5 Ways To Keep Entertained On The Road
This coming month we’ve got more travel (= more actual driving) than we have done in our previous 6 months on the road. Compared to our usual turtle-slow pace we’re practically racing across the country, and in order to schedule in some good rest days that’s going to mean some longer drives and more hours in the front of the RV.
Paul and I usually share the driving (yes, I’ve even got a video that proves it) and on scenic roads we’ve got plenty to gawk at, but sometimes the road is not enough and we seek other ways to keep ourselves entertained. Of course there’s my scintillating conversation, which is naturally superb and well above the norm in both intelligence and wit (I think I hear Paul snickering in the background), but what other ways do we amuse ourselves?
Well here’s my list:
1/ Music
For many years we had satellite radio (Sirius) which was quite decent, but last year we started to get bored with it, so we dropped it and switched to plain old radio and Internet-based music.
Now regular radio is ok, but as you drive across the USA you’ll find grand swaths of the country where you can only get a few stations typically either Country Music, Religious stations or Mexican Music. I can handle it for a while, but sometimes there’s only so much Mariachi I can take. On the internet however, you can find anything!
Many radio stations (worldwide) now have internet play links (e.g. BBC radio) plus there are general radio aggregators such as TuneIn where you can find just about any station you like, including local stuff. For those who want more personal control over your music, online players such as Spotify, Jango, RadioTunes or Pandora allow you to choose your genre, create playlists and even download playlists beforehand (the latter is a paid, premium service). And now that we have our handy dandy Bluetooth audio hack, we can blast that music over the big RV speakers like the hard-core roadies we are.
“Hey, Hey mama, Said the way you move, Gonna make you sweat Gonna make you groove….” (yeah, I’m a HUGE Led Zepplin fan)
2/ Podcasts
Podcasts have been around for yonks, but I’ll admit that I only became a true fan once we went on the road. There are lots of quality options out there which can keep you entertained for hours (days?) on end. Download the podcasts before you drive onto your pad or phone and you’ll have no end of stimulating entertainment (once again our Bluetooth audio hack comes in handy here).
If you’re just starting out, try Serial, probably the most thrilling crime podcast ever made. Our other favorite is This American Life, one of the most interesting and well-produced series I’ve ever come across. Of course there are tons of other podcasts covering just about every subject you could imagine including photography, economics, philosophy, politics, lifestyle and even RVing (e.g. John and Kathy have been producing Living The RV Dream since 2009). The sky is the limit!
3/ Audio Books
Yet again this is a “technology” that’s been around for years, but I never really appreciated it until we started long drives. What better way to keep you entertained than to have a great book read to you along the way?
There are tons of Audio books on Amazon.com covering everything from classics to recent releases
P.S. In case you were wondering Nick (from my recent blog post) offers his books in Audio format too.
4/ Paper Maps and Google
This is a “Nina special”. While Paul is driving I’ll often break out our handy Benchmark Maps so I can follow the road and point out cool landmarks (towns, mines, mountains, parks etc.) along the way. Whenever we come across an unusual looking town, or a particularly interesting-looking or sounding landmark I’ll Google it to get the history or background of the place. This way Paul gets a running commentary of our trip, with some history (or geology) thrown in. Plus of course he gets to listen to my fabulous voice for hours on end (the lucky devil).
As an example as we were driving back along the Columbia River earlier this year my eye dropped on Hanford , WA which listed the “world’s first large-scale reactor” on our map. That got me intrigued so we Googled the place to find its history. Turns out it was a massive Plutonium production site started in WWII that has since become an environmental nightmare. We Googled and discussed this and a ton of related subjects (Plutonium, nuclear history, environment, eminent domain etc.) for the rest of our 3-hour drive to Portland. See how utterly cool this is?
5/ Visual Games
Trust me, this is not as dirty as it sounds. What we’re talking about here is a good old-fashioned game of “I spy” (= choose something you can see and reveal the first letter by saying “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with C”) or “License Plate Scrabble” (= who can make the longest word out of the letters on the license plate that just passed you). The games are interactive, fun and can last for hours.
