Tips For Road Trips

As you might know from following recent blog posts like this one, or even this one too, my husband and I just moved from the Denver, CO area to Florida.

We traveled in a Uhaul across Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, a small part of Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and of course Florida! The time spent on the road was about 32 hours. Behind the Uhaul we pulled my jeep on a trailer, because that way we could spend time together and also not pay for gas twice.

After our "epic road trip adventure", we realized/learned a lot of things that might be useful for future road trips. There were so many small things that we learned along the way, but, for your reading pleasure, I've summed everything up into a few short and fairly easy to follow items.

Here are our

Tips For Road Trips:

Roll With the Punches

Most likely you will arrive at your destination unscathed, but know that sometimes issues will creep out of nowhere and surprise you. Try not to be too surprised, because setbacks will happen.

Take, for instance, the flat tire we experienced in the middle of nowhere Arkansas. (We were actually smack dab on a busy interstate during the day, but to us it felt like the middle of nowhere). I think it was close to about 903 degrees outside, and we were a bit worried that we might die of a zombie invasion before anyone could save us. After about 10 seconds of panic, or maybe it was only 10 minutes (let's pretend it was only seconds, okay?), we took a breather and called the Uhaul roadside assistance number located on our paperwork. After probably 15 minutes of trying to explain what our location was, we waited for help inside the toasty interior of the Uhaul. Luckily we had water and snacks to tide us over! In case you were wondering, we also avoided a zombie invasion.

After that minor setback of about an hour, we were on the road again. Rubber tire pieces had littered the highway for what seemed like the entire state of Arkansas, so I guess maybe a blown tire should not have been a surprise.

We laughed about the situation after the tire was fixed and we had been on the road again for a little while. (Is anyone else singing Willie Nelson in their head?) Thank goodness the blown tire didn't happen to us in the middle of the night. You know, that's how bad scary movies begin!

Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and expect the unexpected.

Don't Push It, Be Safe

This tip is really important, because you do want to reach your destination safely after all. Use some common sense, and trust your gut.

My husband's dad and step mother came to Denver and helped us load the Uhaul, and his dad recommended that we keep in touch and he could set up a hotel room for us along the way. Not only is it a good idea that someone know where you are, it's also a big help *knowing what towns have accommodations and which ones do not. You would hate to get somewhere in the middle of Mississippi and find there are no hotels for hundreds of miles. Having someone keep us informed was a big help.

* You could also do this research before leaving for a road trip, but we had very little time to plan our trip so this was a huge help.

If your schedule allows, make plans to take a certain number of days but possibly leave an extra day in there just in case.

If you get tired, sleep!

If you get hungry, eat!

Don't push it. Compromising your safety is not worth getting there a couple hours sooner!

Truck stops are great places for breaks, because they are usually busy and have many options for food, gas, and resting.

Have Fun!

Like everything in life, don't take it for granted. I think this might be one of the most important tips for a road trip, because you might take just one in your life. So have fun!

We listened to music, took pictures, and sang songs. The song singing was probably one of the most fun parts, because it let us make light of our surroundings a bit. It's too bad we didn't have something to record the songs with (I should have listened to my aunt and taken a recording device!).

Taking a recorder might be an extra part of the "have fun" tip, because when you're in a Uhaul for 32 hours some really funny things come out of your mouth.

Another part of having fun is looking for goofy signs along the way. We saw signs for places like "Toad Suck Park". Imagine our confusion by that sign. Both my husband and I agreed that we should stay away from that place, because again it sounded like a scene from a bad scary movie. Thankfully we had no scary movie incidents.

So if you take a road trip, please make sure to have fun!

The "We Put Meat On Your Buns" BBQ sign. Don't eat too much! (:

I hope you're enjoying your week,

and if you take a road trip I hope it's a safe and fun one!