road trip advice and etiquette

7/29/2019 Road Trip Advice and Etiquette

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Road trip advice and etiquette

Many answers to the question: are we there yet?

Don't commit to a trip until you are sure you are going. Be sure you can get/have the time off work, have enough money, etc. If your plans change after a carpool has been put together, letpeople know right away.

You should not take a trip solely because someone else wants you to.

The drive to your vacation can ruin the vacation.

You should not accept people in your carpool that you do not trust or you know you do not like just because someone else can't live without them.

Do your packing well before your pickup time or time to meet at a designated place.

There is no excuse for passengers who don't bring money and/or a credit card for their share of gas, park entrance fees, toll fees, chain rentals, etc. Driving chores do not have to be sharedevenly, but gas costs etc. do.

You will probably leave town later than you think because it will take longer to pack up than youthink, especially with a big group. This means you might arrive after dark even if you werecertain you would not. Have your flashlight, jacket where you can get to them, not packed away.

Decisions to make BEFORE the trip:

Decide on the full trip length in advance, and not just as you are starting out. If someone needs tobe back at work, or ... by a deadline then people need to agree to that return time or not traveltogether.

Decide in advance if you will drive straight through or make many stops at specific sightseeing

places or unspecific we've-got-to-see-that routes suggested by billboards.

Be sure you are all in agreement about short or long stops. Sometimes this can be up to thedriver, sometimes it's a group decision. The drive from the SF Bay area to Yosemite, forexample, can take 4 plus hours if you don't make many stops, aren't behind slow drivers and dothe speed limit. Or it can take 5-6 or more hours if you have a lot of passengers who want fastfood or photo taking stops, or you have to put on chains and drive slowly.



On a longer cross country or regional road trip, if you have a destination with a certain time, atleast plan for some stops. Maybe each person can have one half-hour spontaneous we've-got-to-check-this-out event.

Be sure you agree on food spending as well. If some of the carpool are on a budget, they

probably want to eat the food they packed, or fast food, not stop for sit-down restaurant meals.Those who are feeling rich can get fast food on the drive and save their expensive meals for atthe destination itself.

Other people in the vehicle will appreciate it if you wear freshly laundered clothing withoutperfume or cologne and have recently washed yourself and brushed your teeth.

Everyone in the vehicle should agree as to the music being played or they should plan to bringheadphone players. Some groups say the driver gets to decide. Some say that others have someveto power.

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THERE IS NOTHING WRONG

with playing

Runaround Sue, Help Me Rhonda, Johnny B. Goode, On The Road Again, Proud Mary, TheRide of the Valkries, Dead Man's Curve, Un Bel Di Vedremo, Take It To The Limit, NessunDorma, Little GTO, Don't Think Twice, I Will Always Love You, Little Old Lady fromPasadena, Born to Run, I Never Loved a Man (The Way That I Love You), Wild Thing, Take ItEasy, Pipeline, I Get Around, Cry Like A Rainstorm Howl Like The Wind, I Want To Know

What Love Is, or ...

each and every time you start up the engine, as long as everybody still wants to.

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If you plan to drive your own or family vehicle: before you promise people rides ...

Be sure you can get/have the time off work.

Be certain well in advance that your parents/guardians will let you go on the trip/let you drive

and/or really will let you borrow the family van.

If you have to pay extra insurance on the family van to be able to borrow it, and intend to passthe cost along to your riders, let them know before they commit to riding with you.

Get an Auto Liability Insurance Identification card from your insurer showing that you haveinsurance. Some of these cards will list the policy number / expiration and identify the vehicle



make, model, and VIN. It might also be useful to have your employee ID to prove you areemployed.

Get your vehicle checked for driveability and do those repairs. There is no excuse for neglectedpreventive maintenance or a vehicle owner who is willing to drive on a trip when s/he suspects

car trouble. Change all the fluids, check and replace as needed all the major components thatpower, cool and stop your vehicle.

Get decent current maps and use them. For the Tetons trip, have a big view general map of thewest, individual state maps and street maps of the major cities you will stop at: Reno, Salt Lake,Jackson. For the Tetons trip I have a great map of Jackson businesses.

Borrowing the family van for an Outdoor Club trip? You are probably used to driving a smallervehicle and will need to take special care.

If you are letting passengers take turns driving it would be prudent to have each of them drive the

vehicle a little in an empty parking lot. If you are towing this becomes even more imperative,especially having them get up a little speed and try braking to see how long it takes to stop andhow it handles when it stops.

If the driver smokes and will be smoking in the vehicle on the drive, s/he should make this quiteclear to any potential passengers whenever they offer rides or talk about driving. There is no safelevel of secondhand smoke, even for very healthy people.

(Some people reading the planning to drive etiquette section above might be thinking tothemselves:

"This is all standard procedure. Why list all this? People wouldn't do anything that dumb." If youare one of these logical people, read Camping Blunders for a laugh. Or read it if you see yourself reflected in the etiquette rules so you don't become an addition to the page.)

