Romancing the Random Roadtrip

Our mission: to find a decent coffee …

Eight hours and 695 kilometres later …

It ended up being a random road trip full of wrong turns for all the right reasons…

 

Why did it take eight hours and 695 kilometres for a coffee?

The weather was ridiculously summer-hot. Thick humid steam rose off the road filling your lungs, yet brilliant on the pores. Steam from boiling-kettles seemed cooler.

And I wanted coffee!?!?

So, with the tunes cranked, a full tank of fuel, we went in search of coffee.

Coffee led to an amazing sunrise.

That then led to the desire to take more photos.

And, that led to a completely random road trip where we sang out of tune and followed the white line.

 

 

2 coffees later (that really weren’t worth bragging about) with a total of 8 hours and 695 kilometres on the road, we returned home. Strangely, it felt like we’d been on an adventurous holiday.

So, that led to the following (fortnightly procrastinating) post:

What is the Romance behind the Random Road Trip?

So many stories in books, TV shows, and in movies begin with the humble road trip. It’s either someone new rolls into town, someone returns to town, or they’re leaving town. It can be a life-changing start of the character’s journey.

Or they could just pop out for a coffee.

|  “A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” Lao Tzu

 

 

So, let’s start with the basics:

Is it Roadtrip or Road Trip?

🚗A Road Trip—is generally a long-distance journey by car and usually done with the planned purpose of going from Point A to B.

🚗A RoadTrip—is when you have friends and family tag along for a cruise.

🚗A Random RoadTrip—now that is a totally unplanned adventure!

The Benefits Of The Random Road Trip

🚗Spontaneity takes away all that pressure of needing to be perfect.

|  Spontaneity takes away all that pressure of needing to be perfect.

 

🚗You get that break from the housework—unless you want to do the dishes in the car?

🚗You can meet new friends.

 

 

🚗Take great photos or just stare at the moving scene ahead like your own drive-by movie—without commercials.

🚗And then, when you discover that moment and realise how small you are in the bigger picture of Life … Especially when you’re the only car in the middle of a deserted highway, surrounded by the wilderness.

 

 

|  That moment when you realise how small you are in the bigger picture of Life 

 

 

🚗It’s a fabulous opportunity to connect with a loved one without distractions.

🚗You can sing as loud—and as badly—as you want without upsetting the neighbours. (*My favourite, although my passengers would tell you different)

🚗It’s the perfect pill for your mental health. Proven to help reduce anxiety and stresses by allowing you to unwind as the road stretches effortlessly ahead. You get that clichéd feeling of leaving all your troubles behind.

 

Random Road Trip Hazards

A sore throat and tone-deafness can occur from the horrible singing within an air-conditioned car for hours on end. (A-huh, just sayin’.)

Your troubles—and housework—will be waiting at home for you. (Damn-it)

You’re unable to get away from debating over certain topics, like is it RoadTrip or Road Trip?

 

The following road trip Hazards when driving in the outback:

🚚 No signal for mobiles so apps won’t and don’t work.

🚚 Rain and Roos (kangaroo)—and the odd cow or water buffalo tend to wander onto the road. Dingos are shy and like to hang on the fringes. We have to watch for crocodiles whenever going near any and every water crossing.

🚚 Tourists who drive waaaaaaaay below the speed limit or on the WRONG SIDE of the road.

🚚 Road trains are huge and outright scary to overtake.

 

 

And the need for more speed … hello, open highway, a straight line and no one for miles… tempted? (coughs I don’t speed, ever! )

Then there is the temptation to keep going … and going … and going … Welcome to WANDERLUST!

 

|  “Not all those who wander are lost.”  JRR Tolkien

Have you ever been infected by Wanderlust?

Wanderlust is real. Believe me. And, it’s addictive.

It’s a feeling that makes you want to drop everything, including all adult responsibilities, and go somewhere. And to just keep going.

Small trips help curb this addictive need to escape.

 

|  The temptation to keep going…and going… and going… and you’re infected by Wanderlust! 

