One of the most essential experiences in American literature is that of the cross-country road trip. With a fairly vast area filled with all kinds of different climates, cities, regions, and cultures, taking multiple days to drive across several states is never anything short of an adventure, and one might even say it’s a primary milestone to accomplish; a must-do on the bucket list of life.

I have always been fond of the road. Since my home state, California, is the third largest in the U.S., traveling across it so many times has gotten me used to long hours on the road and seeing new places everywhere I go. But I haven’t ever really spent so many days at a time doing nothing but driving to new destinations, exploring the landscapes and coasting the horizon. This summer, armed with my best friend Lane, whom I’ve known since third grade, and a pick-up truck full of duffel bags, I have finally had the opportunity to give it a go.

How do you know you’re really getting the full road trip experience? Well, mine is only half-done, but so far, this is what I’ve come to consider quintessential about our ultimate summer road trip:

1. Learning whether or not you can really camp.

Lane and I aren’t exactly experienced campers, so when we parked our pickup at Cave Lake State Park in heck-all nowhere, Nevada, it was an adventure. It went from light to dark as we made the mistake of putting our mattress and blankets out in the wrong order, struggled to piece together our truck bed tent, and successfully cooked our first no-kitchen meal on a propane-fueled camper stove with nothing but a lantern and the moon for illumination. Ultimately, though, we succeeded! Meals were had, supplies were kept safe, sleep was slept. There’s little better than determining that you are capable of doing something out of your usual league.

(There’s even less that can outstrip confidently deciding you never, ever want to do it again.)

2. Appreciating the longest, loneliest roads...

Some people might say that long, empty stretches of highway are the worst part of driving long distances. I, however, beg to differ. I know my family expected me to get excruciatingly bored watching the same landscape for hours on end. But actually, when we drove the Loneliest Road (hundreds of miles of Highway 50 through the great nothing of Nevada), the constant stretch of disappearing asphalt in front of me and the vast desert around was nothing short of exhilarating. There is something really fulfilling about appreciating the beauty of untouched land, staring out the window at initials people have spelled out with black stones on white sand, knowing there are, to quote Robert Frost, “miles to go before I sleep.”

3. …and the best roadside attractions.

One of the primary goals when planning this roadtrip was finding the best and kookiest roadside shit to gawk at on the way. So far, the most kitschy of these has been the Route 66 Museum in Kingman, AZ, the infamous “The Thing” at the Dragoon rest stop (also AZ), and California’s “World’s Biggest” Cabazon dinosaurs.

Beyond these, though, there’s also beautiful state and national parks to visit, with breathtaking views that you might not have ever heard of. Give the Grand Canyon all the gawks it deserves, but also take the time to swing off and check out America’s shoe trees, New Mexico’s ghost towns (if you visit at the right time of year), or Arizona’s petrified forest and stunning canyons.

4. Finding out everything you’ve researched (and packed) is wrong...

Realizing you’re not a camper after the first night sort of makes you wish you had left the first quarter of your truck bed empty for other things, but you can’t necessarily know that you’ll feel that way. Some researchable attractions, though, surprise you with their hours at the last minute. Once you look up your plans for the next day only to realize that Stop A is closed for the summer, Stop B is open exactly sixteen days a year, and Stop C only lets people in on Sundays between 1 and 3 pm, you may start to regret not rechecking the route you started planning nearly a year ago. Still, at least you’ll keep your improvisational skills sharp – and maybe find new things that you never would have encountered had your plans worked out!

5. ...but thanking the universe for the life-savers you DID remember.

Like sunblock. And extra chargers. And something to write your postcards on in the bumpy car. And sunblock. And little portable fans you can wear around your neck to stave off the South-Western heat. And sunblock. And your atlas for when your GPS on the phone busts out.

But mostly sunblock.

6. Becoming best friends with your camera...

Most of the time, you might go out on a trip only to come back and realize you were so busy doing things, you didn’t take any pictures. Now, that’s a good vacation, but it sucks for people like me with a terrible memory. Fortunately, that’s not this trip. One of the bonuses of riding with a friend, as well as having picked the long stretches of scenic highway to conquer, is that you can spend a lot of your friend’s driving time taking pictures, and vice versa. Me and my hand-me-down Nikon have been getting along famously, and ensuring that this road trip is one that will never be forgotten.