Packing the car:

How much space is there in the car? What size/amount of bags can people bring? Do you eachreally need your own guitar? No, you really won't survive stuffing too many things in and takingturns sitting with your knees at your chest in the backseat. Can you borrow a cartop carrier? Planfor really waterproof storage for the things in the cartop carrier or pickup bed and extra cord or ?as necessary to really tie gear on securely.

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On the Tetons trip a car can get there with people taking turns driving straight through in 22

hours. If you ride in a carpool driving straight through, pack a small bag with the items you willwish you had for 24 hours so that you don't need to stop and go through your luggage lookingfor: your sunglasses, toothbrush/floss, over-the-counter health help, rain jacket, sweater, pillow(especially a pillow shaped so your head can stay upright as you try to sleep, so you won't fallover on to others trying to sleep), book, journal/pen, camera, laptop, flashlight, headphone CDplayer, hat with a brim. Everyone will wish they had earplugs to take their turn sleeping. Pack abandanna for the inevitable bad hair moments. The first aid kit, flares, tire iron, etc. should bereadily available.

On our winter trips, when you leave from the Bay Area, it might be warm weather. When youget to the park it will be very cold. It is HIGHLY recommended that you pack your

polypropylene undergarments, warm jacket, rain gear, warm hat, gloves and flashlight and bootsIN the passenger compartment of the vehicle you will be riding in, and not buried undereverything. Many people have been surprised to step out of their heated cars into the cold, andstart shivering immediately.

Transporting a single kayak? Read loading a kayak on a car.

Skip this car packing mistake:

From the National Park Service Morning Report, Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Badlands National Park (SD)

Car Fire Averted

Late on the afternoon of July 18th, rangers saw a car heading west on Highway 240 just west of the Panorama Point overlook at a high rate of speed. When they stopped it, they saw that smokewas issuing from the trunk and passenger compartment. The driver jumped out and told therangers that her car was on fire and that she was looking for help. The rangers removed burning

http://faculty.deanza.edu/donahuemary/stories/storyReader$626






and smoldering blankets from the vehicle and extinguished the blaze. They then searched thetrunk, its contents, and the passenger compartment, but found no further signs of fire. Theinvestigation revealed that the vehicle’s trunk latch was not operating properly and that the driver

had used a number of bungee cords to secure the lid. Unfortunately, the trunk lid was not securedtightly, allowing the interior compartment light to remain lit. The light became so hot that it

melted and caught fire. The burning materials fell on top of a number of blankets and clothing,which then began to smolder and burn. The vehicle was occupied by a family of four fromWisconsin. [Submitted by Mark Gorman, Acting Chief Ranger]

____________________________________

Are you sure you want to drive a thousand miles with a guitar and a sleeping bag wedged in next

to you?

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On the road:

Long road trips are not the time to try to reform people. They are also not the time to try to makemajor changes in yourself. These may come as a natural part of this huge experience, but don'tforce them.

Road trips are not the time to:

give people stupid nicknames.

distress everyone else with that deep, dark secret you have

been keeping.

delve into what these new or old friends r e a l l y think

of you.

humiliate someone you have wanted revenge on.



aggravate someone who is afraid of whatever with stories on

that subject.

forcefully widen people's cultural horizons by making them

go someplace or take part in some activity they are

uncomfortable with.

demand people confined in a space with you try new foods

they don't want to.

demand people confined in a space with you talk on a video

tape you are making.

spend lenghts of time telling others about your intimate,

personal relationship with

Jesus/Buddha/Allah/Krishna/Pachamama/the Great

Spirit/Mother earth & Brother the sun/Dick Cheney/Michelle

Bachmann.

Think through practical jokes earnestly before doing them and then decide to simplydescribe them to everyone for their enjoyment.

You are all stuck with each other, so don't make your travel companions absolutelycomprehend how stuck they are.

It is quite usual for people, best friends or not, to get peeved at each other on a long trip, but itusually works out and people sometimes even bond more as a result. If the travel arrangementsare truly not working out, especially to the degree that you feel unsafe (or, for example, yoususpect that the new friend decided to experiment with not using the prescriptions the doctorrequires for their mental stability), you can drive discreetly to a police station.

No, you can't use passengers who are annoying as a hood ornament.

If you are completely on a budget and will not be bringing or buying any snacks to share, thendon't be so free with eating other people's goodies.

Limit eating the goodies that smell ferociously or make a mess even when handled carefully tobeing eaten outside of the car during stops. If you must eat barbeque potato chips, bring damppaper towels to wipe your fingers on, not the car seats.

Limit the excessive amounts of snacks that genuinely are junk, it's too difficult to resist themwhen people are bored. Bring at least some healthy snacks, especially fresh or dried fruit andnuts, seeds. You can keep Kosher or vegan if you plan ahead and your stomach will thank you.

It can be quite worthwhile to have periods of silence even when people are all awake. You caneven plan for these. Are you going to allow cell phones to ring any time, and allow long



conversations? If you travel in a caravan of vehicles following closely enough to use the familyband radios, please be willing to be told that you are hogging the radio too much or that we don'tall need that much travel description.

It is not that much of a strain for you to keep your level of profanity and vulgarity down to the

comfort level of the biggest prude on the trip.