A Little Road Trip Prep Goes A Long Way

There are plenty of planners, guides, gadgets, and sites that offer all you could ever want to know about what to take, make, bake, and where to go. I keep some of these planners on Pinterest.

However, over-planning can take away the magic of a random moment. Yet, when you’re prepared it’s perfect for the unexpected treasure you’ll find.

 

 

Road-tripping in the Northern Territory does require careful planning.

No joke, some of these places are between the middle of nowhere and nothing. There is no such thing as a mobile signal, water or fuel. So you need to be prepared.

Now, I could bore you with the details of what I take on my road trips, and the list of items that live in my car, but I won’t. It takes me five minutes to pack for a road trip, and we’ve got the task of unpacking the car down to one song, 3.56 minutes and we’re done! (Unpacking—I didn’t say cleaning.)

You can make up road trip kits to suit your own climate and needs. Do research this, and I found Pinterest is great for this. Or ask a local for some trekking advice.

 

 

|   “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

Lewis Carroll

 

 

Do The Downloads

This is checking on roads, maps, and hello—MUSIC is a must!

In our family, we created a playlist for the random road trip. It’s an eclectic mix of music that gets added to all the time.

I’m always searching for new tunes to match my new stories, like these playlists for my books. But by the end of the trip, you have your favourites you can’t help but belt out as loud as you can.

 

 

|  “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” Anonymous

 

Other handy road trip downloads

🚗 Books

🚗Podcasts of Poetry?

🚗Movies and sing-a-long-songs for the children, maybe?

 

 

Random Road Trip Movies

The online list is exhaustible with more being added to annually, but this is just a few of the classic movies, and series I see scanning through my home collection:

🎥Blues Brothers

🎥Thelma and Louise

🎥Little Miss Sunshine

🎥A Perfect World

🎥Zombieland

🎥The Walking Dead could be considered a road trip series, maybe?

🎥Supernatural is one looooong road trip series. (Yes, I’m a fan.)

 

 

via GIPHY

Where To Go?

Where ever the journey takes you! That’s it.

Oh, you want more…

Well, then, pick a spot on the map and go in that general direction.

A lot of times, it’s just seeing where the day takes you with no expected plans. We keep an old penny in the car we toss, heads left, or tails to the right when we arrive at an intersection.

 

 

 

 

Mostly, it’s just seeing what’s down that random side-track. Or to find a new Billabong someone told us about, that leads the adventure of discovering something new.

 

|  “Once a year go someplace, you’ve never been before.” Dalai Lama XIV

 

 

You may find something new in the old, by revisiting some of your local National Parks, or just take that amble along the road and see where you end up. You might find your new favourite coffee shop. (I’m still searching for mine.)

Record it! Tape it! Picture it! Just Sit and Admire It.

A random road trip is an experience allowing you to enjoy the moment. It’s a break from reality waiting back home, and you see something new and wondrous.

Well, I do. You can’t replace moments when you smile at the sight of a baby wallaby with his mother. Or the way the water glistens on sunrise across a billabong filled with flowering wild lilies. The rustle of the trees through the paperbark swamps carrying the heady honeyed scents of wildflowers mingled with rich earth. Or the dappling of the sun that plays hide and seek with you through the monsoon forest. following the path to see what is around that corner.

I know I’m lucky because, for me, that’s just out back.

 

 

|  “Only one who wanders finds new paths.”  Norwegian proverb

 

Other Random Roadtrippy Stuff…

🛑 A jumbo jet’s fuel tank would be enough fuel for me to trip around Australia eight times… more!

🛑The white lines in the road’s middle were inspired by a milkman spilling his milk from his milk cart on the road. (Say that three times real fast!) Hence the first painted line in 1917—it’s outlasted the milkman and his deliveries.

🛑Stop signs are in an octagonal shape so they’re recognised from both sides of the road. Apparently designed by a policeman lopping off the top and bottom of a diamond. They used to be yellow until they became red in 1954.

🛑Traffic lights came to be because there weren’t enough police to patrol the traffic, and their arms got tired way back in 1912. Don’t blame them.

