So many Americans fly everywhere these days that you might think the classic American road trip is a thing of the past. This is not actually the case. While it does seem that the "On the Road" experience of getting a car and just going for the sake of going is in decline, the statistics (and the number of cars all around you on the roads) prove that more Americans than ever are taking to the roads for vacations and family visits, albeit apparently for more frequent but shorter trips. And frankly, with airline customer care unquestionably in decline, many Americans would rather drive than fly.
Stats be damned, there is no denying that the lure of the road is undeniable and probably eternal; it almost seems embedded in our very makeup. This is more true for some folks than others, but there is a richness to traversing the land an inch at a time that is absent from the experience of climbing into a metal canister and climbing out at your destination. If this is what you're looking for this summer, here are some tips to maintain the romance while minimizing the rigors of the road.
1. Clean your car before and during your trip.
Go ahead, leave the napkins and gum wrappers under your seat. Leave the receipts from your last business-related drive in the glove box. Don't sweat the dog hair in the back bed ... but you'll be sorry you did. A few days into your trip, when the old gum wrappers are joined by new fast food wrappers, when the glove box starts overflowing with hotel receipts and local maps, when dog hair starts sticking to your luggage and your gear, you'll rue the day you failed to pull out the Shop-Vac.
As your trip proceeds, take time every couple of days to purge your car of undesirable flotsam and jetsam. Even if you can tolerate some chaos (as I can), the accumulated junk and minor filth will start to drive you mad in the close quarters that define a road trip.
2. Have a loose plan.
Delays are the one thing that you can count on when driving significant distances. Admittedly, the archetypal "BRIDGE OUT" sign is a rare sighting these days, but the flashing "Road Work Ahead, Merge to One Lane" message is not. You don't have to have seen a lot of Chevy Chase movies to know that things aren't always going to go your way. If you overschedule your road trip, it is almost a lock that you will find yourself slogging the last few miles long after you had intended to be asleep, trying to cancel one hotel reservation so you can pay for another well short of your originally planned destination.
On the other hand, having no plan at all is only recommended for the most hardy souls. On a trip through New England a few years ago, our plan was simply to pull over when we got tired to crash in a hotel; after taking three exits without success, we finally stopped at a hotel at which the front desk person asked, "are you staying the whole night?" Ugh.
3. Get off the highways -- but beware the Blue Highways.
Unless you have a specific destination and a strict schedule, there is little point in hitting the roads to see the country if you don't spend some time on the back roads. However, some blue highways (as certain back roads were called in the popular book by William Least Heat-Moon) are not much more than endless strip malls. Most U.S. road maps have some indicator of whether a "back road" is an interesting one; the map I use most has small red dots along those roads recommended as scenic routes. I have found these recommendations to be fairly reliable; most have at least a few miles of interesting local scenery, offer driving experiences ranging from a rambling bucolic feel to truly stunning views of America the Beautiful, and pay off handsomely for those with the time, patience and inclination to wander a bit. However, that being said...
4. ...have an escape plan to get off country roads.
When I was a kid, my family took a trip down the East Coast by cutting inland to take the Skyline Drive. The Skyline Drive is certainly beautiful and occasionally visually stunning, but after a few official overlooks and an intensifying bout of car sickness on the winding roads, the kids in the car were ready to come down from the hills. It was also fantastically slow going; average speeds were about 35 m.p.h., which, starting in New Jersey, gets you to Florida in about four days of 10-hour drives. After about 600 sharp turns surrounded by a whole lot of trees and mist, I-95 never looked so good.
5. Anticipate trouble spots.
If you are grinding out long miles on a road trip, it's not hard to find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time -- like trying to cross the Hudson River at rush hour, or driving the long bridges to Key West on the Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend. You'll want to plan ahead so you cross the Hudson at, say 10:30 a.m., or blast down to Key West on a Thursday.
5 1/2. Consider a satellite radio subscription.
The days of regional radio offering a musical or informational palette that you can't find anywhere else are almost all but gone, so tapping into the local vibe via radio is far less satisfying than it used to be. Were this not the case, I wouldn't recommend a satellite radio subscription. But it may be the traffic reports from major cities that tips the balance; if a city like New York or Los Angeles lies in between your car and your destination, you are going to need some timely traffic information to hope to beat the inevitable traffic congestion. XM features traffic and weather for about 80 cities; Sirius offers about 30.
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