I'll be embarking on a 2-week jaunt in October, a loop from Vegas to Zion, Bryce Canyon, down to Flagstaff, and back to Vegas. While I love a long drive, my wife and 3 kids (ages 11, 9, and 7) are less inclined.
We have several "go-to" games we play when driving.
-The "license plate" game, where we try to find as many different states/provinces/estados as possible (last trip we saw a Guatemala plate).
-The "ABC" game: Each person has to find the letters of the alphabet, consecutively, on the static signs that we pass (no vehicle letters/license plates). Once a sign has been used for a letter, it is no longer able to be used.
What other road trip games are there?
Slugbug!
We used to play the game where one person has to name a place in the world and the next person has to name a place whose name starts with the last letter of the preceding one (example: if I said Brunei, my brother might say Indianapolis–in his case after asking me to spell "Brunei").
Quote from: corco on September 07, 2016, 09:05:43 PM
Slugbug!
Haha, I forgot that one. We call it Punch Bug...and can only last for so long until it gets out of hand.
We play one punch for a Beetle, three for a convertible Beetle, and 5 for a VW Bus.
Quote from: 1995hoo on September 07, 2016, 09:06:33 PM
We used to play the game where one person has to name a place in the world and the next person has to name a place whose name starts with the last letter of the preceding one (example: if I said Brunei, my brother might say Indianapolis–in his case after asking me to spell "Brunei").
Way back in the '80s we had a computer program that was basically this game. It's amazing how many places begin and end with the letter "A".
Punch Buggy...or at least it was fun back in my day as a kid when they were a lot more common.
I remember sometimes playing "I spy" with my sister in the car.
Take turns thinking of an animal, food item, place name, dog's name, etc. starting with A, B, C, ...
What's fun is when the kids are stumped, but try their best to justify a nonsense answer ("X-ray chips!")
Quote from: kurumi on September 08, 2016, 01:30:21 AM
Take turns thinking of an animal, food item, place name, dog's name, etc. starting with A, B, C, ...
What's fun is when the kids are stumped, but try their best to justify a nonsense answer ("X-ray chips!")
Nice, I like it! :spin:
1. Destination/Mode of transportation/Cargo. All three words have to start with the same letter. Example: "I'm headed to Albuquerque in an airplane with a load of afghans." Next person: "I'm going to Beirut in a Buick hauling a load of bouncy balls." Play until Z.
2. Spot something starting with the next letter. Arch, balloon, Chrysler, door, exit, fox. Play until Z. The Sears cargo box called "X-Cargo" is a lifesaver.
3. Word association. String, silly, goofy, Disney, Florida, oranges, juice, sugar, blood. Play until you get tired of it.
I grew up playing the license plate game with a pad and paper. I was good enough to identify plates even if they were on oncoming vehicles on the other side of the Interstate. My best finds have been Germany in Colorado, Arizona in France, Quebec in Coahuila, and Guam in D.C.
Quote from: chays on September 07, 2016, 09:11:29 PM
Quote from: corco on September 07, 2016, 09:05:43 PM
Slugbug!
Haha, I forgot that one. We call it Punch Bug...and can only last for so long until it gets out of hand.
We play one punch for a Beetle, three for a convertible Beetle, and 5 for a VW Bus.
And none for a New Beetle, right? At least when they first came out, they were far too common to make the game anything less than a bloodbath.
iPhone
When I was a kid, I had this one book which had a version of the license plate game where you got points based on the state you were in when you spotted the license plate. It was higher the farther away the state was. I think it was always 1 point if the plate you spotted was a neighboring state, so if we were in Wisconsin (which happened a lot when we went between Minnesota and Illinois), we got 1 point each time we saw a Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, or Michigan plate, but there would be a lot more if it was a California plate. I'm not sure how Canadian provinces were scored, but I think there was points in that, too. I just wish I knew what happened to that book.
Quote from: DandyDan on September 10, 2016, 03:40:30 AM
When I was a kid, I had this one book which had a version of the license plate game where you got points based on the state you were in when you spotted the license plate. It was higher the farther away the state was. I think it was always 1 point if the plate you spotted was a neighboring state, so if we were in Wisconsin (which happened a lot when we went between Minnesota and Illinois), we got 1 point each time we saw a Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, or Michigan plate, but there would be a lot more if it was a California plate. I'm not sure how Canadian provinces were scored, but I think there was points in that, too. I just wish I knew what happened to that book.
I'm now going to invent my own game based on this idea and have my son play it when we travel. Thank you.
Quote from: kphoger on September 09, 2016, 08:34:31 PM
....
I grew up playing the license plate game with a pad and paper. I was good enough to identify plates even if they were on oncoming vehicles on the other side of the Interstate. My best finds have been Germany in Colorado, Arizona in France, Quebec in Coahuila, and Guam in D.C.
We used paper to list me all too; on multiple-day trips we did not start over, either. I think the ones we saw that we saw least frequently were a Northwest Territories plate in the car park at Western Brook Pond in Newfoundland and a Yukon plate at the ferry terminal in Port-aux-Basques a couple of days later. I've only seen one other Yukon plate and that was in Juneau some 23 years later.