Drivers should be able to adjust the seat to their leg lenght, which means passengers in the rearmay have to suffer. Wear loose, comfortable clothes to drive. That wallet in your back pocketcan give you great pain after many miles.

Yes, you can give the vehicle a nickname: as in a Tetons trip rental car: Swervin' Mervin.

_______________________

Various thoughts on safety:

The highway is often long and straight,

tempting you to exceed the speed limit, but try not to. You'll be much happier when you have thetime to brake as an animal runs across the road in front of you or a tourist stops suddenly whenthey think they've seen something.

NPS photos:



Officers are always right and their cars are always faster than yours. They have friends who areofficers in the next jurisdiction who would like to help them out, so, no, you can't just speedacross state lines. What were you thinking?

Don't make stupid jokes with the border station / agricultural station guards, officer who pullsyou over.

As you enter any town, the speed limit is likely to lower, so slow down even if you don't see aspeed limit sign hidden behind that huge bush.

Especially if you have any prescriptions an officer might not approve of, they should be inoriginal bottles from the pharmacy and in quantities appropriate for the journey.

Especially when you are driving a vehicle with plates that are out of state, and certainly when thecar is overloaded with stuff and you look like tourists, you are a target.

Your trip will be a terrific adventure, but while you are having fun, take care to watch yoursurroundings. When you stop at gas stations, roadside rests or stores/restaurants, stop and take agood look around before you get out of your car, especially after dark, and remember that othersmay be listening on your radio frequency.

Don't always automatically stop for the person waving for help or at the 'accident' out in theboonies on a deserted section of road, after dark, etc. Criminals have been known to fakeaccidents to get good Samaritans to stop and help them, then rob them or worse. Take a goodlook before you stop. It might be more prudent to make the call on the cell phone, or even to getthe license numbers, vehicle descriptions and drive to a pay phone, rather than stopping.



Don't always stop automatically when someone in another car points at yours as if to saysomething is wrong. Drive to the nearest gas station or lit-up store area, then look, in case theyare criminals trying to get you to pull over so they can rob you. The same goes for someonefaking a small accident by tapping your bumper.

Be sure that everything on the cartop carrier or in the truck bed is tied on properly. Stop after thefirst few miles each day to double check and double check briefly again at each gas stop.

Criminals find an easy mark when people drive without locking their car doors.

Clean windows, inside and outside. Leave enough distance between you and the next car.

The San Jose Mercury News printed this info:

"What to do when you need to pull over

If you see an accident or a stall, do not stop on the freeway. Take the next exit, call 911 and alertthe Highway Patrol. If 911 is busy, call the Bay Area dispatch center for the CHP at (707) 551-4110. If you are involved in a crash or your car breaks down, get off the road as soon as possible.Other tips:

IF POSSIBLE, EXIT FREEWAY: If your vehicle breaks down, try to drive to the next exit andpull onto a city street. After a minor accident, don't swap insurance information in the trafficlanes. Stay on the shoulder only if your vehicle cannot be driven.

LOOK FOR SAFETY: Find the safest location. That can be in your car, standing behind the carfacing traffic or behind a guardrail.

DANGER ZONES: Avoid stopping in the median area between an on-ramp and freeway, wheretraffic is whizzing by on two sides. If stopped on a bridge, move 100 to 150 feet away fromtraffic and use your car as a shield.

PULLING OVER: If you cannot exit the highway, pull onto the right shoulder. Keep youremergency flashers on.

LAST RESORT: If stranded on the shoulder, remain buckled up in your vehicle if there is noother safe location.

Source: California Highway Patrol, Knight Ridder"

If you can't see the truck driver's face in the truck rear view mirror s/he can't see you. Even withprofessional drivers and good brakes a big truck can't stop quickly simply because they are sobig. But you know enough not to tailgate or cut in front of any size of vehicle, including semis,don't you?



You do not need a loaded weapon for protection and you should not sneak it into the vehicle.Even one with a permit can be against the law some places.

Watch the level of gas. Keep the tank half full so you don't have to stop at that grungy lookingstation. But whenever you do stop, take something to clean toilet seats with and your own supply

of toilet paper. Nobody goes to a restroom alone.

When you stop at a reststop and go to the restroom, pause at the restroom door after you open itand listen and look before entering. If it seems to be empty, look into each seemingly unoccupiedstall before you go about your business.

When you return to your car at the rest stop, be certain it is your car. We watched a guy get intoone of two matching rental cars parked near each other and cause the woman in the car, who hadno idea who he was, to squeal. After a brief apology he went to the other car, which was the onehe had rented. We burst into laughter after we drove off.

DROWSY DRIVING HAPPENS

Drowsy driving is a contributing factor in up to 24 percent of all crashes and near crashes.

Excess caffeine/sugar, turning on the air conditioner or opening the window and louder musicwill not work for long. If you look at a road sign and your eyes do not immediately focus, it istime to pull over and it may well have been before that. If you hit the rumble strips at the side of the lane it might already be too late.

Overnight shift drivers can extend their share of driving by having someone stay awake withthem and talk with them. If you are the partner you should have agreed in advance that you have

absolute veto power over their continued driving if you suspect sleepiness.