Takin' a selfie with my lil' buddy!

7. ...and also a little alien dude.

Well, what’s a bona fide adventure without picking up a hitchhiker along the way?

Okay, maybe actual hitchhikers is not always well-advised, but one of the most fun parts of going different places is finding and adopting a goofy friend. Ours is Beaufort, an inflatable alien I bought for about five bucks in Roswell, New Mexico. He’s become our roadside mascot, buddy, dance partner, prop, and emotional support creature for exceptionally bumpy roads.

8. Eating at the wildest theme diners.

One of the best ways to get a taste of local life is to drop on down to the prominent kitschy diner in any given town. We’ve been to a ‘50s themed retro diner with many cutouts of Elvis, a shiny chrome diner with neon stars that boasted dozens of pictures of Hollywood stars, an adobe-like diner shaped into a giant clay owl (it even had t-shirts), and, bafflingly, a Denny’s that was attached to a gas station minimart. Still not entirely convinced that last one wasn’t populated by ghosts...

9. Developing an addiction to [insert type of souvenir here].

Okay, so I may be getting a slightly excessive amount of postcards. And souvenir pennies. And patches. But I’m a collector, and that’s me. Still, I think pretty much anyone will give in to the urge to pick up a little something at every interesting stop, and you’re likely to fall on that one souvenir that you have to get one of from everywhere. What am I going to do with a couple dozen souvenir pennies, you ask me? I’ve got no damn clue. If I were you, I’d go for the postcards. Not only are they fun to write and send to your friends, but if you end up with leftovers, they make for picturesque mementos – you can even pin them on your wall back home, if you’re so inclined.

10. Realizing that nature really is still out there, and it's stunning.

When you live in a city, or even just as densely populated a state as California, you get used to the idea that civilization is never too far away. Even driving down the long stretches of Central Valley, I can always picture proximity to one of Cali’s major urban hubs, or recognize enough of the area to never quite feel ‘nowhere’. But out in the huge, untouched stretches of the southwest, and undoubtedly other areas of the US (or your local road-trippable nation), you realize just how much nature there really is. Endless saguaro deserts, brilliant red and yellow chalky canyons, gleaming white sand dunes, pine-painted mountains and rushing valley rivers – all of these can be found along some of the otherwise loneliest highways you may encounter.

Take a gander, breathe it in, and enjoy.

11. Staying at super sketchy motels...

Interesting choice of name...

Nature may be stunning, but you can’t always safely bed down there for the night. Still, if you’re on a budget, the roadside motels you end up crashing at may be almost hilariously sketchy… Like the one in Lordsburg, NM, which boasted 3 HBO channels, all of which were unfortunately taken out by the nearby windstorm. The parking lot featured an abandoned, broken-down pool house with stacks of mismatched furniture and a creepy set of children’s swings and carousel tucked away in the brush. Combine that with suspiciously friendly neighbors and genuine tumbleweeds skating across the sidewalk, and you’ve got yourself a properly desolate road trip motel.

12. …and also a boat??

To save money, Lane and I found a couple of friends willing to let us crash with them along the latter half of our road trip. The day I wrote this, we were set up to stay at a school friend’s dad’s house in southern California. Needless to say, we were a little thrown off when the address we arrived at was a collection of marinas, and the only local neighborhood consisted of dozens of rows of masts belonging to docking sailboats. Turns out, her dad’s "place" is a boat. I am writing this article from the tiny, somewhat triangular front bedroom of a two-story marine vessel, complete with seagulls in the nearby lot and everything. Surprise??

(Okay, so this specifically may not happen to you… but you will, one way or another, learn to roll with the surprises.)

13. Being ready for anything else that could come your way.

After rebooking reservations, improvising adventures when attractions were closed, following directions with no address, accidentally signing up to stay in a boat, losing my hearing aid cleaning tools, leaving behind belongings in motel fridges, discovering new roads, and learning what cities I now hate, I feel ready for whatever else may come at me down the future road. One thing’s for sure – if you’re doing your road trip right, you’ll come out the other side having conquered challenges and newly prepared to take on whatever comes next.

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