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By the time I was in middle school our family had been to the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, The Grand Tetons, Yellowstone National Park, The Badlands, St. Louis Arch, Las Vegas, and many more places. I owe much of my childhood to this rite of passage: the family road trip.
Growing up, there were certain things I could count on every year. One of those things was an annual family vacation. My dad worked on the second shift at his job so our trips usually started early Saturday morning at 1:00 am once he got home and showered. Mom would spend Friday night packing our minivan so we could hit the road the minute dad was ready.
From the 18 years I spent road tripping with my family, I learned a lot from my parents about how to road trip. But, this is about what I learned from my dad. Sorry mom, packing in storage containers isn’t on this list of road trip tips.
My dad is a practical, smart traveler, and I learned a lot from watching him on countless family road trips. I’ll be sharing more road trip tips from the man himself soon, but here are 5 road trip tips I learned from my dad.
1/ check your vehicle ahead of time
My dad is a mechanic by trade so this was always on his list of things to do the week leading up to our family vacation road trips. Besides taking a van on long trips that had 150,000+ miles, checking the van a week in advance of the trip was just 'best practice' for my dad. Everything from checking the van’s fluid levels, brakes, tires, and anything else that can cause problems, my dad made sure to check for any issues beforehand to mitigate any vehicle issues happening while on the road.
If you don't know how to check your vehicle, take it to your mechanic or an auto body shop to get it checked at least a week in advance of your road trip. This will decrease the likelihood of a vehicle breakdown happening while you’re on the road.
2/ know your route
Most of our family road trips were done sans GPS navigation - we relied on maps and an atlas to get us to our destination. My dad would highlight our route on an atlas that we followed to every destination. As a kid, one of the more exciting parts about spending countless hours in a van was checking our progress with the atlas every few hours.
Even though GPS and smartphones are staples in today’s road trips, it’s always a good idea to have a general idea of what roads and highways you need to take in case you lose reception or need to turn your GPS off for whatever reason. But, if you’re like my dad, you can still drive from Ohio to Texas without ever turning on a GPS.
3/ look for a gas station when your tank hits ¼ full
I don’t think there was ever one family vacation where we ran out of gas and were stranded on the side of the road. We’ve driven through some very remote places where the nearest gas station at any given point is 50 miles or more away… think middle of nowhere South Dakota. Making sure the gas tank is full was one of the keys to our successful family road trips since it's something that you can generally control. I'm sure many arguments and fights we're avoided by following this rule.
Being on the road with less than ¼ tank of gas is not a position you want to be in, especially if you’re traveling to remote places. At minimum, it’s best to fill up the tank at the time or before you’re down to a quarter full. If you’re driving through a remote area and come across a gas station and have more than a quarter tank, it’s a good idea to fill up regardless. You never know if the next gas station will be 5 miles away or 100 miles away.
4/ Maximize Your Stops
Most road trips we went on were 13+ hours of driving. Some trips were even longer - driving from Ohio to Las Vegas (24 hours) and a nearly 2 week long trek through the west (I think we clocked over 40 hours in the van that trip). Besides the three of us sisters fighting with each other, one thing we were good at was maximizing our stops. If we needed gas, we used the restroom and got more snacks. If we had to stop for lunch or dinner, we picked a fast food restaurant ahead of the exit and had our order ready to go so when we pulled up to the restaurant, mom, my sisters, and I would get out and use the restroom while dad ordered our food in the drive through.
Making multiple stops when you can combine them into one wastes time and only keeps you from reaching your destination sooner. When you’re road tripping, combine stops so you can save on your overall travel time and maximize your time at your destination.
5/ drive through the night
We drove through the night on nearly every road trip we went on. Not only was this smart on my parents part (sleeping children for 6-7 hours), but it saved us daylight time and got us to where we were going ‘quicker’. Every time we could drive through the night, we did. Mom and dad would switch turns driving every couple hours so we were always traveling towards our destination.
If you have a partner and can stay alert to safely drive every few hours, driving through the night is a good way to reach your destination faster and maximize your time at your destination. If you have kids, it also eliminates 6-7 hours that you have to keep them entertained. So, it’s a win-win.
conclusion
There are so many things I learned about road trips from watching my dad throughout childhood — these are just few of those things. On your next road trip, put these in to practice to save time on the road and spend more time at your destination.