Road Rules: Cook Style

Rules of the Cook Family Road Trip:

No restaurant chains – only chain hotels.
Exceptions include: McDonald’s once every other day if needed. And Waffle House once on the trip.
Everyone plays the license plate game
The navigator, sitting in the passenger seat, controls the map and aids the driver in any needs including grabbing snacks, water, garbage, etc. The navigator is also in charge of the music selection – as long as the driver agrees with selection. Duties also include keeping track of license plate game, checking for weather updates and keeping driver awake. Navigator never sleeps.
This person needs to be the police lookout and point all officers to driver.
Honk twice when you cross a new state line. This will prevent you from getting a speeding ticket in that state.
Each new state line will bring trivia of state history along with appropriate state music. For example, Indiana, we listen to John Mellencamp. When we enter Chicago we listen to the Blues Brothers. Ohio is mostly Ohio State Marching Band music.
We like to rent a car for long road trips. This way, we aren’t putting miles on our own car. We typically get some sort of mini SUV. Bigger than what we normally drive and gives us a little more room. I highly recommend this option. It also gives us good test driving of different cars.
You should always have BBQ Pringles in the car. It’s just a rule.
Download the Starbucks app. It will GPS the closet Starbucks to your location. You just never know when the caffeine urge will strike.
Kids have full access to iPads, iPhones, Nintendo DS’s, etc. Make sure you have some sort of way to charge devices. Technology is amazing.
(Speaking of technology, how cool is it that a cell phone can turn into an internet hot spot and you can blog from your moving vehicle?)
If there is a college less than 20 minutes from the highway – we will drive through. This counts as a college tour. Try to make sure we get a picture with university sign showing our Spartan pride.