Pre-Ramble: So, … between a random Comcast black-out and a 12-hour road trip from Detroit to Minneapolis, I’ve been incommunicado for a few days now.  Lucky for me, the down time was filled with “forced thinking opportunities” and yielded a swell angle on a quasi-travel-blog. Lucky for you, I will share that with you now.

You are here. Locating yourself relative to your destination is key – hence the need for navigational aids.  We were prepared with not one, but FOUR modes of navigation – 1. Garmin GPS suctioned onto the windshield at eye-level; 2. a print-out of turn-by-turn Mapquest directions from point A to point B; 3. a series of AAA maps (those folded up, multi-colored paper things) with the entire route marked in green highlighter; 4. a portable handheld device (iPhone) that could pin-point our exact location in the event that we were inadvertently drawn into uncharted territory or thrown from the vehicle.

Another important consideration is that both driver and passenger must be in synch with food, drink and potty stop requirements. This is essential to efficient scheduling of on and off road events. The last thing you want is for one or the other of the travelers to skip a potty stop because they “don’t have to go” only to have to drop them off on the side of the interstate with a cocktail napkin deep into toll-booth territory.

Which brings us to a third point – bring a zip-lock baggy full of change (NO PENNIES).  Stow it in the sidedoor compartment and keep your eyes peeled for the toll road signs. The trick here is, you’ve got to be ready for anything. Required toll amounts can vary from 3o-cents to a buck-eighty …  As the front seat passenger/navigator, it is your duty to count out the proper change and hand it to the driver as the vehicle enters the cash only booth lane. The hand-off is critical. You don’t want any loose dimes slipping off between the seats, or worse, falling out of the car window onto the road before reaching the attendant’s out-stretched hand. There are serious points deducted for that. 

Other tips:

• You’re going to keep running into the same vehicles (not literally) on the road … you’ll catch up and pass … they’ll catch up and pass … etc. So, you want to make sure you’re focused and non-combative. Nobody needs road rage.
• If you need to find a Target along the way, there’s an app for that.
• The funnest thing ever is to randomly change your route and listen to Garmie (pet name for GPS) give you the irritated “Recalculating” missive. (Also, have you ever noticed that when you’re in the close up range on the GPS, your vehicle stays “on track,” i.e., on the straight pink road up the center of the screen THE ENTIRE TIME?)

Ok, so, here’s a really stupid/cool travel/adventure that I found online the other day… it’s called, A Virtual Road Trip with Marc Horowitz and Peter Blades. 

Apparently, Pete and Marc wanted to take a road trip together this summer, but Pete lives in Richmond, VA and Mark lives in LA. They tried and tried to make their dreams of the classic American cross-country journey come true, but because of finances, schedule conflicts, and time constraints, they just couldn’t make it work. You know how it is. But then they had an idea – an idea that my friend Ann would call a classic “hair-brained scheme” … They decided to take a virtual road trip … one that exploited the wonderful technologies of Google Maps and ustream!

On August 10, 2009, at 3pm PST, they left Marc’s house in LA and began driving together to Pete’s place in Richmond. They were essentially “virtual driving” across the country by continuously pressing the Google Maps arrow keys eastward, and broadcasting the entire experience live on http://www.googlemapsroadtrip.com .

Folks who don’t have anything more pressing to do are able to not only see and hear Pete and Marc as they travel, but also join them in a real-time chat room.  Wow! Just think of it as an invitation to hop into the backseat and ride along with them for part of the adventure. This gig was real-time, so when Pete and Marc stopped to eat, they actually ate, when they stop to sleep, they actually go to bed. Not only that, but if you wanted them to visit you, they actually called you as they entered your area, and called you up for a virtual tour around your hood.

This is everything that we’d do on a real road trip, except we don’t have to leave the house, pay for gas, or worry about getting speeding tickets.”

Kinda wacky, huh? 

Ok, great … but, based on our recent twelve hour drive-o-rama however, if they’re going to simulate the true, extended butts-in-seats-experience, they need to pledge that they will sit in the same chair for hours on end with yesterday’s newspaper and bags of stale French fries crammed around their ankles, drinking nothing but lukewarm bottled water and day-old coffee, and rebooting their computer every ten minutes while throwing $.80 in exact change into the wastebasket. Now you’re talking road trip!

The Take-Away: Road trips are great adventures and the next chance you get, you should head for the open road! 

Post-Note: If you come across a giant fiberglass mouse outside a cheese shop in Wisconsin – don’t even think about not stopping.