- 6 April 2010
- 4:27pm
- Filed under
Other
Driving games: road trip heaven or hell?
Jane OrmondLonely Planet author
The concept of a road trip seems so wildly romantic. In your imagination you’re not some schlub let loose from their office job. All of a sudden you’re The Wild One; you’re Kerouac; you’re a go-anywhere, do-anything kinda person and there ain’t nothing that can hold you back.
But that’s in your imagination. In reality you’re squeezed into a rented Volkswagen Rabbit with your friends and the conversation has dried up about 45 minutes into an 11-hour journey. You’re too old to sing ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ and you’re too easily irritated to play ‘Eye Spy’. When the scenery is about as captivating as sorting rice, how do you pass the time without wanting to commando roll out the car and into a ditch?
Lonely Planet staffer Louise Clarke recently road-tripped through the epic landscape of Western Australia with some friends. She said: ‘Unfortunately we weren’t very good or creative with the time-killing. Mostly we got on each other’s nerves by disagreeing about whose turn it was to drive/choose music/find accommodation. That can take up a lot of time. ‘
We think she’s being a bit modest though, as they did come up with some killer time-killers: mix-and-match celebrities to create the perfect date (take Sean Connery’s accent…) or the most trash-tastic celeb (take Lindsay Lohan’s nose, add Paris Hilton’s hemline…).
Then there are the fantasy wealth games: build five different kinds of houses (beach house, apartment, farmhouse etc) in five different countries, or work out how you’d spend a million dollars in 24 hours without acquiring any new possessions. Then there’s the sensible option of simply downloading some interesting podcasts to listen to. (Louise suggests ‘stuff you should know‘ podcasts from How Stuff Works.)
The best driving game I ever heard of was from the cracker-dry wit of English writer Alan Bennett. When he and his friend would motor down the English freeways they would debate whose underwear they would least like to wear on their heads.
So, road-trippers – how do you pass the time?
Take it in turns to name someone who is recognisable by just their first name. E.g. Jesus, Elvis, Madonna, etc. This can go on for a surprisingly long time.
Read, Sleep, Check out the scenery, Think about what comes next…or what just happen.
I get some of my best ideas when on the road…wheeling between El Centro and Yuma…or Denver and Salt Lake…
Video games…? For me…not so much…
Not needing to be constantly entertained is a good trait for someone on a long distance road trip…
Are we there yet…? Not!
We come up with lists to challenge eachother. My husband makes me try to name all the US baseball and football teams, I have him name characters from girly shows like Sex and the City. (I know that’s only four characters, but it took him half an hour!)
‘The Wave game’ :D on the road in Australia, so many hours to kill, nothing to see but desert..
You take turns in waving to oncoming traffic, if the driver waves back you get 1pt, people on the back seat are worth 5pt etc. Good fun!
My favorite is what I guess what one could call themed story time. What is your most embarrassing moment to date? What is the best meal you ever had? What was your childhood dream? It’s especially fun if you think you know the people you’re with well, because you inevitably learn more about them.
-Karina
http://www.TaraAndKarinaGoOut.com
I am a veteran “Road Tripper” and we buy books on tape, plan out the things we’re going to do when we arrive to our destination, read to ourselves, and sleep in between driving.
Your own vehicle is a lot more flexible then public transport, or not? You can do a detour and stop to see more stuff then on the bus. And normally the National Parks are very bad connected – so you need your own car.
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