HOW TO ENJOY A CAR TRIP?

Hate long car trips with the family? 

Well, here are a few ways to avoid singing "99 bottles of beer on the wall" with Mom and Dad! 

1. Watch movies. A lot of people buy fancy DVD players for their cars, and end up using them once a year! But you don't need a DVD player for watching movies, all you need is a laptop (that plays DVD's), a laptop charger, and a DC-AC Converter. A DC-AC converter takes the power from your cigarette lighter to a normal AC Power outlet. So on the trip, your laptop will have full battery. Plug the DC-AC Converter into the cigarette lighter, plug your laptop charger into the DC-AC converter, then plug the Laptop charger to the Laptop and voilà! You have a DVD player!

2.  Listen to music. Who doesn't like music? A nice way to listen to music without continually switching CDs is to buy a car cassette adapter for an iPod. All you do is plug it in to the headphone jack and put the cassette into your cassette player and you will have music filling your car. If you have a car with no cassette player, you can use an FM transmitter. An FM transmitter is a device you plug into your MP3 player and all you do is set a radio station on the device and any radio a few yards away can hear the music coming from your MP3 Player to the desired radio station. Or if you want to listen privately you can do so very easily by listening via headphones.

3.Read a Book. Books can be a best friend. They can take you to places that you may never see. They can introduce you to things you may never know... But do you know how to read them in order to get the fullest enjoyment possible? This should help. 

 Find a book. Look in the library or in one of the larger bookstores. You could also ask friends if you could check out their book shelves. Search the shelves until you find a book that looks good. Read the first page to see how it reads, and the cover text at the back of the book if it has any. If you find yourself already engrossed, then buy it or check it out.

 4.  Play games. Some car games are addictive and some can be quite boring. Take your pick:

• The Name Game: Someone thinks of a letter and you go in a circle, saying a name that begins with that letter. The one who can't find a name first loses.
• Scavenger Hunt: Each passenger makes a list of things to find during a trip, such as a red house or a certain type of car. They switch lists and look for everything on each of them. The game can be challenging if you make it that way!
• Ghost: Someone starts with naming a letter, the next person has to name a letter also, but it has to be in the order of a real word. The one who finishes the word loses. If you think someone is just saying random letters, you can challenge them. Once you do that, if the person says a real word they were spelling, the person who challenged them would be out. If the challenging was successful, the person who got challenged would be out.
• The License Plate Game: A group of people try to find abbreviations for the 3 letters on a license plate. Such as a license plate that had the letters BFH: you could say "Big Fat Hippo!"
• The License Plate Game #2: This is another version of The License Plate Game. You find a license plate and make a word out of the 3 letters by adding letters in-between the letters. The letters have to be in order! So if you see a license plate that goes CMA you can say, "Camera!" or "Coma!"
• The License Plate Game #3: This is also another version of The License Plate Game. When someone sees a license that is from another state they say the state and punch the other person playing. (Remember not to punch too hard!)
• 20 Questions: One person thinks of a noun and another person tries to guess it in under 20 "Yes or No" questions.
• Yes and No: Simple- one person tries to make another person say yes or no.
• Casserole: A game where a person tells a story, and during the story they have to say "casserole!" Once the person says casserole, all the people listening have to say "casserole." The first one to say it gets to start another story.
• Three Words: You first pick a category, like animals or sports. All the people playing have to choose a subject from that category, like soccer, or football. Then you pick a person to be "It". The person being "It" must say someone else's subject three times before the other person says their subject. If the "It" person says the subject 3 times before the person with that subject says it, then the person will be "It". However if the "It" person says the subject 3 times during the person with that subject saying their subject, the "It" person remains "It".
• I Spy: One person looks for an object inside or outside the car. After they find an object they say "I spy with my little eye something that begins with...". Then you have to say the first letter of the object. The first person who finds out the object is "It".
• Honey If You Love Me... : In this game one person is supposed to ask another person in the funniest way "Honey, I love you, won't you please, please smile?" And the other person without smiling or laughing must say : "Honey, I love you, but I just can't smile". As easy at it seems, it is really hard to not laugh, especially if you play with a group of the same gender as you.
• Sign Game: All you have to do is find the letters of your name, one by one by looking at billboards, signs, or posters. First to find all the letters in their name wins! You must find them in order of your name! So, if your name is Colin you must find them like C-O-L-I-N not L-I-C-O-N.
• Alphabet Signs: Look at signs or licence plates on the way and try to find the letters A-Z. The first person to get there wins, and the once a letter has been found somewhere, it can't be used from that location again
• Picnic Game: The first player starts off by saying "I'm bringing A____ (a word that starts with the letter A, most likely a food product but not necessarily) to the picnic". The second player then repeats the A word and adds something that starts with B that they will bring to the picnic. The next player repeats both A and B, and adds a C. The game continues until the letter Z is reached and each player repeats the entire list correctly!
• Alphabet Conversation Alphabet conversation is a game that involves improvisation, which means thinking on the spot. The first player will start a conversation by starting a sentence with the beginning word the first letter of the alphabet. Then the 2nd player would respond to that with a sentence that starts with a word that starts with the 2nd letter of the alphabet and so on. No saying Ummmm... Or Hmmm.
• Words that Relate: This is usually played in internet forums as well. Someone chooses a word, and then someone next to them has to say another word that relates to that word. The next person has to say a word that relates to that word, and so on and so forth. To make it more challenging, you can make it so that you can't say the same word twice.

5.      TIPS

• For surround sound in the car for movies, plug the Car Cassette Adapter in the laptop.
• If you get serious motion sickness take a motion-sickness drug like Ginger. If you have Emetophobia, (fear of vomiting), you may get motion sickness and the fear together. Take a motion sickness drug to alleviate the problem. People with Emetophobia may also have a fear of other people vomiting; relieve their tension by assuring them you're not feeling carsick!
• Momsminivan.com Car Games for Kids - Includes lots of games and activities to play in the car with your kids on car trips to make the trip more enjoyable.
• Chewing Gum may help alleviate motion sickness symptoms while reading.

 6.     WARNINGS

• The driver of the car should not be watching the movie. If the sound of a movie bothers the driver in any way, the watchers should wear headphones. Distractions like noise can lead to accidents.
• Some of the games listed may give someone car sickness. Don't look down, read or write if you are prone to motion sickness; either ask someone else to keep score or toughen up your mental agility by remembering the scores in your mind.

 Renee de Ramirez, MS

Travel Planner Organizer