Lots of other creative ways to entertain yourself (and your family) here including the “Story Game” (= make up a story about the driver that just passed you…each person adds to the story in rotation) or “Who AM I” (= choose a famous person (living or dead) or type of trade (e.g. Carpenter) and everyone else has to guess who you are by asking yes/no questions). Sometimes old-fashioned games are the best!
That’s it folks! The one thing I didn’t mention here that might surprise you? Movies! We don’t play movies on the road since there’s only two of us, and it would be distracting (and frankly dead boring) for the driver if the passenger was absorbed in never-never land. However I know folks with kids who do this, and it can be a good way to keep hyperactive kids still for a long, boring drive. Downloading movies beforehand on something other than your own data plan (e.g. Amazon Prime, at the local library) will provide hours of kiddie fodder.
In our case, our “on the road” time is an interactive, shared experience and something we truly look forward to in our RV travels.
Got any cool road entertainment of your own? Share and comment below!
Related Posts:
Regarding the Radio, I HAVE to give a plug to one of my all-time favourites, RADIO CAROLINE. Ex-Brits of ‘a certain age’ should know this from the famous British Pirate Radio Ships of the 60’s-80’s, but many might not realize the most-famous Caroline is ‘still there’, albeit on the internet (though their last ship, while not actually transmitting, is actually moored in a river in Essex, but I digress…) They play mostly rock with mixes from 60’s to present day. They also have various ‘time zones’, so you can hear them ‘live’ on UK time, or at US East-coast or US West-coast times!
OK, plug over! Happy Travels!
Well I’m always on the lookout for cool and unusual stations. Here’s the link for others looking: http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk
Cheers for the tip!
Nina
After 45 minutes listening this looks very promising and an English accent on the radio is a definite plus, added to my favorites, thanks!
Great to hear it was a useful tip (and thanks Nina for adding the link!). To anyone else trying it: if it doesn’t sound like your cup of tea at first, just try again some hours later (or try one of their alternative time-streams) because sometimes it may not always be what I call ‘typical Caroline music’.
Great info Nina. I’m going to go check out the Benchmark Maps right now! Thanks, as always, for sharing.
Here’s a good one: it’s called ‘Teekessel’ in German, ‘tea pot’ and it plays with words having the same spelling but different meanings. It can be nouns, adjectives or verbs and you have to define their meaning – the more mysterious the definition the harder to guess.
EXAMPLE: BILL = the beak of an animal; a bank note; a check; piece of legislation…
You could say: I have a noun which is part of an animal, and it’s something you like to have a lot of, and it’s something you don’t really want to take care of, and it is an established human right….
Of course, the thrill here is to find 4 or even 5 meanings for one word. And my experience is the more you play it the more your brain cells come up with incredible words…
You can also play with words different in spelling yet with the same pronunciation, like sole/soul; right/write; hare/hair/heir; sea/see; beet/beat and on… and on…
HAVE FUN!
Great game! I like it!
Nina
Another one is finding and defining words which have meaning spelled backwards, like pot/top; bat/tab; flow/wolf; reed/deer etc.
Or finding words the same forward and backwards, like pop, dad, mom, poop (well…)
Palindrome!! You can also extend this game (and make it more challenging) by finding whole sentences that are the same backwards and forwards e.g. “Madam I’m Adam”.
Nina
Hi NIna, since we’re on a data diet I was wondering if these radio stations, like Pandora, and Podcasts take a lot of data. You may have written about it in the past, and I missed it. Thanks….Lynda
Radio streaming doesn’t take up too much data (thankfully), at least not nearly as much as video, but you still have to watch your limits. An hour of music only uses around 115MB, but a whole day of music would be close to 1GB.
Here’s a good article:
http://gizmodo.com/how-much-data-does-your-streaming-music-app-eat-up-1649466894
If you sign up for a premium service you can create a playlist and download it (off a free WiFi signal like in a library) before you go on the road. Podcasts and audio books can be pre-downloaded too.
Nina
My partner and I both love to sing and made up a game. One of us sings part of a song and ends up on a lyric (specific word) from the song. The other person has to think of, and sing, a song with that word in it. Harder than it sounds! For example, I could sing, “love me or leave me, just let me be lonely” and Lee would have to think of a song with the word “Lonely” in it. Activates the brain cells on long drives.
