Road trips in college are a usually spontaneous thing. Cars are packed full of friends and random clothing, music blasting out the open windows and someone spilling the gory details about their date with Frankenstein the night before.
Road trips with parents are more like living in the movie a Griswold Family Vacation.Stressful, frustrating and you never know what's going to happen. But at the same time they are so perfectly organized that you have no idea why every step must be planed out. It's like meetings in the show The Office. It sounds like a good idea so planed and organized but then Andy rolls in a cheese cart with Michael hiding underneath the Gouda and all hell breaks loose.
Road trips with parents are more like living in the movie a Griswold Family Vacation.Stressful, frustrating and you never know what's going to happen. But at the same time they are so perfectly organized that you have no idea why every step must be planed out. It's like meetings in the show The Office. It sounds like a good idea so planed and organized but then Andy rolls in a cheese cart with Michael hiding underneath the Gouda and all hell breaks loose.
The Prep
College: In college there really is no prep. Road trips are planed in a week and sometimes it's not even a for sure until the night before. Suitcases are packed anywhere from the night before to five minutes before you leave.
At Home: With mom and dad road trips are planed usually over a month in advance. Bags must be packed at the latest a night before. The gas tank must be filled, the ATM must be visited everyone must go to the bathroom before leaving, notes will be written to the dog sitter or anyone that is not coming with and multiple times the question of, "do you have everything?" will be asked.
Getting There
College: In college usually hunting down the friend with the GPS is the best way to go about your road trip. Especially, the ones with the fun accents! The man with the British accent is my favorite. Requiring that someone has a smart phone with good service is also a good idea in case you get stuck in a rut but now a days most people have smart phones so that's easy to find. And then you are off!
At Home: When we go on family road trips we have enough maps that we could lead an army into battle, in unknown territory, without WiFi or cellphone signals, or even knowing where the local McDonalds is. We have maps from map quest labeled, highlighted, and stapled (which actually comes in handy sometimes and is very organized) an atlas, (I think just in case we decide to go find the lost city of Atlantis.) And a GPS system, that requires undisturbed attention, meaning no radio, no books on tape, (sorry mom Janet Evanovich is going to have to wait) and no cellphone calls unless it's in regard to our destination. (But really I don't want them listening to my phone calls anyway so this isn't a big problem.)
Food
College: If it's a long road trip we will grab whatever is in the cupboard and literally throw it in the back seat along with anything that isn't an alcoholic beverage that has a cap. And then we will drive until someone says "I'm kinda hungry. Is anyone else hungry?" 99% of the time someone else is hungry to and so we stop at the nearest fast food restaurant, which most times is found under the restaurant finder in the GPS.
At Home: I have no idea how my mom does it but she always has food. She always has a mini cooler full of waters and sodas. And then there's at least one gallon Ziploc bag full of sandwich bags filled with cereal or crackers, or fruit, or lolly pops (because chocolate melts in the car). Then there are usually boxes of granola bars or Twizzlers (because they don't melt either) or something. Meals are always at a certain time. So no one ever has to ask, between 11:30am and 12:30pm for lunch and 5:00 to 6:00 for dinner.
Road trips are different. That's a good word for it. Different. In the end both ways get you there. With the parents you could probably survive an apocalypse and with college ways your setting yourself up for more of a PG-13 Hangover experience without the tiger. Drive on!
