The Perfect Road Trip

This blog will be entirely metaphorical, piecing together parts of road trips to create, in my opinion, The Perfect Road Trip. It will be broken down into categories: The company, the essentials, and the vibes. This doesn’t necessarily cover everything that can go into a road trip, but covers the things I find most necessary for a road trip.

The Company is perhaps the most important but also the most adaptable part of this whole trip. There is only one person who I need there, then a general archetype for everyone else. I’ll start with this, the ideal road trip is 4-5 people, so I am going off the basis of adding 3-4 other people. I am the driver, as I said before I like having the control and support of being the driver, and it allows others to rest if needed (but more on that in the vibes section). The only specific person I need is my wife, McKenna, in the passenger seat. If I need help with directions she knows how I like hearing them, if I need a snack she knows what I want, and if there is only one person who will be talking to me at any point I’d want it to be her. The back seat has a little more versatility in my mind, I would say I have archetypes of people I enjoy and make the perfect trip, and I have multiple friends who fit each one. Person number 1 I need is another conversationalist. I am very comfortable creating conversations out of nothing, but having 1 other person who can do something similar gives me a break from talking and everyone else a break from hearing me yap. Person number 2 is one of my quiet but insightful friends. That person who is a great listener and doesn’t need to talk a ton, but when they do it makes everyone listen and is always funny, entertaining, and/or insightful. Person number 3 needs three traits, they need to fit personality wise with everyone else in the car, they need a small head so they don’t block my view in the rearview mirror, and they need to be ok sitting in the middle seat. Like I said, all of these descriptions fit multiple people I know, and as long as the parameters are met and my wife is in the passenger seat, I am not incredibly picky on who they are specifically. 

The Essentials is a broad category. It jumps between food, music, stops, and everything in between. Music is less important to me than it may be to other people on a road trip; I prefer having good conversation more than I want music overpowering it. I have a playlist specifically made as basically “background music” that is good to have on a lower volume while driving so it isn’t dead silent between words but also doesn’t make the music the main ingredient of the drive. There is certainly room for a jam session (again, more on that in the vibes section) but generally the music is a side to the main dish of conversation. Food/drink is important to me. If we are on a long drive I have to be careful how much I drink, but I love having a soda/energy drink as well as an easy-to-eat while driving snack, both typically gotten at a gas station we stop at before we start the drive. My go to snack would be Twizzler Nibs (if you don’t know what those are, you’re missing out) and the drink is entirely dependent on my mood that day because I like pretty much any soda or carbonated drink there is. A stop (at a gas station or anywhere for that matter) shouldn’t happen sooner than every 3 hours, but I would prefer more like 4 or so. If I got a stop every 4 hours I would feel comfortable driving as far as 12 hours for one trip (although the longest I have ever done is 8) but the perfect road trip would be anywhere from 6-8 hours. I honestly don’t particularly care for any specific path on the trip, I somewhat go on autopilot when I drive so the interior going on matters more than the view, but I guess I wouldn’t mind a few nice views outside.

The Vibes is a bit of an oddball category, but I am a big vibes guy in general. The best road trips I have had have created good enough vibes the time flies by and you only remember laughs, good times, and great conversation, not numb limbs, cramped leg room, or the lull of highway driving. There are 3 phases of vibes that feel necessary for a road trip, and can happen in really any order. Vibe number 1 is some sort of car game. This can be the alphabet game, 20 questions, million dollars but… (if you have never heard of this game please ask me about it, it is so much fun), or anything in between, but they get everyone in the car involved and anyone can participate. Vibe number 2 is a jam session, it is tiring and usually cannot maintain for a super extended period of a time, but having people all join the same Spotify jam and queue up personal favorites is an immaculate vibe. You get the best kind of whiplash when it goes from Temperature by Sean Paul to Piano Man by Billy Joel, and everyone screaming their heads off for a bit can give the perfect burst of energy when needed. Vibe number 3 is an odd one, it is a short nap time for everyone else. Most people would hate being the lone awake person driving a bunch of slumberers, but I actually enjoy having 30-60 mins with quiet music and nothing else. Everyone else gets a chance to either recover from a trip or rest up going into one, and it gives me a vocal break (ya know, since I never stop yapping) and a little time for self reflection. Like I said, these vibes can happen in any order, and the entire trip doesn’t have to consist of these, but they all need to happen at some point. The gaps between being filled by good conversation had by great friends just ties it all together.

I’m sure I missed things I value, or added things most other people wouldn’t, but those are the ingredients to my perfect road trip. The 3-4 people I want, the essentials, and the vibes. Let me know what I missed or what you would have on your perfect road trip.

Sincerely,

Just a guy talking to himself