Frequent light meals make you less sleepy than a heavy meal.

Set your car interior temperature to comfortable for the driver. If you feel drowsy, drop the tempby 15 degrees.

Hey, no drowsyness causing allergy medications.

The hours between midnight and 6 a.m. are the worst for falling asleep accidents. If you want totake turns driving straight through, and plan ahead, you can have drivers alter their sleeping

schedule for a few days before the trip. One might make it a point to get to bed early and upearly, another to stay up late and sleep late, a third to keep a more standard awake/sleepschedule. No one person should take a whole midnight to 6 a.m. driving shift.

New York State police note that: "People have a greater tendency to fall asleep while driving onthe long, uninteresting stretches of road that are characteristic of many high-speed, ruralhighways."



"WARNING SIGNS OF DROWSINESS AND FATIGUE

If you:

· can't remember the last few miles driven

· have wandering or disconnected thoughts

· experience difficulty focusing or keeping your eyes open

· yawn repeatedly

(The first four above should be enough to tell you it's time to get sleep or switch drivers. Don't

wait for these last four symptoms! )

· have trouble keeping your head up

· drift from lanes or hit a rumble strip

· tailgate or miss traffic signs

· find yourself jerking your vehicle back into lane then you may be suffering from drowsiness orfatigue.

Continuing to drive in this condition puts you at serious risk of being involved in a fatigue-related crash. You should pull over in a safe place and get some rest before resuming your trip."

A U.S. Government study of accidents by forest fire crews found that human factors are themajor contributing factor to motor vehicle accidents. Level of operator proficiency andexperience in the vehicle type as well as fatigue were major problems. Unsafe practices included"talking on a cellular phone while driving and a driver removing an article of clothing while the

vehicle was in motion" !!!

From a travel magazine, the tale of a sleepy driver. He wisely stopped for a nap at a roadside restwhen he found his eyes trying to close. He said he quickly dozed off and while half asleep,dreamed he was still driving and realized his eyes were closed. He abruptly woke up, gripped thesteering wheel and saw a huge tree right in front of him. He screamed. Then he realized he waslooking at a tree in a parking lot and started laughing uncontrollably. The couple in the car next

to him looked at each other, started up their car and drove off quickly.



The accident study article stressed the consistent use of seatbelts, even at slow speeds. A vehicledriven on "a narrow mountain road at 5 mph went off the soft shoulder, rolled four times down a50 percent slope into a steep ravine where the truck struck a large rock and landed upside down.The driver and passenger were wearing their seatbelts and walked away with minor bruises andabrasions".

If you have ever found yourself subject to road rage, you'll need to figure out ways to keep thesethings from happening. No one in the carpool can afford any degree of road rage, or afford toreact to someone else's. Can you pass the 'Winnebago test'? It's a test discovered by a friend of the Outdoor Club faculty advisor. If you are stuck on a winding mountain road behind a huge,slow moving motorhome and you realize they are not going to pull over and let the dozen carsbehind them pass, will you wreck your vacation? You will arrive late. You can arrive late and bein a ferociously horrible temperment or you can arrive late and be in a good mood. Either wayit's up to you, not up to the driver of the slow moving vehicle.

Both hands on the wheel, eyes on the road.

--- When traveling at 65 mph, as you turn your eyes away from the road for just a second, youtravel 95 feet.---

Let someone else change radio stations, music CDs/tapes, identify what kind of hawk that is, talk on the cell phone or the borrowed club family band radio. Your front seat companion can pourcoffee and dig into the bag of cookies for you. Someone else can text message people in anothercaravan vehicle. If your navigator can't figure out the route, pull over to read the map.

Dialing a cell phone triples your risk of crashing. Reaching for a moving object, like that cookieor phone you are dropping, increases your risk of a crash nine fold. Texting makes you 23 times

more likely.

A Miami University of Ohio study showed that chatty drivers took 15% longer to hit the brakeswhen they needed to stop.

When bison want to cross the road they have the right of way. They will take their own sweettime. Honking your horn at animals just confuses them or can make them angry. Trying to get

them to move on faster is dangerous.



"Assume that animals do not know to get out of your way. Young animals, in particular, do notrecognize cars as a threat.

Lower your dashboard lights slightly. You'll be more likely to see your headlights reflected inthe eyes of animals in time to brake" is advice from experts.

When should you brake, when should you swerve? The answers are at:

How to not collide with a deer

Pull fully off the road, park carefully and set the handbrake when you stop to take a picture. Seealso the RECKLESS PARKING section of fatal, near fatal or close call incidents/accidents incamping, backpacking, climbing and mountaineering

When it is really windy outside, if everybody opens their doors at once, or even if more than onedoor or one door and the hatchback is opened, everything inside will blow around and even outof the vehicle.

Ways to keep from being so bored.

Bring your own music, there are many roads in the US with no radio station, AM or FM that canbe received, or that are worth listening to beyond some curiosity as to how the rest of the worldlives. Check in advance at an online radio station list for which stations to look for.

