Going on long road trips will make you extremely tired. Sitting in the car for endless hours with the same people can be hard, so here are five tips to help you survive the ride.
1. Take headphones
I always take my headphones on long car rides. If you don't like the music being played, you can listen to your own. When you listen to your music, play it as loud or as low as you want and have yourself a little concert going on. Headphones are also good for sleeping and canceling out noise from other people. My family is usually pretty loud so I put in headphones to cancel out some of the noise. Sometimes when it is hard to sleep, I use the headphones to listen to music that will help me.
2. Bring a Pillow and Blanket
I take a pillow for when I get tired so I can put my head up against the window without knocking my head on the glass. When I'm not sleeping, I put it on my lap to make the car more comfortable. The blanket is great when you get cold from the air conditioner being on. I also use it if I want to sleep but the sun is still up; I put the blanket over my head so that it seems dark enough to get some sleep.
3. Snacks
Snacks are a must on any road trip! The amount of snacks needed depends on the length of the trip. Eventually you will get hungry and if your driver is anything like my dad, they will not want to get off of the road. Snacks help everyone curb their appetite until everyone is ready to get some food or gas.
4. Boredom Cures
When I am on the road, I like to have things to do when I get bored. I usually take a book to read (my family says I'm a nerd). We sometimes take a small DVD player to watch movies so that we stay occupied. My mom likes to bring her tablet for everyone to play on and most of us play on our phones and listen to music.
5. People
I love having people in the car to talk to or play games with. We used to play "I Spy" while going down the road. We play a game where we try to find tags from every state. Every road trip we have ever gone on, we always come up with a new game to keep things interesting. One game I always liked is the alphabet game; one person starts with the letter 'A' and say a word that begins with that letter. The next person has to say the word the first person said, and then they would say a word that starts with the letter 'B' and so on. The farther you got, the harder the game became. If you said the wrong word, you were out. The game continued until only one person was left.
This is how I survive long trips with my family. Hopefully this will help you to make road trips more fun for everyone involved!