Regarding Guam plates, it's odd, this calendar year I've seen three different vehicles with Guam plates, all here in Fairfax County.
When my kids were those ages, we would buy a new "Mad Libs" book for a road trip. We made it a point to ask only one person at a time for each blank: Dad, think of a noun; Mom, name an adjective; Sister, choose a color. This rotation kept everyone involved instead of letting a more verbose child dominate. After playing a few of these, fairly neutral words like "mailbox" or "toothpaste" become hilariously funny.
We also kept a deck of cards in the car all the time that had different silly conversation starters on each card: If you were a vegetable, which one would you be and why? Which US president does your dog look most like? What sound would a flower make? I do not remember any specific brand name, I think we found these at a bookstore, but this sort of thing has still got to be out there and would hopefully be easy to find.
I also got the kids laminated maps and tried to play "where are we on the map?" and "what road would we take to go to (city)?" but neither child seemed to think this was fun. (I loved it when I was a kid.)
I forgot all about Mad Libs. We used to write down the words on a sheet of paper so we could reuse the booklet later. For some reason ours always got filled with words like "shit" or "fart" or whatever.
I remember when my brother and I sat in the back seat of the car and kept punching each other. Then my dad got real mad and reached back and marked out a line down the middle of the back seat that we weren't allowed to cross "or you're gonna be punished."
Seems like there was one time someone got bored and tried blowing a huge bubble with bubble gum. I can't remember who or when. That might have been on a college trip.
I also remember we went on a trip when I was 3, and my brother warned of the Hair Snatcher, a fictional monster who would reach into the car and rip people's hair off if they had the car windows rolled down. My mom got real mad at my brother for telling this story.
Quote from: US 81 on September 10, 2016, 03:04:58 PM
We also kept a deck of cards in the car all the time that had different silly conversation starters on each card: If you were a vegetable, which one would you be and why? Which US president does your dog look most like? What sound would a flower make? I do not remember any specific brand name, I think we found these at a bookstore, but this sort of thing has still got to be out there and would hopefully be easy to find.
I come up with questions like this all the time on trips. One of my perennial favorites is: If you had to have a body part amputated, who would you mail it to?
Quote from: 1995hoo on September 10, 2016, 02:03:17 PM
Regarding Guam plates, it's odd, this calendar year I've seen three different vehicles with Guam plates, all here in Fairfax County.
Living less than 10 miles away from Offutt AFB, I see Guam plates here all the time. Alaska and Hawaii, too. I can't say if it's the same vehicles over and over again, but it doesn't seem that way.
One day in the late 1970s my brother and I started thinking about who should sing various popular songs (of the time). The ones I still remember were:
The Marquis de Sade singing Turn The Beat Around
Fred Flintstone singing I Am A Rock
Albert Einstein singing If I Could Save Time In A Bottle
Mother, who was driving, made us stop because we were all laughing so hard.
My dad and I have been known to make up puns while driving by places on the NYS Thruway. Examples include:
—A college in Montgomery County for people who like each other (Fonda U.)
—Two on a mattress (Sharon Springs)
—The absence of motivation (Lackawanna)
Once when I was about 8, we went on a trip to Chicago. On the way home, my brother and I kept singing parodies of the Popeye theme and the Arby's commercial. We were laughing so hard it hurt.
"My Cows".
When you see a group of cows from the highway, you declare "My cows!" and that's like a point or something. It's a game of being the first to spot them. The fun part is when there are long stretches without cows and everyone starts to forget about the game and some other conversation starts. Then you call back the game by interjecting a "My Cows" into that conversation. It can be really funny.
"Oh yeah that movie was really great. You know what else is great? Those are my cows!"
Quote from: triplemultiplex on September 11, 2016, 10:03:21 PM
"My Cows".
When you see a group of cows from the highway, you declare "My cows!" and that's like a point or something. It's a game of being the first to spot them. The fun part is when there are long stretches without cows and everyone starts to forget about the game and some other conversation starts. Then you call back the game by interjecting a "My Cows" into that conversation. It can be really funny.
"Oh yeah that movie was really great. You know what else is great? Those are my cows!"
Heck, I played that one as an adult. You were supposed to count all the cows as you passed them and keep a running tally, although with a large herd it usually just meant counting as fast as you could until they were out of sight. Our version wasn't about first though; you just called out any cows that passed on your side of the car. (This gave the driver an advantage: I may or may not have altered my route to ensure that a known cow pasture passed on my side of the car.) :-D
There were other rules, as well: if you passed a church steeple on your side, you doubled your cow tally. But if you passed a cemetery, you lost all your cows. (But you're under no obligation to call out a cemetery if your opponent doesn't notice it.) This created drama since the two are often located together–and it mattered what order you passed them in. We also had some extra modifications: seeing an old man on a porch would give you back your most recently-lost cows, provided you hadn't yet started to accumulate more. And a horse-and-buggy meant something, too (we were usually playing this in south-central PA)–double your cows back, maybe? I can't remember.