Michael, an Outdoor Club veteran of long drives says: "Listening to the radio when others areasleep is okay, make sure you keep it to a level significantly lower than you would normallylisten to that music. If you can, set the music to only come out of the speakers that are near youand not near the sleeping adventurers."

A study found that drivers listening to music with a fast tempo are twice as likely to have an

accident. (You experience a faster heart rate and higher blood pressure.)

As we said earlier, it can be quite worthwhile to have periods of silence even when people are allawake. You can even plan for these. Individual headset players for part of the trip can be a relief from other choices of music that you can stand but just barely. At the library you can borrowbooks on tape (novels or history, etc.) Relearn how to speak that language you took in highschool with tapes borrowed from the library.



http://faculty.deanza.edu/donahuemary/fatal,nearfatalorclosecallincidents/accidentsincamping,backpacking,climbingandmountaineering









If everyone brings a favorite book/novel and recent magazine they've already read, you can tradearound. This can fill some quiet time without music.

This takes advance planning, but try having each person bring one or two of their favorite poems,or a short chapter section to read aloud.

We recommend three chapters (VII THE GLACIER MEADOWS, XII SIERRA THUNDER-STORMS, XIII THE WATER-OUZEL)

from THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA by John Muir, which you can find at:

http://www.abovecalifornia.com/lib/JohnMuir/MountainCa/index.shtml

as well as chapter XXX of Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, or Hay For The Horses by GarySnyder.

Bring a project that takes lots of hands-on time: needlework, a writing project on your laptop. Onthe drive home, if you took digital pictures and your laptop is loaded with Photoshop Elements,you can crop, size and adjust your pictures. Photoshop Elements is much cheaper than fullPhotoshop and does almost everything the full program will do.

Stop and at least get out and stretch and walk around the car at least once each hour, preferablyeach half hour. Once a day at one of your bathroom stops, throw a frisbee around or do a 5minute game of kickball. Or as a way to get a little exercise, glove up and clean all the litter at areststop. No, we do not recommend having everyone get out of the car and run around it at stoplights.

Keep a journal of the trip with parts written by each member. To start, write down the startingmileage.

Take a picture of what is in front of the car every 100 or 200 miles. (Another excuse to get outand stretch.) An Outdoor Club road trip veteran, Wendy, advises us: "write down in your travellog, where you are (or where you think you are), the time/date, the mileage, and the frame/rollnumber of the picture. After the trip, we wondered where/when those pictures were taken."

Below, Wendy leans over a car to use it as a tripod in low light on a foggy day during theSeptember 2000 Tetons road trip. Photo by Renae Aguilar.






Take at least one daytime and nighttime picture of each driver at the wheel somewhere along theroad. Take pictures of people sleeping in the car (but they have the right to destroy them aftercareful consideration for a couple of days.)

Photos below of drivers Alan and Renae by Wendy Sato.

Do feel free to take dumb pictures of the vehicle and/or participants next to road signs. (Anotherexcuse to get out and stretch.)

(Welcome to California sign by Alanna Klassen, continental divide photo by Mark Nevill,Montana sign photo by Mark Nevill, rental car and trip mascot photo by Wendy Sato, road signand friends photo by Kevin Halseth)

The photographer of the car/mascot photo says "They are not DUMB pictures, they are FUNpictures!!! They also give the driver the chance to take those pictures you mentioned of theirpassengers sleeping, snoring, drooling, etc.



(Photos below by Wendy Sato)

If you are still in the dark ages of 35mm film, be sure to number your film rolls. Renae and I had23 rolls of film on our Teton trip with Kevin. We still love looking at all those pictures."

Stop at a general store in nowhere (as well as your destination) and get local postcards and writeand mail them. You will need people's addresses, so pack a page of them.

Plan ahead for each person to bring supplies to teach everyone something useful (or not), such as

how to: play cat's cradle, tie a bowline, use basic phrases from your other language, fold anorigami bird or use the first aid questions for a secondary surveyhttp://faculty.deanza.edu/donahuemary/stories/storyReader$464

and during a stop: juggle, twirl a baton, skip rope, keep a straight line of sight while spinning, (asin a ballerina or skater performing), throw a curve ball, skip a stone on the water, rock the babyon a Yo-yo...

No, you are not too grown up for travel games.

You'll know when you are bored enough on a long drive, or, hey, start before you are.

ROAD TRIP GAMES

Bring your favorite trivia game, a magnetic chess or other game board, deck of cards. Does aflush beat a straight? Bring a list of the rank of hands of poker to solve arguments.

Whadaya know good? Each person teaches the rest of the group the most important things(and/or weirdest things) they know from their work.






A standard road trip or around the campfire game is 20 questions. One person writes down ananswer on a piece of paper and tells everyone if they are a person, place or thing. (Or sciencesmajors can use animal, vegetable or mineral.) Everyone else gets to ask the player a question inturn for a total of total of 20 questions. The questions must be worded so they can be answeredyes or no. As each person asks and gets an answer they can make one guess. The winner is the

person who guesses or the person who was it if no one guesses. The group can decide that eachperson takes turns being it, or the winner each time gets to be it.

