Strengthen Relationships with a Weird Road Trip

Road trips are nothing new. To be officially considered a road trip, the entire drive is supposed to be a spontaneous event with no notion of where you’re going when you start. You start at point A and eventually return to point A. That’s a true road trip.

Wouldn’t it be fun to share a road trip with a friend or spouse, but throw in just a wee bit of planning to guarantee you have the weirdest, most exciting road trip of a lifetime. Pack up your RV for the wildest, weirdest road trip ever. Don’t plan anything, except the name of the cities you will be visiting.

 You are allowed to plan only two things in order to experience this truly weird road trip.

1. Choose your start and end points. Call them A and Z.
2. Choose the names of the cities you will visit on the trip and plot your course. 

To make this really fun, you must abide by the Weird Road Trip rules.

• Absolutely no planning except to pick out the names of the cities you will visit between Point A and Z. Do not plan where to stay, eat or find entertainment. Seek all these things as your travel unfolds and just see where the open road takes you.
• Only choose off-the-beaten-path cities with weird names. National maps don’t usually list these little mysterious cities, so you might search state maps instead. For Internet sources, a great website to start with is AmusingFacts.com. They have a list of Weird Town Names at this site: http://www.amusingfacts.com/weirdtowns/
• Each person must share in the documenting of your trip with photos, hand-written jottings and by pasting in free memorabilia. The scrapbook must be created while on your trip and added to daily.
• You must keep an open-mind, unwind and have fun

When you are packing, you are allowed to take a large old-fashioned scrapbook with big blank pages to fill with your photos and other free stuff you collect along the way. Also take some photo corner stickers, different colored gel pens, scissors, tape and bring along envelopes of different sizes and colors. Toss a package of blank copy paper in a variety of colors into your suitcase as well. These will be used in your scrapbook.

So, choose your locations based on the weirdness of the city name. Do no research on the towns at all—no cheating! Then begin your trip. It’s fine to check in with loved ones.  Be sure to tell them you’re having a really weird time.

Can you imagine visiting towns by the name of Smackover, Arkansas or Frostproof, Florida? Have fun discussing and thinking about how these towns got their names as you put mile marker signs behind you.

Your mission is to discover what’s in these towns and how they got such weird names. You’re probably not going to find a lot of tourist attractions, flashy entertainment and accommodations—that’s great! Learn to seek out your own adventures. Meet the locals and discover what happens in each town. Take time to chat with people.

There’s excitement in discovering new places that nobody else has found. It’s fun not having a plan. It’s relaxing to let the day take you wherever it may. Remove your watches and turn the clocks backwards on the nightstand. You won’t miss them.

When you talk to the locals, ask about the town and learn what people do for a living instead of entertainment. If it sounds interesting, offer to give them a hand shearing a sheep or selling flowers from a basket on the street corner. You will experience something new and maybe learn a little about life in the process.

Camp out in unusual locations whenever possible. Most RV’s have generators, so who needs full hook-ups. Figure out how to get by without the luxury items, challenge yourselves and you might be surprised by what you can accomplish as a road trip team.

Take a picture of the town sign at each location for your scrapbook and develop your photos at every opportunity so you can add them as you go. Take pictures of the weird things you encounter and the people you meet. Just open your minds to experiencing new things. Jump on opportunities to try something different.

Your scrapbook will contain the most interesting photos. Make it comical. Take a photo of a Ding Dong in Ding Dong, Texas. Take pictures of really short things in Shorter, Alabama. Visit Monkey’s Eyebrow in Arizona and find the best person for a secret mug-shot that has eyebrows resembling a monkey.

You can stop at Truth or Consequences in New Mexico and play Truth or Dare and learn new things about each other. I think you can come up with your own plans for Climax, Michigan but you might want to tuck those snapshots into an envelope marked private in your scrapbook.

If you visit French Lick, Indiana spend time perfecting your French licking skills on an ice cream cone. Take photos of anything waterproof in Waterproof, Louisiana—after Hurricane Katrina roared through Louisiana this may be a challenge—or be sarcastic and take photos of everything that isn’t waterproof.

Collect free items to add to your scrapbook. This could be match books, restaurant napkins, shells, leaves, movie tickets or even a piece of wool from the farmer’s sheep you just sheared. If you find a town with nothing but rocks and a big rock quarry—paint up some door stops and take pictures.  The point is to pick something that sparks a special memory from each town—and remember only take what’s free or freely given to you.

Every day, each person will jot down their impression of the town. Together they create a personal journal on their scrapbook pages. Draw funny pictures, doodle and write down why the town was given such a bizarre name. You may be surprised when you learn it had nothing to do where your imagination was traveling.

Road trips are mysterious journeys we take with someone special. Enjoy every moment together and share your scrapbook and experiences with your family and friends when you return. Your scrapbook won’t resemble boring albums filled with pictures of well-known landmarks like the Grand Canyon or Disney Land. Your scrapbook will be a direct reflection of your road trip and yourselves. It will be an exciting, interesting documentation of one of the happiest moments in your life—something you can both treasure forever.