I don’t own a car but in the past year I’ve done a lot of driving; from Texas to California and dozens of trips between Los Angeles and San Francisco. There was also driving all over Ireland which was extraordinarily terrifying!
This holiday weekend I’m heading out on yet another day trip and in a couple of weeks yet another. I’ve got a pretty good system down for making road trips that I learned after doing a lot of driving from Seattle to Los Angeles and across Canada and I share them in an article at Anywhere, Everywhere.
The only thing I would add is that I’ve now got an “emergency picnic” kit that I kept stored in the car and is full of plates, cutlery, a cutting board, packing knife, napkins in a small cooler for when I just need to pull over and eat. There’s also a foldable blanket which can double during an emergency (and there’s a real emergency kit, too). I also picked up an iPod FM Transmitter which has helped tremendously and I confess my favourite playlist is a Karaoke one I made. Who doesn’t love signing at the top of their lungs on the open road?
3 Comments
Wait a minute! Forgive me- I am new…
It all sounds fantastic but are you actually making these trips solo?
The reason I am asking is that as a single independent girl myself, I am having a rather difficult time imagining a young pretty girl having a picnic by herself in the middle of the woods in Seattle somewhere…. It’s a safety factor for me. Or lack thereof… Please elaborate.
Hey Monika,
I make most of the trips solo; the trip across Canada I did with my best friend (also female) and I did a trip from Texas-Calnifornia with another friend. But every trip between Los Angeles and San Francisco is solo, and a lot of trips between Seattle and Vancouver were solo.
I don’t have a picnic in the middle of the woods
I use public rest stops and there are always people around so I never question my safety. If something seems shady or uncomfortable, I drive off. And when I travel to Europe, that’s all solo, too, and always has been. So it’s not a matter of being female or alone, just about being smart about it.
OK, that makes more sense. I mean, I absolutely love the idea of road trips (albeit gas prices have made it a difficult task recently), always have but I do feel like it’s easier to travel with someone else because there are many crazies out there. I live in one of the safest towns in America (well, it certainly has the crime stats to support this claim) and I still get nervous when some weirdo looks at me funny at Starbucks…
I recently came back from Praiano (Almafi Coast, Italy) and on day 2 I ventured away from the fab hotel (Hotel Angelina, highly recommended) to spend half a day on a rocky beach, all by myself. It was a very secluded spot and I literally saw 1 person walk by the entire time. I actually fell asleep for a good hour or two but I actually never felt safer in my life.