Liar. The starter tells the group three statements about themself. Two are true, one is not.Everyone votes which one is the lie and then tells why. Or use two lies and one truth. This onecan be fun and even a little risque without getting as mean as truth or dare.

Know lots of celebrities or politicians names? One person says the name of one, then the nextperson must name a different one whose first name starts with the last letter of the surname of theone just said. Donald Rumsfeld could be followed by Dale Earnhart, followed by Tony Soprano.Or do it with the first letter of the surname. Or use single word geographical place names and the

last letter of the place.

Name the worst carload of companions. Describe what would happen if they got together in aconfined space for a time. Especially good if you are into politics or classical literature.

Our world is full of acronyms like CIA, CDC. Think up new ones based on license plates of carsaround you.

Math geniuses know lots of games. Count out loud to 100 trying to skip each numeral with athree in it AND each divisible by three. 1, 2, skip, 4, 5, skip, 7, 8, skip, 10, 11, skip, skip, 14,skip, 16 ... Someone else can try it with three, five, seven or nine. Or try counting backwards. Or

subtracting seven from one hundred.

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While anticipating a multi-state road trip we decided to invent the

u l t i m a t e road trip bingo/scavenger hunt game .

Go to:road trip bingo or scavenger hunt

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Storytelling, debates and discussions:

Each person tells a story of what they want from the trip at hand.

Each person tells a story of a vacation gone bad.







Each person tells what they would do with a million dollars, (or in this economy, maybe fivemillion).

Each tells what they would like to invent.

Each describes a house on steriods they would build if they had unlimited money and space. Atypical large home is 2,000 to 2,500 square feet. Bill Gates property is 66,000 and his mainhouse is 11,500 square feet. The Biltmore estate had 250 rooms.

One person starts an imaginary story on any subject for a couple of sentences, then points toanother passenger who must continue in the same vein, then the next person.

Each person in your vehicle makes up a different story about the people in the car next to yours.

Or wait until three or more cars are following each other where you can all see them. One personmakes up a story about people in the car at the front of the row, then points to someone else in

your vehicle who must continue the same story involving the people in the car behind that car,etc.

Be careful to not make occupants of another vehicle angry by pointing at them eagerly.

Defend the proposition that dreams are reality and reality is a dream.

What will the robot you design be able to do?

How would life/love/morality/wisdom change if we could live to be 500?

Fanon said everybody should be able to answer these three questions: Who am I? Am I what Isay I am? Am I all I ought to be?

Can dogs go to heaven? Can dogs have enlightenment? Why not? Can dogs have both moreeasily than humans? Do cows have a sense of humor? Are Crows, Ravens or Dolphins smarterper cubic inch of brain than we are? Are human babies more imaginative and smarter thanadults? If so, what happened as we aged?

Do we really face the reality our mind makes up, not reality itself?

Discuss: Two monks were watching a flag flapping in the wind. One said to the other, "The flag

is moving." The other replied, "The wind is moving." Huineng overheard this. He said, "Not theflag, not the wind; mind is moving."

If you had a twin you did not know about, raised in a quite different environment than yours,what would you expect them to be like? Each person gives questions to ask that twin when youfirst meet.



One of the things that distinguishes humans for other beings is theory of mind. We are able toimagine the intentions/thoughts of others and imagine that they are different from our ownthoughts/intentions. Would you want the ability to actually read other people's minds? Howwould things change if you could?

Debate: Why are we here? Are we here, or are we all just a figment of the driver's imagination?Do some things exist independently of our perception? Is reality an illusion? Is time an illusionor just another dimension? Have we no free will? Are we there yet? Will we be in this lifetime?

Do we eventually discover the meaning of life or do we create it as we go along?

Is skepticism a necessity?

Which is more powerful, hope or fear?

Which is more powerful, ambition and curiosity or apathy and capriciousness?

Which is more powerful, rational deliberation or instinct?

Neuroscientist William Newsome asks "What is the relationship between the study of our brainsas machines and the internal sense we have of being free agents?" Will brain scans be used aslegal evidence?

Which causes more disasters, arrogance, complacency, or the tunnel vision that sometimescomes with expertise?

Is contribiting to Wikipedia a part of the "overall task of being an intellectual"?

Can there be clean coal, sustainable timber harvests? Can Sweden meet the goal of being free of fossil fuels use by 2020?

Dr. Ghassan Michel Rubeiz asked in an essay: "When are wars morally just and when are they(artificially) justified? The literature on just war reveals that war is hard to justify, and it is oftenineffective in resolving conflict, even when it is considered just." He said that going to warrequires all of the following: a just cause, a noble intention, an authorized force, exhausteddiplomacy (the last resort), good outcome (probability of success) and limited (proportional)cost. Rubeiz said he dreams: "fast forward a century, war, like slavery, would be abolished." Willeither ever be completely abolished? Are universal human rights a necessity of this? Are they

possible?

Sometimes Mallards sleep in a row. The ducks in the middle sleep fully, but the ones on the endkeep watch for predators, etc. They are able to have one hemisphere of their brain sleep while theother (the side on the end, with the eye on the end open) is semi-wakeful and capable of gettingthe duck into action on sighting trouble. Dolphins sleep while swimming. Some birds might besleeping during long migrations. If humans could do this, how would our lives change? Couldwe evolve to be able to do this?



