The perfect road trip

How do you describe a perfect road trip? Sometimes it’s the destination but mostly it’s the journey that makes a road trip memorable.

There have been lot of perfect road trips in my life. In fact, most of the road trips that I go on end up becoming perfect. What makes them perfect you say? Planning for one. I like planning a trip more than anything else.

A perfect road trip for me would be something like the one on which I went to in 2008 with my best friend S and her roommate P, who ended up becoming a very good friend of mine. I had just finished school and was waiting for permit to join work. When I spoke to S, she asked me to come over so that we can visit Niagara Falls. The plan was to visit Niagara falls with S and P, and then visit my aunt who was in New Jersey after that. I was very much excited since I had always wanted to see this place. I took over the task of finding a hotel to stay and booked my flight tickets to Philadelphia where S stayed.  S took the task of arranging other things like a car, snacks to carry, GPS etc. P joined us since she was also free for the weekend. On Friday evening, I ended up reaching Philadelphia.

S had rented a car for the trip and came to the airport to pick me in that car. We went home, had our dinner and then started the road trip. I was little apprehensive initially about starting the trip so late in the night, but it saved lot of our time so it was a good idea. S owned a car of her own and had driven car for years. I had driven on and off by renting cars and did not own one. I was so pathetic at driving in the night on a road full of constructions that after some time, S took back the car and drove the rest of the distance. The total driving time that we took was about 7-8 hours.

We reached in the morning and checked into the hotel. We freshened up and went to see Niagara Falls. The three of us had fun standing under the American falls and getting wet. Even though we got raincoats for Maid of the mist boat tour which took us very close to the falls, we got drenched properly. I also visited the aquarium since I love fish. The falls were more beautiful once it got dark. They had some amazing lights focused on both the American falls and the horseshoe falls and that made the falls look more beautiful.

After spending some time next morning in the falls, it was time to leave. I knew S for many years, almost 10 years. But P, whom I did not even know before going on the trip, ended up becoming one of my really good friends. She was such a sweet person that at one point, I was sad to part from S and P after the trip. We started driving back in the afternoon and the drive was lovely. Scenic drives are what I really love about road trips. We saw such beautiful flowers on the way that half of the trip ended up in taking photos. We made multiple stops, took photos, giggled and laughed, pulled each others’ legs which is what girls do when they hang out together.  P also narrated her love story and how her parents were opposing her marriage to a south Indian boy that she was in love with. It was time to tell her to go ahead and marry this boy of her dreams. Talking and gossiping is something that we girls are usually good at. In short, I had a great time. This trip was my first getaway with girlfriends and I realized that girls can manage to have a successful fun-filled road trip, all by themselves.

For me, a perfect trip starts with the following:

• Car rented or own car
• Radio On
• GPS  On
• Air freshener (Ambi Pur)
• Paper Maps in hand
• Camera ready
• Snacks to hog
• Water when wanted
• Start early or start late. We started late in the night.
• Gas tank full
• Emergency medicines
• Hotel reservation printout

And ends with having friends to talk, laugh and thus never realize how long the journey was. These days it is usually with my husband.

This post has been written for “The perfect road trip” contest organized by Ambi Pur and Indiblogger.

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