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[noelbotevera]

For the sake of interest, we'll define unintentional as two things.

1: A simple everyday task (say, going to the store) ends up turning into a trip. You did not plan in advance. Therefore, this excludes unplanned trips; i.e. you didn't have a trip planned but wanted to travel in your car.

2: A planned trip with a planned destination that ends up with you arriving at an unintended destination. Due to circumstances, you chose not to go to your planned destination but instead spend time (not necessarily the entire trip) -- eating, lodging, sightseeing, etc. -- at the "wrong" destination. FOR CLARITY: You can/did go where you wanted, but ended up somewhere and spent time you didn't mean/want to be.

Begin!
Some of mine, although they may not be spectacular:

Went to the movies once with my brother. Went home, except that it took over 2 hours to return and we ended up in Gettysburg. Didn't feel like taking the same roads home. (Example of definition 1)

I can't recall any road trips at the moment that totally meet definition 2. The best example I can think of was a West Virginia day trip turned into a 2 day trip. Ended up spending the night in Elkins (after spending the day at Seneca Rocks) since it was way too late to drive back home.

EDIT: clarified definition 2

[Max Rockatansky]

Back in 2011 a truck carrying cows south on I-17 crashed at Sunset Point while I was working Sedona.  I took the opportunity to get in a side trip that I always wanted since I high clearance vehicle to see old AZ 69 through Cordes and Bumble Bee. 

In 2013 I was getting set to put my two weeks in notice and move to Florida since I accepted another job.  I noticed that I had about three weeks of vacation and took a week off on the fly about three weeks before I was ready to quit.  I ended up leaving from a work trip in Kingman and saw six National Parks; Great Basin, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands.  I made some detour stops at Monument Valley, Dead Horse Point, and a couple additional National Monument.  The weather the first couple days was brutal  weather with the Great Basin day getting down to -14F at one point.  I had never been so glad I hung onto my snow shoes, I ended up having an absolute blast.

Last year for my Wife's birthday we were going to do something in downtown Portland but it ended up being sold out...don't exactly remember what it was.  Instead we used what daylight we had left to drive the Historic Columbia River Highway (Old US 30) and do a couple hikes. 

[Roadrunner75]

#1 used to be an occasional occurrence for me.  I would intend to run some errands and end up somewhere (relatively) far away.  Around 20 years ago I got up one Saturday morning (Jersey shore area) and went out with the intention of going to the store or something and by late afternoon I found myself sitting on the beach in Narragansett, Rhode Island.  Then I simply turned around and headed home.  I spent a good amount of time on US 1 on the way up too.  Even stumbled upon what I'm sure is an old alignment of 1 in RI, now part of 1A:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3719318,-71.6699589,3a,80.1y,41.78h,91.84t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sTKuWTT-HptJPctJM9adqzg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DTKuWTT-HptJPctJM9adqzg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D228.05225%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

[1995hoo]

I’ve probably mentioned this somewhere. Back in 1990, my parents, brother, and I were on our way to New Hampshire for a family vacation in the White Mountains area. Dad got tired of driving and asked me to drive somewhere in Connecticut or Massachusetts; he and my mom dozed off. While they were asleep, my brother and I decided to take a side trip to Freeport to go to LL Bean (for you youngsters out there, back then there was only that one LL Bean store, and if you couldn’t visit the store, you ordered from the catalog by phone or mail because there was no World Wide Web either). My father was surprised when he saw where we were when he woke up at the New Hampshire Turnpike toll plaza when I stopped to pay the toll (no E-ZPass then, either), but he didn’t mind too much because he loved stopping at LL Bean.

We did head to the White Mountains afterwards.

[webny99]

I’ve probably mentioned this somewhere.

Indeed, as recently as September, as revealed by a quick search for "LL Bean New Hampshire".

[hbelkins]

A few years ago, I took off for what I planned to be only a day trip to Bluefield, Va., with the intention of finally getting photos of all the old and weird signs there. Late in the afternoon, it came a pounding rainstorm that messed up my plans. So I decided to spend the night, which I did in Wytheville, Va. I used the second day of the trip to do some exploring in southwestern Virginia.

[doorknob60]

Didn't actually happen, but yesterday I had to return some cat food I got at Costco because my cat is a picky eater and wouldn't touch it, and was starving himself. Costco was out of the kind I usually buy when I went before which is why I picked up the other type. Costco did end up having the food I normally buy so it was a routine trip to the store, but if they were out, I would have called the Nampa store, and if they didn't have it, I was seriously considering that a trip to Twin Falls, Pocatello, Ogden, Bend, Clarkston, etc. were in the cards if necessary. It's Kirkland brand so other stores won't have it, and there's only 2 Costcos in the area (Boise and Nampa, soon to be a 3rd in Meridian).

[D-Dey65]

#2 happened to me in June 2020 when I was on my photography crusade in Ocala. After heading down through Belleview, I decided to take a detour into Ocala National Forest, and extend the crusade.

[kphoger]

#2 happened to me

As they say...  it happens.

[I-55]

For my most recent birthday, I just wanted to drive since I hadn't gone anywhere since quarantine. What I thought would be a one hour drive around Northeast IN's interstates turned into a six hour Indy trip.