What is art? Does art have to be beautiful? What is overpriced junk? Who says? Why do peoplelisten to them?

Karma is a "cause and effect relationship between all that has been done and all that will bedone." Anything that happens is held to be a direct result of things that happened before. How

much of this do you believe? How much has effected your life? Is it true that what goes aroundcomes around? Does luck or fate actually rule any part of our lives?

Is liquor really a capitalist tool to keep down the workers?

If dark matter is invisible, then how does one sense its existence?

Can parallel lines intersect far enough away?

Are there a huge number of universes beyond the limits of what we can observe, a multiverse?

If we are living in an infinite multiverse, and in other universes the laws of physics as we knowthem do not exist, what laws of physics do exist there? Could there be other colors, smells,musical notes, emotions? Describe them.

If, in another parallel universe, time runs backwards, would all processes also run backwards?Which would come first, the chicken or the egg or the omelet?

Which has contributed more to scientific advancement - the intuitive leap or factual observationand tedious experimentation?

What percentage of cancers will ultimately be found to be preventable infections caused by

viruses?

Scientists expect intelligent robots by 2030. How soon after that will they be able to buildthemselves? Will they, or nanobots, be able to take over? Will we be able to download ourpersonalities to some kind of computer that can model our consciousness and obtainimmortality? Would you risk this given the usual garbage in - garbage out, Murphy's Laws?

Will intelligent, advanced aliens from outer space be bipedal primates and look at all like us?

Which will leave the greatest impact on the land and the greatest effect on future generation'shealth/lives... acid rain, ozone depletion, collapse of populations of fisheries, clear cutting

forests, toxic chemicals / prescription drugs in drinking water, smog, agricultural waste water,filling wetlands, bioengineering, drought, nuclear energy, global warming, earthquakes,population growth, corporate social irresponsibility, an unstable global economic system, greed,or ?

Do the corporations control everything or are the people who don't register to vote and/or don'tvote and/or don't write to their representatives and/or don't volunteer the actual problem?



If more stuff does not lead to more happiness, why do so many people acquire so much morestuff?

How could you travel faster than light?

Do you agree with laws that protect people from themselves?

SMOKEY THE BEAR SUTRA

If plate tectonics doesn't explain our continents, what does?

Are sun spots really going into a long term decline?

Author Joshua Greene asks: "When we are honest, are we honest because we actively forceourselves to be? Or, are we honest because it flows naturally?"

Shantideva wrote:

"All the joy the world contains

Has come through wishing happiness for others

All the misery the world contains

Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself"

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From the National debate topics:

Is vigilantism justified when the government has failed to enforce the law?

Resolved: A just social order ought to place the principle of equality above that of liberty.

Resolved: The brotherhood of man transcends the sovereignty of nations.

Resolved: When they are in conflict, the right to a free press is a higher priority than the right toa fair trial.

Resolved: That the public's right to know be valued above U.S. National Security interests.

Resolved: That individual obedience to law plays a greater role in maintaining ethical publicservice than does individual obedience to conscience.

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Will string theory ultimately be the only link between gravity and quantum mechanics? Whichstring theory?

Should saving open space and preserving/restoring the environment be the foundation of oureconomic system and the basis of a civil society?

Is retrocausality real? Can one particle instantaneously affect another from across the universe?Can a signal be made to arrive before it is sent? Can retrocausality unify quantum mechanics andrelativity?

The strongest spider webs have a tensile strenght five times stronger than steel, but all they reallyare is two proteins bonded together at room temperature. How can we create a substance likethat?

Is our universe four dimensional and energy three dimensional?

Did RNA form and live on it's own before DNA?

How can we all survive as sleep-deprived, stress-filled, fast-food filled, sedentary students andbusiness people? Will this ultimately be worse than crime and terrorism?

Can we create a new universe in a lab? If we can, does that mean our universe is the plaything of a physicist in another universe? What are the implications of either possibility?

Invent a quantum computer that can operate millions of times faster than the current models.What will you do with it? Actually forecast weather? Track the spread of disease? Answer "theultimate question of life, the universe, and everything"? Or will it come up with the same answer

as Deep Thought did...forty-two.

Was Douglas Adams correct? Is there a restaurant at the end of the universe? What about hisstatement at the beginning of the book... "There is a theory which states that if ever anyonediscovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and bereplaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory that this hasalready happened."

Diophantus asked: find three numbers such that their sum, and the sum of any two, is a perfectsquare. That one alone should keep us busy across a whole state.

Hey, let's take a break and contemplate solving Hilbert's 16th math problem or work on ageneralized Fermat-Wiles equation, the Riemann Hypothesis, or what the heck, maybe theSyracuse algorithm. How about if each of us works out our own proof for the PythagoreamTheorem?

Where is the aspirin? I thought you were going to pack it.

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There's always more room in the vehicle on the way home once you've eaten everything, right?

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You might also want to read How to not collide with a deer, Safe driving in rain and fog, Preparefor winter driving and/or Snow chain rentals.

