Making Miles

I hate to drive when I don't have a place to get to--and in the case of long distance road trips, that presents a problem.  For multi-day car travel, there's no "there" for the days in transit and it can get frustrating really fast. Add to that that when you're traveling with precious cargo or towing something heavy and you need to keep the boredom at bay: you need your wits about you, and that means not getting tired or complacent at the wheel.Now that I'm an RV owner--with dreams of sucking the very marrow out of the open road--the concerns of roadway boredom are real factors that I need to deal with.  (And, to boot, I have a couple tweens in the back seat wondering whether we're "there." Some trip planning strategies that I thought I'd share:

• A Rule for Travel Time. For me, I have set a goal of not traveling for more than three hours each consecutive day. For each day of rest (non-travel), I can add an extra hour of driving on the day I depart--but after that day it's back to the three hour limit. In all cases, the max travel day is seven hours.
  • e.g. if I stay at a place for four days, that's three hours of travel plus an additional hour for each day we rested... so seven hours of total driving time available.  If we stayed in that place only for two days, I only get five hours of max travel time. etc. Make sense?
  • Over time, I might alter the numbers but keep the structure of this rule in place: relating your travel time to your rest time seems like reasonable rationale.
• Put a there there. Even when traveling through an apparent wasteland, find something that serves as a destination or target. Even a tiny novelty from a site like Atlas Obscura or Roadside America can serve to harness your travel willpower to the task of making more miles.
• Plan the most boring and fatiguing parts of the trip for the beginning. At the start, you've got energy. At the end, you're tired.  Seems obvious, but sometimes I forget these facts and instead focus on getting to the fun and relaxation as quickly as possible.
• Two Two Two.  Some people use numerical rules, and yours may vary.  For example "Two hours max travel without a break, two days minimum per destination, plan to arrive by 2pm, or don't travel for more than two hours in the dark."  Choose your own rules, but stick to them, and you'll find them a source of stability in an uncertain world.
• The Mid Day Break. I really like it when I can plan four or five hours of travel in a day, with half in the morning and half in the evening, divided by a significant and exciting roadside stop. Works great with the kids: if you spend a few hours in a museum mid-day, they'll be begging you to get back in the car!
  • Hot Month Bonus!  During the hotter months, air conditioned travel in the mid-day will become a refuge, not a burden. Plan on that.
• Beware the smell of the barn. When the end is near, we tend to rush, we tend to try to push on, and we tend to feel like it's taking forever to make any progress. Each of these tendencies is counterproductive, and the rushing makes mistakes and injury more likely. Be careful and deliberate about the tail end of your trip, ensuring that you won't be tempted to skip destinations, double your driving time, or drive late/early/tired/stressed.
• THE BIG ONE: Plan the car time like it's a trip all in itself. While the bright allure of the road trip can be blinding, and there is SO MUCH information online about where to go and what to see, it's easy to miss the fact that you're going to spend a lot of time staring at a dashboard. (When you think about it: the destinations are the EASY part!) A conscious effort in ensuring a wide array of in-car activities and diversions is critical. Seek quantity and variety and try not to structure things too much.

I have one last note for trip planning, and it's gonna seem a little weird: consider a curriculum.  As someone who works at a school (a pretty good one!) I have experienced first hand the value of experiential education that's linked to supporting readings and discussions. I know that sounds a little lofty, but hear me out.Traveling up and down the east cost?  Try showing a preference to Revolutionary War (or Civil, if that's your thing) and then add a few books on tape on that topic to your in-car listening.  Just having an (even slightly) higher density of attractions of a single category or subject matter can forge unlikely and very valuable connections and learning experiences.On an upcoming trip to Orlando, I had orignally put little thought into a curriculum and spent time just doing route planning according to the timing rules above.  As luck would have it, we will wind up near Monticello, the Biltmore, and Mount Vernon along the way. Hmm... that got me thinking along the theme of "home" and I added in Hyde Park, Jamestown, and Valley Forge to the mix.  Now I've got a common "curricular" thread, and when we take the trip I guarantee you that my kids (and I, and my wife) will make connections and get ideas that would not have occurred without that "curriculum" of destinations.  Now I'm going to see what materials--audiobooks, podcasts, and activities--I might be able to sneak into drivetime to support the idea.  I might even suggest that we collect souvenirs in keeping with the theme.As I look forward to future trips, I'll be using the notion of curriculum as a guiding force in route design rather than just a lucky byproduct.  Summer 2018 is focused on "design" as we cruise through Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio...