Who doesn’t love a highway journey? Whether or not it’s a fast day drip to town or a month lengthy tour, we’ve all gotten in our automobile and left dwelling in some unspecified time in the future. However ought to we plan it or wing it?
We’ve performed each. We’ve
performed day journeys which might be deliberate months prematurely, and we’ve performed 10 day lengthy
voyages which have introduced us via 10 completely different states on a wing and a
prayer! However… What’s the suitable solution to do it? Is there a proper solution to do it?
Fact: There isn’t any
proper manner.
There are many issues to contemplate, however no actual RIGHT
solution to highway journey. That’s the most effective
half! It’s YOUR journey. Not your neighbors’, or co-workers, and even
your grand-dads’.
Are you a planner?
Do you prefer to schedule your day trip? Or possibly you reside life on the edge
of your seat and discover spontaneity to be the one manner. I prefer to assume I’m someplace within the center
of these. I prefer to have my calendar
available to schedule an evening out with buddies, or to know when we’ve
a marriage developing, however I additionally want that calendar to point out me that I’ve 10
entire days vast open and trip days to burn – so let’s get on the highway!
There are positively professional’s and con’s to either side. I’ve discovered that for our household, it relies on
what we wish to get out of the highway journey. Is it the vacation spot, or is it the precise
time on the highway?
Day Journeys
If you happen to get up one morning and determine that you really want pizza
for dinner, the most effective pizza you’ll find – seize your children, buddies, partner, or
go it alone – get within the automobile and drive to NYC.
Be slightly spontaneous! You
don’t want any extra data than instructions, and now a day’s you possibly can pop
that up in your cellular phone as you’re buckling your seatbelt. A visit like this requires no planning. It’s a vacation spot primarily based day journey. Drive to NYC, cease and eat pizza. Possibly you stroll across the metropolis for a
bit. Possibly you park on the unsuitable island,
and need to stroll over the Brooklyn Bridge to get to the pizza place the man on
the dock instructed. It doesn’t matter,
you are taking the day, and made foolish goofy household reminiscences that 6 years later, our
son nonetheless talks about, and we nonetheless snort about. Completely spontaneous and completely random.
If you happen to sleep late in the future and get up deciding to hop in
the automobile and drive to Niagara Falls, you might be in the identical state of affairs as going for
pizza. The water fall is all the time
open. It doesn’t shut down at
evening. All you want are these pesky
instructions! Or so we thought… Slightly extra planning ought to have taken
place earlier than hopping within the automobile and taking off.
For instance, do you know that the lights that illuminate that water
fall that by no means closes DO shut down at evening?
We didn’t… and sadly, we discovered the onerous manner. We drove 8 hours stopping for gasoline and low
solely to reach on the Falls 5 minutes earlier than these gentle shut off. We had been left standing within the grass of the
American aspect with nothing to take a look at besides town lights of Canada. Again within the automobile for an 8 hour drive
dwelling. A particular highway journey fail, and
just one instance of the numerous we’ve made.
Fortunately, on this case, our time within the automobile was completely epic, and
the lights shutting off simply grew to become the icing on the cake for the tales we
acquired to inform. As for our pretty
vacation spot primarily based highway journey, not planning created disappointment.
Week Lengthy (or longer) Journeys
Now in case you have trip days to burn, and also you wish to
spend all of them with your loved ones or buddies touring the countryside, that will
require at the very least slightly planning.
Winter break of 2014 we took our very 1st lengthy highway
journey. We took 12 days and touched 20
states and spent over 500 miles a day on our butts. I want everybody would wander the way in which we did
on that journey! However as a lot as we
wandered, we had a plan. We had by no means
performed this earlier than! There have been components of
the nation we had by no means been too earlier than!
It was Christmas time, would locations even be open!?!
We every sat down, and picked some locations we needed to
go to. Vegas. The 4 Corners. Crater of Diamonds State Park. The Grand Canyon. The Cadillac Ranch. Then, Doug and I made a decision that even when
all the things else in the whole nation was closed for Christmas day, at the very least
Las Vegas could be open… And we deliberate
round that. Make it to Vegas by
Christmas. We determined that we might make
only a few stops on our manner out, and replenish the return journey with extra of our
locations. Finished planning? Not a lot.
For this journey, we did slightly pre-mapping. We decided which stops could be performed in
which order to maximise how a lot we noticed with minimizing our wasted time driving
in circles on the highway. If lodge stays
are necessary to you, I’d additionally counsel wanting into these as properly. We didn’t.
We simply deliberate on tent tenting if the climate permitted, or staying in
a Motel6 alongside the way in which. Undoubtedly a
profitable journey and the pre-planning proved to be a good suggestion.
What if I simply wish to get within the automobile and get misplaced for two
weeks? You are able to do that too! Doug and I’ve determined that after our son
graduates from Excessive College that’s simply what we’re doing. We don’t need a plan! We wish to go wherever the wind takes us, and
simply take it from there. You’ll need to
look ahead to updates on how that have went.
Total, our suggestion is to have a plan that you just’ve written in pencil. Don’t be upset when issues don’t go as deliberate. And don’t fear that you just drove proper previous 6 stops that you just most likely would have liked had you performed the analysis and planning and identified they had been there. Possibly in the future you possibly can re-road journey your earlier journey and get to see all of these issues that you just flew previous final time. Highway journeys are an journey! Begin Yours!