Another great game. Cheers for sharing!
Nina
For audio books getting a library card/account can be fantastic. Big selection, new books all the time and you have lots of listening options. We have picked up an account in each county we have had a residence. They last years so you can build up more options. For example I have a Fulton County library card that gives me access to the “Overdrive” system, but non residents can get access for $40 a year (http://www.afpls.org/afplsservices/library-cards).
Overdive has audio books, ebooks, a few videos.
That’s a really good tip! We’ve gotten library cards at a few of the spots we’ve stayed (esp. Longer term stays), but I never thought of checking their audio book section.
Nina
Wow, we are boring travelers. LOL We like the XM radio channels, audio books are always good too. We try to not drive a lot in a day. But if you are headed cross country, that’s a game changer for sure.
Nothing wrong with good old XM Radio. We also try and keep our drives short (150 miles is my preferred distance), but this coming month we’ll be pushing well beyond our usual limits.
Nina
Sing! Dave and I both enjoy singing but we are neither good at it. Road noise background with the knowledge that no one outside our vehicle can hear us helps with that.
We also find sharing memories a fun thing to do whole traveling. They are often childhood memories that we haven’t yet told one another but sometimes they are flashbacks in our shared lives.
I love singing too, but mostly to the radio. I like to think I sound better that way haha. Sharing of memories is always fun. Most of ours revolve around food “remember when we ate such and such….” Oh yeah, drooool. We can talk for hours about food and beer.
Nina
We love podcasts! There is a podcast app that makes it easy to collect your favorites. Here are a few of ours: Snap Judgement, The Good Fight, On Being, Tara Brach, Invisibilia and The New School at Commonweal TNS to name a few. This is a good cross section. Enjoy all your posts. Thanks so much you have taken us down the road as rank beginners to graduation…from…?
Sweet! I’m always looking for new podcasts so I’ll check some of these out. Always great to hear from newbies who are no longer newbies.
Nina
Love podcasts. My current favs are ‘Planet Money’ & ‘TED Radio hour’ from NPR, ‘No such thing as a Fish’ and Vinyl Cafe Stories from CBC Radio.
Ooooo…I love TED talks. The podcast sounds interesting. Thanks!
Nina
Great information, so if you were to get another motor home at some point would it be bigger,smaller diesel or gas?
Smaller for sure. Gas or diesel would be fine (no real preference).
Nina
A good audio book can make the time just fly by. I use to listen to them driving to and from work. I would find myself sitting in the parking lot because I couldn’t break away…too funny! Cracker Barrel use to have a ton of audio books that you could rent cheaply and return to any Cracker Barrel. They did this for travelers. I haven’t checked in awhile to see if they still have them, but it is a lot better than purchasing the audio book.
How interesting! I’ll have to check next time we go by a Cracker Barrel.
Nina
We love audiobooks as well, especially if the setting is an area we are traveling through. You will be going through Wyoming, I think you mentioned. So, you could try one of the Walt Longmire Mystery books by Craig Johnson. When we’re in the southwest, we listen to Tony Hillerman books. Tony passed a few years back. But his daughter, Annie, has taken over where Tony left off using the same characters her father did. Great fun!
Oh yes, I love reading books that are set in whatever area I’m visiting. That gives the story an extra intrigue for me. Thanks!
Nina
There’s also a great series of mysteries by Todd Borg set around Lake Tahoe, but I’m not sure if there are audio versions available. If you’re familiar with an area it’s so fun to add that visualization to the story your reading or hearing!
I’ve been listening to Clark Howard’s podcasts. Do you know him? He’s a consumer advocate and provides great information to his call-in listeners.
No I haven’t heard of him. I’ll look up the podcast. Cheers!
Nina
Another fun way to stay entertained is words. For instance: to, too, and two or for, four, and fore. However, I would like to share with you a great way to get to Hwy 12 without getting on I-5. Take 101 to Raymond, go East on Hwy 6 toward Chehalis. In Chehalis go to Market Street (Hwy 6 ends there). Turn Right onto Market. This is a pretty easy turn. Market will take you South. When it leaves Chehalis it becomes Jackson Hwy. Jackson Hwy intersects Hwy 12 and there is a stop light there so easy to get onto Hwy 12. Both Hwy 6 and Jackson Hwy are scenic, peaceful drives.
