stay in a hotel for the night, it’s essential to choose a hotel with a pool – at least if you have children. After being restrained in a seat belt for eight hours, your children will have the pent-up kinetic energy of a coiled spring. Throwing them in a heavily chlorinated rectangle for 45 minutes before bed is the best way to ensure that they actually sleep through the night.
25. Curate snacks. Beef jerky, almonds, pretzels – typical road fuel. Anything pulverized, crumbly, melted or sticky will end in regret. Powdered donuts in particular are an interior-ruining liability, and you’ll be vacuuming that white dust from the seat seams six months from now.
26. Restrictions “Are we there yet?” Ban the question completely. We get there when we get there.
27. No farting. Have some decency. The passengers are confined in a confined space and cannot escape.
28. Find an audiobook for the entire cabin. Eight hours of screen time will shatter their brains. A good audiobook the whole family can sink into — or even some old horror radio shows — unites everyone and makes noise a few hundred miles away.
29. Embrace silence. It doesn’t require you to pump podcasts, audiobooks or Spotify playlists through speakers. All 1,000 miles. Let the cabin cool for an hour. This gives the driver a break from sensory input and often leads to the best, most organic interactions of the trip.
30. Remember the drive is the journey. If you only care about getting there, you should have bought a plane ticket. The arguments, the inside jokes, the gas-station awkwardness, the killer singalongs, these are what the holidays are all about, and often the things you remember most.
