Road Trip Wisdom

Road Trip Preparations

We have just purchased a new car. After admiring it we decided to take it for a spin. An extended spin. And so, we now find ourselves engrossed in planning a road trip. 

Like all forms of travel, there is much fun to be derived from preparing. Accommodation bookings, scouring road maps and calculating distances have increasingly taken our attention in recent days as we edge closer to our day of departure. 

We will be on the road for five days travelling through our home state, Victoria en-route to Tathra, a small seaside town with a population of 1622 situated on the Sapphire coast south of Sydney.

A local attraction, Mimosa Rocks National Park starts at the northern end of Tathra Beach and runs north for about 16 km. 

Travel makes storytellers of us. It is essential for those of us who write to embrace the notion of travel experiences. Travel represents a break from the accepted routines we create around our lives.

As part of my trip preparation, I went in search of some road trip wisdom. Not that I haven’t taken road trips previously. I just had a curious need to re-acquaint myself with the acquired knowledge other intrepid travelers had gleaned.

Here are a few pearls:

Embrace the detours

Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures

People don’t take trips, trips take people

The best person to travel with is someone with a vaguer notion of time than you.

Forget the potholes, embrace the journey

The wise person travels to discover themselves

And this little gem- When preparing to travel, lay out your clothes and your money. Then take half your clothes and twice the money.

Finally, I laughed at this advice from the late George Carlin, who suggested, ‘Take your trip in kilometres rather than miles. Kilometres are shorter. You will save fuel and get there quicker.’

We leave in a matter of days… 'Like a band of gypsies we’ll go down the highway.'