We leave for Montana and points east on Monday. I-90 is BOREING but will get us through the areas we have been through before.
Happy trails.
Looked at that route tonight and I think we’re going to take it. It just happens to go past my favorite fish and chip shop in South Bend, WA too. Extra bonus! Thanks for the tip!
Nina
When we take folks for a first-time ride in the MH , Hwy 6, then Over to the F&C place is part of our loop. Love it.
My ultimate dorky roadside game: see the number marker on the side of the road, and try to figure out all the prime numbers it is made up of before the next marker. So mile 88 is actually 11*8=11*2*2*2
This can always induce great moments of panic when you cross a state line and suddenly are faced with mile 526. 😉
Oh that is Sooooo dorky and of course I love it! Nice one!
Nina
“Yonks”?
Hehe, I like that word.
Could well be a “Nina” word. I do that kind of thing 🙂
Nina
Here are a couple low tech, minimal thinking, yet amusing mile burners we sometimes do:
Make note of the various types of RV’s we see. Just a simple note card with columns for each type (Class A, truck camper, 5th wheel, travel trailer, etc.. ) where we put tick marks every time we see one. You have to set some sort of rules though, such as it must either be moving or obviously traveling (i.e.; at a rest stop) otherwise, you will go crazy when you go past a campground or RV park (-: Sort of interesting to see how the numbers in each category vary by season and type of road.
Practice knot tying and identification (a skill we use for teaching swift water rescue). The passenger ties a well set and dressed knot in a cord and then hands it to the driver whose job it is to figure out what type of knot it is by feel alone (no peeking). Requires one handed driving, but minimal distraction for the driver. Of course, it does require some competence in knot identification (i.e..; most people probably wouldn’t recognize a monkeys fist if their life depended on it) .
The RV observation game is a fun twist. I tend to like stats and figures, so I think I might enjoy it. As for the knot thing…I’m in that monkey fist group (and even then) hehe.
Nina
We love the podcasts from Radiolab {public radio WNYC). Very unique and interesting stories.
Excellent! I will check ’em out. I have soooooo many new Podcasts to listen to whoo hoo!
Nina
Love the Google search idea on the history of a town, Nina. A cool twist would be to find out what famous person was from there. 🙂
Totally! There are so many fun things you can do with the “Nina special”. Sometimes I search for ghost stories (oooooo), other times for wild west stories (esp. in the SW, of course). Lots of potential for fun and learning.
Nina
CB Radio. Sometimes fun listening to the truckers, and can also be a source of instant info.
Never gone the CB Radio route, but I know many RVers that love it. At one point there was a push (on the RV forums) to have all RVers use Channel 13, partly to get away from some of the ermmm more explicit chat on the trucker channels. Did that ever take hold?
Nina
Great ideas, both yours and your readers! I started out thinking 200 miles on a travel day was about right, but have cut that in half most days. Today it was 28 miles 🙂 But we’ll be doing a few longer ones in October so will have to save these for sure. We have gotten some great “interesting sights” brochures from visitor centers that highlight towns and other points on certain highways. We got a great one for Hwy 101 on the Pacific Coast and Bill read each one in advance so we could both look at it as we went by. Love reading books about an area we’re going to visit as well, and then discussing as we travel through.
I LOVE shorter drives….I think the shortest we ever did was right around 25 miles, so I totally get it! Sometimes you’ve got to make miles though, and this will be our life this next month. The “sights” brochures are always a good idea and we do that too. The Oregon Coast has a Mile-By-Mile which is excellent, for example and there are no end of specialized maps for wineries and breweries too (we just picked up a WA brewery map this past week). When we can find them, we definitely pick them up.
Nina
Hmm… and here I thought having a cat crawling up in my lap during the ride was the ultimate entertainment. I must have a talk with Kiki, because she’s told me I don’t need to do anything else but pet her. 😉
Darn cats think they control everything (says Nina with Taggart blocking half the keyboard).
