Car Trip Check List: Handy and Smart

by Jamie Rhein on

Spring break is on its way. This make me think of taking a road trip. Why stay home when there is a new place to go or a relative to visit? As someone who goes dashing about the house to round up items the night before I head out and overpacks each time, I came across this handy check- list for car travel on Family Fun magazine’s website. Instead of wondering what else I need to pack, using this list might help me focus my efforts. The item on the list I absolutely love is wet wipes. I am a huge fan. With wet wipes and a roll of paper towels I can handle about anything.

I noticed that this list is missing a TV, a VCR, a DVD player or a Gameboy. I have to agree. My family isn’t big on gadgets. (Well, my now teenage daughter is and can’t believe her parents are so lame.) Even when we traveled from Ohio to California then onto New York and back to Ohio, the radio, cassette player and portable CD player were our only outlets for high tech entertainment. All those miles with a toddler and an 11 year-old. Yes, possibly we are freaks. When traveling with a toddler or a young child, I can’t recommend sticker books enough.

The car in the photo is not mine, by the way. It’s a Flickr post taken by pinprick. I am impressed, however, with how everything is packed in with enough space that the driver can still see out the window–sort of. I’ve been there.

Restless Kids? Printable Car Activities!

by Willy Volk on

I mentioned yesterday that my family goes on road trips with some regularity. To pass time in the car, we always make sure we have: fresh music on the iPod; several magazines with lots of pictures; one box of Trivial Pursuit cards; and a hip flask filled with grain alcohol. (Just kidding, we hardly ever take the Trivial Pursuit cards.) We don’t have kids. If we did, we might be looking for other ways to pass the time in the car. What about printable car activities?

Mom’s Minivan is a site dedicated to providing kids travel games and road trips ideas. In addition to details on how to make a cootie catcher and art from aluminum foil, Mom’s Minivan has some pretty great Printable Car Activities, including car bingo and — my favorite — Travel Scavenger Hunt Cards.

The cards are so cool, that, even as an adult, I’m thinking about printing off a couple for our next trip to the Keys. Bonus points for the person who sees the snowman!

Turn-lane help from state to state

by Jamie Rhein on

Map Quest can be handy when figuring out how to get from one place to another. I’ve used it to get from Ohio to Montana through Minnesota, for example. Sometimes though, like if you’re going to an out of the way place you’d better look at a conventional map. The folks who run the Hope Springs Institute in near Pebbles, OH have told me not to rely on the Map Quest map to find them and so has somebody who lives west of Dayton, OH in a place that doesn’t have a post office box.

Map Quest also doesn’t cover all the road navigating possibilities. The New York Times recently had a nifty article that runs through the possibilities. Consider the “jughandle turn” in New Jersey or the “Michigan left.” And there are the low water crossings in Texas and Kentucky and the frontage roads. Texas has them, and from experience, I can tell you that so does New Mexico.

Ohio has turn lanes that run down the center of busy roads. They basically allow you to pull into the middle of lanes going either way so you can make your turn without stopping the flow of traffic–nerve-wracking for people hailing from elsewhere.

The jughandle is basically the same concept as the center lanes in Ohio but, instead of putting you in the center of a road where traffic careens by on either side, it’s a road that goes off the right side of the road then loops around to the left. The Michigan left is a turn lane that basically allows you to make a U-turn.

The New York Times article included a University of Maryland website, Unconventional Arterial Intersection Design, that explains the various regional turns. It includes an animated feature. Pretty cool.

Megan Lyles Travel Writer

by Adrienne Wilson on

When really good travel blogs manage to remain secret to me, I get bummed wishing someone had called me sooner to say, “Hey, Adrienne you need to peep this right now!” No personal calls were ever received which leads me to wonder how many folks even know about the travel writing goodness of Megan Lyles? It really makes no huge difference that I didn’t follow Megan and her fiancé/photographer, Michael Simon, while they were blogging on the road. It just means I have a ton of catching up to do.

Back in the summer of 2005 Megan and Michael took off on a one-year long bus trip from Manhattan to the tip of South America. The trip has since been wrapped up and Megan and Michael are back in Manhattan, but the site is still up and there for your viewing pleasure. And I do mean it is a pleasure to check out. I read through some of the Mexico, Paraguay, and Uruguay stops not wanting to stop, but catching up is going to take a while. Before I departed I clicked on just one more plug while they were in North Carolina attending the Vans Warped tour. All I can say is Megan, where ever you are – I can totally relate.

California Road Trips

by Erik Olsen on

If you HAD to choose a single state i which to do your next road trip, my guess is that we could get most people to agree on just two or three. The list would likely include California, Wyoming and/or Montana. Sure, maybe throw New Mexico in the mix for good luck.

Well, for those who selected California, I have some good news. The Los Angeles Times, California’s home paper (and probably the third best appear in the country) has put together a fine list of road trip destinations within the state.

What’s nice about the list is it’s atypical of most California road trip compendium. It provides data on how to get to drive the Central Coast Loop and reach Paso Robles, or to get to the Southern Desert and the Salton Sea (a favorite…and worth seeing before it’s gone). Yet another takes you in the opposite direction up North to Mount Shasta (the tallest Mt. in CA, for geographiles). All good stuff and a good little link to store away for your next itch to drive.