Road trips are magical. They offer a time for personal reflection, exploration, and bonding with whomever you are tripping with. You can eat all the crappy snacks that you want and it’s totally acceptable -- almost as if the calories don’t count. There’s an easy flow to conversations, they last hours and topics range from “Back when I was a kid,” to, “Did you hear who Donald Trump insulted on Twitter last week?” to, “What kind of fruit grows on those trees on the left?”

Just as conversations are plentiful, there is plenty of silence. But it’s not the bad kind of silence that feels awkward and unnatural. Road trip silence is the pleasant kind of silence that creates a space for mindlessness or intense existentialism, pick your poison. Or sometimes the silence is filled with kick-ass music. Often, the silence ends when you and your buddies need to nostalgically yell every word of Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the U.S.A.”

Speaking of the U.S.A., road trips allow for seeing so many cool, weird, funky, and scary new places, people, and things that spark imagination and curiosity, answering old questions and posing new ones. On my road trip to college this week, I noticed something pretty cool: the towns in California are mostly Spanish names (San Jose, Chico, San Ramon....) but once you go north of the Oregon border, the names are Native American (Umpqua River, Tacoma, Tualatin, Willamette….). How cool is it that there is still so much history hidden in everyday occurrences.

Moral of the story: road trip are super fun experiences that create unexpected memories.

So it turns out that road trip food isn’t actually that unhealthy …. let me show you:

Expert advice: Buy your road trip snacks at a gas station in a small town that you don’t actually know the name of.

Peanut M&Ms: a delicious crunchy and smooth, salty and sweet treat with fun colors.

Nutritional benefits:

• Tons of protein (from the peanuts) to keep you going on the trip
• Chocolate provides antioxidants which do something with the oxidation of blood. I’ve heard the word antioxidant a lot, so I know it’s something you really need (who cares what it actually does, right?!).

Coca-Cola Products: beverages that quench your thirst, while giving you the satisfaction of delicious taste.

Nutritional benefits:

• Caffeine that keeps you alert during the driving, even on the most bare, flat, and straight roads
• The carbonation fills your stomach and your soul

Trail Mix: salty, sweet, crunchy, chewy all in one handful.

Nutritional benefits:

• Protein to keep you singing all of your favorite songs
• Chocolate to keep up the positive vibes
• Raisins are healthy because: raisins = dried grapes = fruit = healthy

Popcorn: satisfies your hunger without putting you into a food coma.

Nutritional benefits:

• The crunching of the corn burns tons and tons of calories

My point here is that even though the conditions during a road trip CAN be less than ideal (butts get sore, bodies feel unhealthy, boredom increases), if you decide to make the most of a situation you can have a total fucking blast.