Nina
One of the best audio books, especially when traveling, is Charles Kuralt’s “America”. Charles was a reporter on CBS that crisscrossed America doing human interest stories. After he retired, he spent one year spending one month each in his 12 favorite places in America. He was a born story teller. You will be so sad when the book ends, wishing you could listen to him forever. Only available as a download from Audible or on cassette (if you have a cassette player).
Nice tip! I’ve never read or heard this book, so I’ll be adding it to our list!
Nina
I must have been on the same wave length…I was curious about your iPhone holder and going to ask….and here you are making it one of your “hacks”. I wanted one for our GPS so I emailed the company with the measurements and they sent me info on another one…so if you don’t have the phone etc they do make others in all sizes including for iPads or tablets….
I don’t know if I can get Tom to play any of your games but I certainly am going to try….thanks for them and the ones other readers described…I have fond memories of playing them as a kid taking our first trip out west…
Yeah I haven’t tried the iPad holder from that company, but I thought about it. A mini iPad would be the perfect size for a GPS.
Nina
We have been listening to internet radio for many years but we’re down to just 2 stations for 90% of our listening, both of them within our geographic orbit.
Our favorite internet radio station by far is Jefferson Public Radio out of Southern Oregon University in Ashland OR. The Rhythm and News portion has contemporary rock music programs from 9 am to 3 pm Pacific time, NPR news and info from 3pm till 6pm then music through the night. It’s DJ driven with eclectic and intelligent music choices, mostly new music with a modest amount of the classics. They have syndicated programs like UnderCurrents and World Cafe at night, all great. Most people tell me it’s the best station they’ve ever heard and I agree wholeheartedly.
http://ijpr.org/rhythm-news-service-playlist-search
We also listen to KHUM Radio without the Rules out of Humboldt County CA, a well balanced station that skews towards a bit younger audience but we older hippy types love it too. Has commercials but very minimal and subdued.
Dave
They’re both on TuneIn, hope you like!
Thanks!! We will definitely check them both out!
Nina
My husband is still an old fashioned map guy so we always plan out our route on paper. He uses that and guide books to find any and every waterfall possible and that seems to be how we plan our route. Love the pod cast ideas, will have to give it a try.
Even for those of us that are “digitized” I think having and using paper maps is important. We use them for general planning, dreaming & as a back-up for our GPS/phone.
Nina
When on the road and we come unto some sign/words that we don’t understand for example while we were in Texas, I would read out to Steve the meaning of the word. Or sometimes after a hike we would wonder why an area is called a creek, a stream, a brook, bayou and what are the differences.
It is mostly trivial but we learned as we drive along.
I like using I Heart Radio app. Lets you tune in to thousands of broadcasts no matter where you are (provided you have cell coverage or wifi). For instance, if you find a local station of which you like to listen, but you have moved out of market, many radio stations are also broadcast on I Heart. Just search for the station or genre and you get what you’re looking for.
Nice tip. I hadn’t found that site. Thanks!
Nina
My wife and I just bought a 32ft motorhome(our 1st one) We have our house for sale and as soon as it sells we will be full timers. Thank you for some of your experiences maybe we’ll see you on the road. Brian & Jan
Our friend invented a great driving game that is probably actually the worse game ever. As you drive, you watch for road kill, and whoever spies something first and shouts it out gets 10 points. You can even make certain animals worth bonus points. If you spot a cemetery and shout it out, you wipe out your competitor’s points. Somehow, this becomes really entertaining on a long drive. Of course, these elements could be changed to more cheerful items. 🙂
Well I have to admit that’s one of the more morbid games I’ve seen LOL, but it certainly looks entertaining. Thanks for sharing.
Nina
Yeah, great tips! I always try to come up with and bring with me games before trips. But with technology, I can watch movies even during long trips, they always keep me entertained!
With my two daughters the family played I spy, which you mentioned. The family played “the alphabet game” in which you find letter A – Z in order on license plates, vehicles, exit signs, billboards, trucks, motorhomes, or anything that has a letter on it. Each person had to go from A – Z and couldn’t use the person’s letter location that the person just called out unless it was on a new billboard, vehicle, etc.. Some of the letters are hard to get once in a while.