[Skye]

September of 2018, my mom and I took a trip from her home near Myrtle Beach to Daytona Beach for three days, followed by Key West for three days and were originally planning on three days in Sarasota, but ended up going to Clearwater instead due to red tide.  The plan after that was to return to Myrtle Beach...however a category 2 hurricane got in our way headed straight for the Myrtle Beach area.  So we ended up taking the two day drive from Clearwater to Cincinnati where I live, my mom used to live and much of our family lives.

[JoePCool14]

Probably the closest thing I've had to an unintentional road trip would be one drive back in mid-March.

It was right as the virus restrictions we're just coming in, so as you can remember, there wasn't really much to do. I set off in my car, southbound from home, with no real destination in mind. I think my primary motivation was going to get food, as it usually is when I want to take a drive somewhere. 

Anyways, I kept driving south, then east, and I ended up on the Edens Expressway going south toward Chicago. I kept telling myself I would exit somewhere, since I knew a lot of the fast food in the area. (I went to community college nearby that semester, before we were shut down) But no, I kept going. And going. And, oh look, it's the Kennedy merge.

At that point, I had no interest in food and decided I would drive down to the Chicago Loop for the first time. I'd been downtown before of course, but never driving nor by myself. I got off at Monroe, and just tooled around downtown for a while. Needless to say, it was deserted. And this was before the chaos in May-June, so the city still looked presentable.

After hopping back on north from the Ohio St feeder ramp, I ended up driving myself out to O'Hare, around the departures loop, then back up the Tri-State back home.

This entire trip took just under an hour and a half by the way. Needless to say, this was a very unique opportunity and one I don't think I'll have again.

Here's a picture I got driving away from the airport on I-190.

[davmillar]

A few years ago after moving to Texas, I took a trip back to Michigan to visit friends and family. On my way back to Texas, I ended up taking the eastern half of historic route 66 and making entirely too many stops along the way. It ended up extending my timeline an extra day and a half, but I ended up with a messenger bag from an army surplus store, a kitchen knife from an Amish store that I still use to this day, and my first trip to a casino when I hit I-35 and passed through Ardmore.

[corco]

About ten years ago when I was living in Laramie, Wyoming I got in the car to drive to McDonald's or something for lunch and decided that wouldn't do, then decided I wanted to go to Cheyenne for Chik-fil-A, but once I got to Cheyenne I decided "to hell with it" and ended up at the Runza in Sidney, Nebraska. Once I was there I decided I should clinch US 138, so that turned into an impromptu half day trip. That's probably the most egregious example of this for me.

[TravelingBethelite]

I’ve probably mentioned this somewhere. Back in 1990, my parents, brother, and I were on our way to New Hampshire for a family vacation in the White Mountains area. Dad got tired of driving and asked me to drive somewhere in Connecticut or Massachusetts; he and my mom dozed off. While they were asleep, my brother and I decided to take a side trip to Freeport to go to LL Bean (for you youngsters out there, back then there was only that one LL Bean store, and if you couldn’t visit the store, you ordered from the catalog by phone or mail because there was no World Wide Web either). My father was surprised when he saw where we were when he woke up at the New Hampshire Turnpike toll plaza when I stopped to pay the toll (no E-ZPass then, either), but he didn’t mind too much because he loved stopping at LL Bean.

We did head to the White Mountains afterwards.

Freeport's pretty deep in Maine, so you got all the way through Connecticut and Massachusetts and almost through New Hampshire in one night?

[1995hoo]

I’ve probably mentioned this somewhere. Back in 1990, my parents, brother, and I were on our way to New Hampshire for a family vacation in the White Mountains area. Dad got tired of driving and asked me to drive somewhere in Connecticut or Massachusetts; he and my mom dozed off. While they were asleep, my brother and I decided to take a side trip to Freeport to go to LL Bean (for you youngsters out there, back then there was only that one LL Bean store, and if you couldn’t visit the store, you ordered from the catalog by phone or mail because there was no World Wide Web either). My father was surprised when he saw where we were when he woke up at the New Hampshire Turnpike toll plaza when I stopped to pay the toll (no E-ZPass then, either), but he didn’t mind too much because he loved stopping at LL Bean.

We did head to the White Mountains afterwards.

Freeport's pretty deep in Maine, so you got all the way through Connecticut and Massachusetts and almost through New Hampshire in one night?

That’s not that far at all. Those are very small states, especially New Hampshire (and the portion along I-95 is even smaller). From where I live now in Virginia to Portland is an easy one-day drive and my parents' house (Dad's gone now, but it’ll always be "my parents' house" in my mind), which is the same place we lived then, is about 15–20 minutes from where I live now. Freeport isn’t much further than Portland.

I don’t remember whether we may have stopped in Brooklyn on the way north to visit relatives, either, which would have further shortened the drive. I remember some trip north when we stopped to visit our grandparents and my father was planning to use the FDR Drive to start the trip north and my grandfather was adamant that he should go up the West Side instead because the FDR Drive was "too dangerous" due to all the "crazy Puerto Ricans." My father didn’t much want to go up the West Side but ultimately did because he said, "He'll ask about it later and I don’t feel like arguing with him about it." But I don’t remember whether that was this same trip.

[JMoses24]

Good one.

I lived in Springdale, Ohio in 2016. My roommate and I went out to Loveland, Ohio one afternoon to play Pokémon Go. Ended up chasing severe thunderstorms near Lafayette, Indiana.