Turn a Car Ride into a Road Trip

Happen to be going to school out of state? Got a long car ride ahead of you that you’re dreading almost as much as the schoolwork you know it’s bringing you to? It’s time to spice things up a notch!

Ways to turn your car ride into a road trip:

• Bring some CD’s…and not just the current hits either. Remember the Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, and Brittany Spears songs you used to sing your heart out to as a kid? Rendezvous with some of the old pop stars and just try not to laugh!
• An old-school game of ISpy can bring a little life to any car ride; just make sure the thing you spy is somewhere IN the car rather then something you passed by 20 minutes ago.
• Come up with/add to your Bucket List and share them with each other in the car. Who knows…maybe you’ll hear about something new you want to add to your list.
• Bring some new language CD’s and get a head start on a new language you want to learn. Ganbattene!–That’s good luck in Japanese
• Now…if you’re the one driving you probably won’t be able to READ a book, but you could LISTEN to one! There are tons of books on audio these days and in easy access via Itunes; so even though your eyes are on the road you’ll still be able to find out who will win the “Hunger Games”.
• If you’re traveling with multiple people in the car a fun game to play is “I’m going to the beach…” The site USS Parenting describes how to play really well, “One person starts the game by saying, ‘I’m going to the beach and I’m going to bring my ….’ Fill in the blank with anything you want, ‘flip flops’ for example. The next person then repeats the first line and adds another item, ‘I’m going to the beach and I’m going to bring my flip flops and my sunblock,’ for example. Play continues around the group with each person repeating the items mentioned and adding their own at the end. Each player must begin with the phrase ‘I’m going to the beach…’ and they must list all items in their correct order. The game starts over when someone forgets an item or messes up the order. It’s fun to change around the opening line, also. Instead of the beach you can go to the park, store, grandma’s house, or wherever.”
• 20 questions is a classic! But what most people don’t realize about this game are the new and crazy things you can learn about each other while playing it. What you do is you set up a category for each round, for example round 1 could be “something you did last summer”, and then you play 20 questions in order to guess what that person’s answer is.

Instead of dreading the 20+ hours you have to spend in the car next week; look forward to the different games and activities you can play and the relationships with others in the car you can build. It doesn’t have be just a car ride…make it a road trip!