Recently, my best girlfriends and I embarked on our first-ever road trip. We ended up making the 15-hour trek from West Michigan to Gulf Shores, Alabama. It was a long, tiring ride, but there were certainly a lot of things we learned about taking road trips together. If Spring Break is upon you, and you're looking forward to driving across the country with your girlfriends, take a look at these do's and don'ts:
DO: Leave early.
You may dread waking up at 4.30 a.m. to begin your drive across the country, but you'll thank yourself later when you realize that you won't have to be stuck in a car till 3 a.m. Leaving early may suck in the moment, but it's definitely the best route when you've got a long drive ahead of you.
DON'T: Make lots of stops.
When your drive is already 15 hours long, the last thing you want to do is add another hour or so to it. Make your stops few and far between, so you can keep a consistent estimated time of arrival throughout your drive. Sitting in a car for hours is hard, but it's worth it.
DO: Make those few stops fun.
My friends and I did made sure to take a few minutes at our couple of stops to stretch our legs and have a good time. When we stopped at the rest area right across the Alabama border, we had a quick contest to see who could pick out the weirdest tourism brochure. The winner was a brochure for the Alabama Gourd Society. We took it in the car with us and read up on it. You should definitely try this game, too.
DON'T: Let the driver stay awake by herself.
This is critical when it's dark out, whether morning or night. Do not let your driver be the only one awake in the car. Instead, it's best to have at least one person, preferably the one sitting in the passenger's seat, stay awake with the driver and navigate.
DO: Create a music playlist.
My friend's and I had the great idea of making a playlist for the ride. We made a collaborative station on Spotify, and we got so into picking music for it that the final product consisted of nearly 2,000 songs. We made a rule that we couldn't skip any songs that came on during the drive. It was a great way to stay awake and learn about each other's favorite music genres.
DON'T: Drink a lot of water.
Because we wanted to stay on the road for as long as possible, we kept each other's water drinking in check. Before each rest stop we'd chug our water down, but most of the time, we made sure not to drink that much. We didn't want to pee the whole drive. It actually worked out perfectly.
DO: Play weird car games.
Everyone's played the license plate game, so instead, come up with the weirdest games possible. For example, try out different accents, or make up crazy "Would you rather..." scenarios. My personal favorite from my trip was "Would you rather have knives for toes or whisks for hands?" The weirder the games get, the faster the time flies.
DON'T: Try to look good.
If you are about to ride in a car across the country, stop yourself from trying to look like Taylor Swift on the red carpet. Throw on your sweats, refrain from putting on your makeup, and just look bad. It's okay. You're all in this together. Looking bad together is a great bonding experience, and chances are you'll find that you actually look better with no effort put in your appearance than half the people at the rest area. You're going on a 10 plus hour drive, not to the prom.
DO: Have good conversations.
When you're riding in a car with someone for a long time, chances are you're going to run out of things to talk about. Therefore, fall back on those conversation topics your friends can spend hours on, even if you've already had the discussions before. Baby names and future cities to live in are great subjects.
DON'T: Have no clue where the heck you are.
Because of GPS, it's easy to just get in the car, turn on your iPhone, and go without thinking about where you are at all. My friends and I learned this the hard way when we drove through Nashville and mistakenly took pictures and videos of the skyline proclaiming, "IT'S MEMPHIS." Therefore, just grab an atlas and figure out where the heck you are.
DO: Realize that a drive can be the best part of your trip.
Lounging on the beaches of Alabama has been so much fun, but I'll admit that the drive is perhaps what I'll remember the most. It was our first long drive together without adults. We literally drove across the country alone, and along the way we listened to way too many Disney songs, experienced Chick-fil-A for the first time, and switched between feeling slap-happy and feeling like we were in comas. Don't go into your drive dreading it; instead, realize that it's a potential unforgettable memory.
