“You can play the ABC game only so much before you go cazy”, so Laura informs me as we make our preparations. This means finding something else to do on the long drive across flat country. We have CDs and XM radio to keep us entertained. We’ll check books-on-tape out of the library (once we pay our fines from the last trip.) But we still need something to keep us alert and out of trouble.
Mom’s MiniVan is a website that contains ideas for entertaining kids, so I guess we qualify in attitude, if not in age. A Google search of “Travel Games” reveals several more sites with similar games, such as printable auto bingo shets. Our favorite the last time we drove across country to Arizona, we played a game called “Horse, cat, wheelbarrow.” Each of those items was worth a certain number of points if spotted on your side of the car. A cemetery spotted on your side of the car erases all of your points, but only if your opponent spots it first and brings it to your attention. You play to a pre-determined number of points.
Of course, what would a trip be without maps. We have atlases, Fodor’s USA, two books on Lewis and Clark, and a boatload of free guides and maps from AAA. We got our money’s worth from our dues this year. We will also have the GPS, pre-programmed with the MapQuest route and a bunch of waypoints I got from Topographix. Speaking of Fodor’s, it’s always interesting to see what they say about our state. Not quite Mostly Harmless, but almost as bad. Seems that they don’t believe that there’s anything in the state except for the coast and Charleston.