Friday Fun: Road Trips

[Krisztian Kovacs]

Everyone loves road trips and travelling. That's what I get when I ask people. But while I don't doubt that their answer is genuine, most people shy away from a long weekend road trip. Mostly because it's hours and hours and hours and hours in a car watching the world go by. But that's fun, right? Right?

So as my Friday fun discussion, I thought I'd ask you, wonderful people, what your experience with road trips is.

Maybe I'm the only person who's willing to pay the extra money to travel to the US, rent a Dodge Charger and be off to the sunset?

Or perhaps only I'm among the few people that would jump into their car on a Saturday and set off to discover the roads of the UK or Europe?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I dislike driving, and get car-sick sometimes, so I'm not fond of road-trips myself.

But I do enjoy them when I've got company.  The most relevant one I've enjoyed was a pre-Summit trip with fantastic company - 8 eco-system people driving from San Diego to San Jose in a few days before Summit.  We saw lots of things (Hearst Castle, Hollywood Boulevard and Malibu beach, and so-on), drove a long way, but it was definitely the people who made the trip worth every moment!

[Scott Theus]

I absolutely LOVE road trips. I also love lighthouses, and listening to books while driving. Add all that together and you have two of my favorite trips so far...

Way back in the summer 2000 I bought my first brand new car: a Jeep Wrangler that I ordered from the factory with exactly the options I wanted (I had to order it because I couldn't get what I wanted with a standard 5-speed transmission.) That summer my wife and I went on a camping trip to Michigan's Silver Lake park near Traverse City for some off-roading with my new toy. We took the long way by driving up the coast of Lake Michigan, stopping at every lighthouse along the way for pictures and listening to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (still my favorite HP book.)

We had so much fun we did the cost of Lake Huron and Lake St. Claire with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2003, then the Upper Peninsula  in 2005 with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. 

[Keith V]

I love road trips. I have a small motorhome, it's comfortable and relatively cheap. It lets us stay in wooded campgrounds and still be warm,or cool, and dry. I also have Siruis radio so I get music anywhere :D

Driving the smaller secondary roads is where it's at. I live in Minnesota so Highway 61, the Michigan U.P. South Dakota Badlands. All wonderful drives.

I'm also a fan of Kentucky, the Appalachian mountains, Canada over the great lakes, so much to see so little time

[Tim Keyes]

A couple of summers ago my wife and I drove from El Paso, Texas through Phoenix, Arizona on the way to Las Vegas for a couple of days.  On the way back we were able to go through San Diego and see the zoo.  When stayed in the Aria in Vegas and had an excellent time.  Limiting our daily driving to 8 hours allowed us to balance the driving with fun experiences in each city.

[Zak Laughton]

Road trips were fun when I wanted to save money on airfare, but now I feel like I just want to get the most bang for my buck and for my time. Especially since it usually means spending money and time off of work.