🛑Potholes are a hazard—this is because of extremes in weather and wear and tear. Did you know Pot also means hole?

 

 

|  “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” Fitzhugh Mullan

 

 

🛑Riding shotgun was the name of the armed passenger who sat beside the driver in the Australian Colonial days. Similar to US wild west when in their wagons.

🛑Backseat driver—was first keyed back in the 1920s by passengers who were pests to their driver. It’s a tradition that still continues… (Hi mum!*waves*)

 

 

 

 

 

🚗Bulldust—it’s a hazard. Always approach with caution. What is it? It’s the fine dust that falls like powder and is found on most outback roads. It stirs up behind you and hides any potholes, and it can get so thick, you get bogged in it.

🚗They built the first roads back in 4000bc and were stone-paved streets in the European continent. They used Tar in the 1600s, followed by asphalt in the 1800s.

🚗They build roads with bitumen (like a concreting glue) and asphalt (the hard, gravelly stuff). It’s used to create roads, racetracks and even airstrips.

🚗Blacktop is a nickname used by many locals to mean road. It allegedly came from the blacktopping for driveways?

🚗I-Spy the Car game—doesn’t work in the remote regions when all you see is a tree, sky, rock, road, roo… cow & repeat!

🚗There is an English Boy Band called Roadtrip who play cover songs. Strangely enough, they haven’t found their way onto the family playlist.

🚗For me to get a cup of coffee from the nearest Starbucks it would take more than 40 hours and over 4,000 kilometres, crossing time zones. Aaaand, that’s going in a straight line, non-stop!

 

 

 

To Make A Long Random RoadTrip Story Shorter…

Nah, forget the above title because you don’t skimp on the journey, that’s the whole purpose of sitting in that bucket seat.

To travel, even if it’s in your own backyard, there is an unexpected excitement when on an adventure. The journey itself can invoke so many emotions you don’t find in your normal day, such as the power of curiosity to explore, or facing the fear of walking that unknown path.

It doesn’t have to be far, it can be just going to lunch in a new park, or just taking that drive that could be the start of a beautiful story for yourself.

 

 

|  “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” Helen Keller

 

 

There are endless poems and quotes romanticising the road trip. I’ve included my top 8 in this piece.

Many story tropes, past and present, all start with someone coming, leaving, or returning, or it’s the end goal. Endless adventure stories too, The Hobbit comes to mind. Stephen King has many novels involving the road trip. My favourite novel is TheTalisman, by Stephen King, which is a great example of a road trip.

In my novel, THE FOOTBALL WHISPERER  an injured famous Football player takes a road trip of discovery.

WINTERS WALK, the hero not only meets the heroine on the road – he leaves her stranded there too… only on another road!?! 

In UNPLANNED PARTY, I have two young men who steal a van and go on a rule-less, random road trip of self-discovery. In the same story, I have a couple who go on a romantic road trip as a date.

In THE ART OF DUST after a seven-year absence, a single mother rolls back into the small outback town of ELSIE CREEK

DIAMOND IN THE DUST, book II in the ELSIE CREEK SERIES, is all about a cheeky roadtrain driver whose job is all about road trips. But the way he meets the heroine of this story, on the road… well, that’s where the fun really begins.

For a totally unplanned journey around the country, try Run Beautiful Run. It’ll have you hanging onto your seat.

The humble road trip does have many benefits if you’re prepared to take the journey yourself, you’ll be surprised what you’ll find. Like I said before, it can be life-changing.

Have you started planning your next random road trip?

 

***WAIT (sorry for shouting) it’s just that we’re not done yet, here are the Vlog that match this blog:

The Benefits of the Random Roadtrip

Random Roadtrip Hazards – outback

Random Roadtrippy stuff 

**All still images relating to this post are via the talented & fabulous photographers at https://unsplash.com/  Thanks guys.

#Escape2HEA | #FootballWhisperer  |  #ElsieCreek  |  #ArtofDust  |#UnPlannedParty  |  #DIAMONDintheDUST