Prepare for winter driving has a link to bad weather driving tips, tips for using tire chains, tricks

for dealing with frozen car locks, how to prepare your vehicle for winter driving, a wintersurvival kit for your car and what to do if you get stranded.

It includes this advice:

My windows are fogging up faster than my navigator can wipe it off!

Yes, it's cold out and you filled your car with people to share the trip expenses. They all areexhaling foggy breath, especially when you all sing along to that CD. Have them take turnsholding their breath. Okay, maybe that's not practical. Have them pay up for the gas expense inadvance and let them off at the next bus stop. Unthinkable? The swimmers in the Outdoor Club

know they can lick the inside of their swim goggles to prevent fogging, but a windshield...? Notreally practical either, well then...

The fog on the windows could be caused by trying to keep the car interior warm. When air iswarm breath condenses, so stop and have your passengers put on those longjohns, jackets andmaybe even hats, then keep the car cool. Even a few degrees will affect the maximum amount of water in the air quite significantly. With less water in the air the windows will frost up less.

Make sure your air conditioner or heater is in the fresh air position rather than recirc. Therecirculate setting reuses the humid air already in the car. The air in the car is quite humid due tothose mammals you are giving a ride to, and the outside air is less humid (even if it's

raining/snowing), so pull it in and push it against the inside of the window. And even though youare trying to keep the air in the main compartment coolish, the windows themselves need to bewarmer than the cold air/rain/snow hitting them, so set the temperature to warm. Pulling inoutside air has the drawback of sucking in truck or diesel exhaust, so pull back from that big rigor go around it. Set the fan to its highest setting if you are going in slow traffic.

Now you can go back to your sing-along or heavy gossip session.







http://faculty.deanza.edu/donahuemary/Prepareforwinterdriving




http://faculty.deanza.edu/donahuemary/Snowchainrentals













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These sites try to keep up on gas prices across the country:

http://www.gaspricewatch.com/new/

http://www.csaa.com/portal/site/CSAA and scrool down to Gas Price Finder

You'll need to enter the zip code for where you will be traveling.

Jackson, Wyoming 83001, Moran 83018, Teton Village 83025

South Lake Tahoe 96150, Tahoma 96142, Zephyr Cove, NV 89448

Yosemite 95389, El Portal 95318, Fish Camp 93623 Lee Vining 93541 Mammoth Lakes 93546

Monterey 93943, Pacific Grove 93950, Carmel 93921, 93923 Big Sur 93920

Mt Rainier 98304, Olympic 98362, King's Canyon 93633,

Lassen 96063, Redwood 95531, Sequoia 93262

De Anza College 95014

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"Welcome to Radio-Locator, the most comprehensive radio station search engine on the internet.

We have links to over 10,000 radio station web pages and over 2500 audio streams from radiostations in the U.S. and around the world."

http://www.radio-locator.com/

For details about De Anza Outdoor Club events and on how to find us to pay for amembership, sign up for events or volunteer, go to:



http://www.csaa.com/portal/site/CSAA









Outdoor Club Coming Attractions

Kayaks (and trailer) use has practical hints for drivers of tow vehicles that tow the kayak traileron our trips.

Grand Tetons trip transportation has flight info, driving distances and guesses at gas cost,previous trip examples, etc.

Snow camp carpools and driving directions has directions to Yosemite.

for ideas on how to get a ride for a trip go to:

Carpool FAQs

see also: wildlife jams

from the National Park Service historic photo collection:

In 1921, Raymond H. Bailey wrote a Handbook of Yosemite National Park. The chapterMotoring in Yosemite National Park can be read at:

Motoring in Yosemite National Park

"The driver of the car has one thing to keep in mind and that is, that he must keep his eyes on theroad and let the rest of the passengers look at the scenery. His car should be equipped with agood loud horn and it should be used frequently.

The principal requisite for good mountain driving is good common sense, and if this is coupled

with the following suggestions, no one need have any hesitancy about attempting the trip...

Radiators. Never try to make a record for small consumption of water on a trip over any of theroads into Yosemite. Such a practice unnecessarily heats up the engine, and thus increases theconsumption of gas and oil. Keep the radiator full of water at all times. The water of mountaincreeks is usable, but it should be strained through a cloth before using...

http://faculty.deanza.edu/donahuemary/OutdoorClubComingAttractions






http://faculty.deanza.edu/donahuemary/Snowcampcarpoolsanddrivingdirections


http://faculty.deanza.edu/donahuemary/CarpoolFAQs





http://www.yosemite.ca.us/history/handbook_of_yosemite_national_park/motoring.html

http://www.yosemite.ca.us/history/handbook_of_yosemite_national_park/motoring.html









Supplies to Carry. Carry an extra supply of oil: it is more essential than gasoline. Carry a supplyof extra bolts and nuts for specific make of car. Carry a spare fan belt. Carry a can of grease anduse it freely.

Seeing the Country. Take down the top when you get into the mountains if you want to see some

of the most beautiful scenery along the route.

Road Rules to Remember. Always stay on the right side of the road. Up-hill traffic has the right-of-way, — according to State and National Park law."

road trip advice and etiquette

Documents