I’m taking a 4 day road trip next week. I’m going with my new boyfriend and want to know how to pass the time in the car. I’m going to bring cd’s and stop at reststops. How do I pass 8 hours in a car. I think we’ll end up fighting by the time we get there out of boredom. We’re driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco. We’re staying at Motel 6. LoL! This is aminly a trp for him to chek out UC Davis because he’s planning on going to law school. How do I not feel weird about sleeping in a bed with him? How do I last being in his company for 4 straight days. I’m not a social person and don’t like vacations, but I think this will be fun. Does anyone have road trip stories they would like to share?
I think you can make the trip in less hours.
Mapquest says I can make the trip in 7 hours.
Mapquest may be conservative. Nobody drives the speed limit in California. It also depends on how many stops you make. If you just stop when you need gas, that’s a lot different from stopping every hour to stretch your legs.
My suggestions:
- Take along 2 CD players with headphones. Also your fav CDs.
- Take along some “mad money” so you can catch a bus home if things aren’t entirely copasetic.
- Plan to visit some tourist spots (I don’t think there are any in Davis). Find out how to get into the city–San Francisco, that is–without driving. You don’t want to try and park there.
- If you “feel weird” about sleeping in the same bed, get a room with two beds!
In July, I drove to Little Rock, Arkansas from Toronto (up in the Great White North) straight, with four other people. It’s about twenty-two hours. Most fun I’ve ever had, I think. No arguments or fights at all. I’ve been informed by some Dopers that the things we did to amuse ourselves are boring, but here they are anyway:
We read aloud from fun books
Played roadkill bingo
Sang along to bad fifties music
Pointed out really funny signs
We also voice-acted an Agatha Christie play, which wouldn’t be an option, I suppose, since there’s only two of you
Stopped at truck stops and bought stupid souvenirs
Because of the crowd, we also talked Art history and philosophy and politics and religion endlessly. I think it was that and reading parts from the Iliad aloud that got me labeled boring. And the poetry reciting competitions. Anyway, it was fun.
This is your big chance for uninterrupted conversation. Have deep philosophical arguments. Tell each other stories about your childhoods. Reveal stuff you’ve never told each other. Go into incredible depth on a subject most people wouldn’t spend five minutes on. (My dad and I once spent three days driving across the Southwest trying to remember how to do square roots without a calculator. Or pencil and paper, unless you count your mind and the Great American Desert.)
Not only is this your big chance for uninterrupted conversation, this is your best chance to advance six months in your relationship in only four days. A road trip is the finest opportunity to get to know someone in an incredibly short period of time.
This summer, around 2 a.m. and after having met someone just an hour earlier, we decided to do a road trip. We headed off at that un-Godly hour on a 600 mile quest for breakfast. Now, we never did make it to our intended destination, but we did visit a small city we both went to school at several years earlier, looked at homes we used to live in in that city, stopped and had a few coffees, stopped and had breakfast, lunch & dinner, stopped and had ice cream, sang songs, discussed philosophical issues, petted horses on the roadside, talked in funny voices, laughed at the claims to fame that some small towns put up (real one: “Home of Canada’s First Irrigation Pivot!”). Of course, after sleep deprivation, even seeing names of towns was funny (“Chin” struck us both as a particularly amusing place to be from).
Really, I’d ditch the CDs entirely and even remove the radio. We were without music our whole trip, and that improved the scenario ten-fold. It meant we actually had to be “together” instead of just in the same car.
By the time we arrived back, some 18 hours later, it was like we’d been friends for months - yet we’d only met 19 hours earlier.
LA to SF really isn’t that far. Going to Davis adds about an hour, but NoCoolUserName is right – you can go 90 for a few hours on 5 without having to pass anybody. You can probably do LA to Davis in 6, 6.5 hours, just to SF in under 6 easily. Depending on how you drive and how often you stop, of course.
Personally I’ve found that time to pass pretty quickly – I’ve made that trip many times with many different people and never had any problem with boredom. If push comes to shove you can always take a nap.
I disagree. I was on a mini road trip just five days ago, and my friend who was driving wouldn’t shut up. I just wanted to smash her head through the window.
Then again, not everyone is like me. Talking is great, but make sure you have some silence. Constant conversation can lead to skull smashing, especially if it’s for eight hours.
Standup Karmic, next time you wanna take a spur-of-the-moment road trip, I’m in.
If you have time, take the coastal highway instead of I-5. Guaranteed conversation, and if that fails you at least have the scenery.
A man after my own heart 
But as to the OP. I can think of at least a dozen thing to do on a 6 hour roadtrip with my SO. But since you aren’t sure about sharing a bed with him, I’d say throw a six pack in the back see ina nice cooler and Havefun drinking while he drives.
To alcohol. Both the casue of and solution to all of lifes problems :dubious:
I axtaully suggested that my boyfriend take the scenic coast hwy but he insists on taking the 5 because the 101 is on a cliff that winds around the coast and the car “might” fall off. I prefer the scenic trip over inland driving.
So much for “adventurous spirit” :rolleyes:
Split the difference - take 99 - not as deadly boring as I-5, but still safe for the timid.
p.s. - expect to get to know each other REAL well - nothing like a road trip to expose what a person is REALLY like (imagine evil smiley here)
I make it mandatory to stop at any tacky tourist thing that’s easily accessible. I like to stop at anything cool, too, like wineries or whatever. Though I couldn’t talk my girlfriend into going on the tour of a working dairy.
But we also go through periods of just sitting and driving. I can’t imagine talking the whole trip. In fact, I hate riding with those people who just yap, yap, yap. Sometimes you hit that driving zone where everything is flying by and you just want to be one with the car and the road, the only sound the wind whipping past and the engine humming along.
Funny, just today I had pause to reflect on how well I know a friend of mine. I’ve known her for 23 years, and we were business partners for over 10. But even during our years as partners, we didn’t socialize together outside of business very much.
But during the first couple of years we were getting our business going, we made roadtrips all over Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Lots of 'em. Fortunately, we apparently have compatible personalities - I don’t ever remember a minute’s tension.
Days in a car with someone, or better yet, nights, out in the boonies will allow you to learn quite a bit about your travel mate.
My advice :
Never ever take withaK’s car. It will break down and leave you stranded for 5 hours when you are only 1.25 hours from home.
Take Wikkit with you so he can make fun of you for the previously mentioned 5 hours.
Ok, ok, that’s my own personal advice I am going to follow on my next road trip. Besides bringing the CD’s you already own, stop and buy one by a band that you have never heard of, listen to it a couple of times. Its nice to have a change. Bring crunchies and munchies, and a pack of gum.
Bring a towel with you, all prepared travelers have a towel.
Stop along the way for a small picnic.
And most of all, have fun!
I’ve been doing a lot of long roadtrips lately, for job interviews. It’s cheaper for me to drive than to fly and board the dogs.
I tend to break up trips mentally into 60 mile segments. Except in the most isolated areas, there are usually going to be cities or large towns every 60 miles, or every hour. I stop every couple of hours to let the dogs have some play time, and I try to visit a truck stop. just to experience a bit of road culture.
In the boonies – I-10 through the Big Empty of Texas, or I-25 in Northern New Mexico – I tend to find myself in what I call “the zone.” Driving becomes an instinctive, almost zen-like act. It’s almost a form of meditation.
Oh, I forgot to mention, a roll of toilet paper will be your best friend if you have to stop in some one gas station town with iffy bathrooms.
That and an empty Beer bottle. I found that out on my Road trip from New York to South Beach.