Millions,
So, I’m in a band that spends a majority of its waking hours in a four-seat Ford e-150. With only so much music & conversation to go around, we sometimes devolve into road-trip games. You know, I Spy or 20 Questions or the lesser known “Name that Bloke” (basically, someone chooses a living famous (or pseudo-famous) male and everyone else tries to guess it; no hints are given, games last months).
Basically, those few options are pretty tired now. We need new ones. Got any?
Would You Rather? can get pretty funny if you don’t mind being gross or infantile with the questions.
Would you rather --eat a whole deer’s head
or --have to wear the deer’s head around your neck for a month as it rots
Would you rather --have to sit on a 500-foot-high tower for a week
–have to sit in a 500-foot-deep hole for a week
etc.
Are you located in the US or Canada? It takes a little pre-prep, but you can have lots of fun with License Plate Bingo.
Basically, just fill out a 5x5 grid with the names of states and Canadian provinces, trying to not make rows and columns heavy with more commonly-seen ones (and the “FREE” square in the center should be the state your own car is licensed in), and then mark off squares as you spot other cars with license plates from those states.
Oooh! License plate bingo. It’s been a while. Thanks for the reminder.
And, “Would You Rather” has indeed been played, usually at a sophmoric or sexual level, I must admit.
Highway sign alphabet – played this one across the country a few times. Just take turns A-Z, you have to spot a sign with a word that starts with your letter. Heading west, we passed the exit for Zzyzx Rd. (Nevada, I think) just in time. This game can be played concurrently/in the background with other games.
The name game – choose a topic like a sport, music, movies, etc. Each person has to name someone whose first name begins with the first letter of the previous person’s last name. For ex: Roger Clemens --> Craig Biggio --> Barry Bonds --> Bronson Arroyo --> Alex Gonzales.
Drinking games without the drinking:
Bust a rhyme – go around, saying a line that rhymes. Can’t use the same rhyming word. I bought a cat --> Then I sold my bat --> On the ground I spat --> I yelled out “Drat!”
Categories – just pick a category and name as many things in it as possible (brands of cars, beers, Russian first names, etc.)
We played that with any sign, including billboards.
Oh yeah, and we didn’t take turns. Whoever called out the letter first got credit for it.
My wife and I have whiled away many miles on the open road by playing a variant of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, in which we name two actors off the top of our heads and then attempt to come up with a chain of movies that connects the two.
For instance, if the actors are, say, Alan Alda and Rachel Weisz, I would say that Alan Alda starred in The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio, who starred in The Man in the Iron Mask with John Malkovich, who starred in Being John Malkovich with John Cusack, who starred in Runaway Jury with Rachel Weisz.
Whoever makes the connection first wins, no matter how many movies it takes.
Loads of fun.
Variations on the “categories” game mentioned by Jayrot: names in a certain category, but do it each letter in turn. We played this as kids, calling it the “animal” game: Starting with the letter A, each person names an animal starting with A until someone gives up, then go onto B, etc. Part of the fun will be arguing if the word starting with A fits the category. i.e. is the AIDS virus an animal? Do you allow extinct animals? Foreign words?
A memory game (more for children I suppose, though you can make it challenging by picking objects with extremely long names):
First person: “I am flying to the moon, and I am taking with me an alliaceous acrobatic alligator”.
Second person: “I am flying to the moon, and I am taking with me an alliaceous acrobatic alligator, and a bumbling bucolic bufflehead”.
etc.
Each person adds an object but has to recite the full list of all the objects in the list so far. Spice it up with extra rules like the first person that makes a mistake gets his pants thrown out the window or has to drink a shot glass of tabasco.
…but i need those pants.
These are great. Don’t think I won’t be printing them up at the end and glove-compartmenting them. Oh, I will be.
I remember having a fun with this as a child in Switzerland, but in the USA it seems too hard. Especially in the large western states like Texas or California, you can drive for a long time without seeing plates from another state. In addition, you will never ever see Hawaii.
Also a game I learned as an adult, but it’s not for the pacifists:
slug bug: The first person to see a Volkswagen beetle (the car), you punch as many people as you can saying “slug bug”! If you forget to say “slug bug no returns”, then they can punch you back. If you do say “slug bug no returns” and the other person punches you back anyway, then you can punch them twice for breaking the rules. A great way to keep people awake on a long road trip! If your band is a punk band that needs a certain edge and attitude when going on stage, this can definitely put you in the mood.
A variation on something listed above: the geography game. Each person in turn names a State, Country, River, or City beginning with the last letter of the previous person’s addition.
Example:
A: London
B: Norway
C: Yugoslavia (you may then argue about whether one can use names of places that are no longer used)
D: Africa
E: Alabama
F:Alaska
G:Albany
A: Phew, we finally got off the A____A words. What? I have to think of a place starting with Y? Yorktown
B: (with malice–especially later in the game) Nebraska
I’ve played for hours, with enough people, and enough travel time.
We called that “Punch Buggie.” We play it with SWORDS
My little talibans, uh kids, like to color clothing on all the underdressed people in celebrity gossip magazines.
When I was a kid, we took a family vacation to South Dakota, and I saw a Hawaiian plate on the back of a Ford Country Squire station wagon that was just ahead of our car on the highway. I’ve also seen a Newfoundland and Labrador plate “in action”, but never a vehicle registered in Prince Edward Island or any of the Canadian territories. A few years ago, I spotted a Grand Bahama plate on a parked car, but a closer examination of the sedan revealed that the valid rear tag was from Indiana, and the front plate was (though apparently authentic) several years out of date – a mere souvenir.
Viewers of The Simpsons know this game as Punch Buggy.
Amazingly, I saw a Hawaii license plate yesterday, in a tiny town in Tennessee.
I dimly remember playing a game where you counted cows and kept up with the points. IIRC, a white horse doubled your points and a graveyard on your side of the road wiped out your points. You could get creative and think up new rules, depending on the kinds of things you are likely to see.
I still play slug bug.
I know it’s not a game, but would anyone be interested in getting audio books? After like 10 music albums, sometimes listening to a book on tape is refreshing.
Bup: We listened to Bill Bryson’s Short History of Nearly Everything last trip & thoroughly enjoyed. Any suggestions (readers/books you’ve really enjoyed listening to?)
Arnold:
True about Hawaii, but not true about the big states. People drive from all over. Naturally, you’re most likely to see license plates from closer places, but if you’re on an interstate, you’re sure to see plates from outside.
I saw a Hawaii plate in Nevada 2 years ago or so… also saw an Oregon plate in Budapest once.