When I was a kid and my family took a lot of road trips, my brothers and I didn't get along sufficiently well for group activities to work. We did have travel versions of several popular board games, so one on one matches of Connect 4 or Guess Who would usually work. We also had journals to write or draw in, and a travel Spirograph... And as we got older, it became more common to just have everyone listening to their own music with headphones.
Now, when I'm out with friends around Columbus, sometimes someone will call out three letters from a license plate of another car, and everyone takes turns inventing three word phrases that the letters might be short for. For example, FTV might be "Four-Tire Vehicle". It usually turns blue pretty quickly. And the way the plates are issued, certain letter combinations are clustered in certain cities like Columbus. One game we had DYL "Do Your Laundry", followed by DYS which I won't expand here because it was off-color, and then DYK which took it a couple steps even more wrong.
Also, we blurted out stupid parody lyrics to songs that were on the radio. The line in the Madonna song that said "She's trouble" became "She bubbled."
I had fun making Mad Libs for the nieces and nephews, because they would also be the star of the story, and you could tease them relentlessly.
Example: "Then (niece's name) said: 'By the way, my favorite color isn't purple anymore; it's ___(color)__.'"
Good result, even if purple is the choice :-)
I liked to give new meanings for the signs. For example, this one...
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Spain_traffic_signal_r305.svg/480px-Spain_traffic_signal_r305.svg.png)
... which means 'no overtaking', was always taken by me to mean 'red and black cars only'. Although technically, since it's a prohibition sign, it should have been 'no red or black cars allowed on this road' :-D.
We had to hold our breath while passing a cemetery.
We also thought it great fun to trail a length of string out the station wagon tailgate window (back when those things could move). Sometimes with Kleenex tied to them.
My mom got mad at us one time for tossing ice cubes out the back, just to see them bounce and shatter. We were supposed to save them to help us to cool off in those pre-air-conditioning days.
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on September 12, 2016, 03:55:22 PM
I liked to give new meanings for the signs. For example, this one...
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Spain_traffic_signal_r305.svg/480px-Spain_traffic_signal_r305.svg.png)
... which means 'no overtaking', was always taken by me to mean 'red and black cars only'. Although technically, since it's a prohibition sign, it should have been 'no red or black cars allowed on this road' :-D.
We used to do that. Along the same lines, we'd have fun when signs were missing letters, or perhaps a lighted sign had some burned out letters. We would create bizarre mispronunciations from whatever was left of said sign. "Outback Steakhouse" might have "Teeback Khoowse." It was a good day when the "G" had fallen off a "gas" sign....
For some reason we only did this on the Belt Parkway: We'd read the BGSs phonetically as they appeared. "Ocean Pkwy" was "Ocean Pickway" and "Shell Rd" was "Shell Rid," for example.
Quote from: 1995hoo on September 12, 2016, 08:53:50 PM
For some reason we only did this on the Belt Parkway: We'd read the BGSs phonetically as they appeared. "Ocean Pkwy" was "Ocean Pickway" and "Shell Rd" was "Shell Rid," for example.
Same here with the changed pronunciation. FL-858 was always Hallandale Beach BLIVID to us, for example. Or, if we were feeling really froggy and thought we could dodge dad's backhand quickly enough we would call it Hellandale Bitch Blivid.
Quote from: slorydn1 on September 28, 2016, 10:54:27 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on September 12, 2016, 08:53:50 PM
For some reason we only did this on the Belt Parkway: We'd read the BGSs phonetically as they appeared. "Ocean Pkwy" was "Ocean Pickway" and "Shell Rd" was "Shell Rid," for example.
Same here with the changed pronunciation. FL-858 was always Hallandale Beach BLIVID to us, for example. Or, if we were feeling really froggy and thought we could dodge dad's backhand quickly enough we would call it Hellandale Bitch Blivid.
I remember a trip to Clearwater Beach, Florida, where Dad felt it wasn't inappropriate for us kids to hear him pronounce Bearss Ave as "Bare-Ass Avenue". Mom expressed disapproval but I think she was entertained nonetheless. I think I was about 12 or 13 at the time, and my brothers within 3 years of me either way...
I remember that whenever I was in the car with my cousins (being a looong road trip or a fifteen-minutes drive), and sometimes in the street, we always played a game called "
Coche amarillo" (Yellow car).
It consisted that when you saw a yellow car, you had to say
¡Coche amarillo!, and the first one who said it was allowed to give a
colleja (untranslatable, a quick slap on the back of the neck) to the rest. We always ended fighting, and drove our parents crazy.
I also remember when I was like 4 me and my cousin also played in road trips a game which consisted in being the first to identify the brand and model of every car in our carriageway.
Then there are some other classical games in my country for roadtrips, like "
Veo veo" (I see I see [Yup, the name is kinda weird]). In that game you said "
Veo veo una cosa que empieza por la letra X" (I see I see one thing starting with the letter X) where X was the first letter of something you had seen and the others had to guess the thing you saw. Then, the one who guessed it was who was next.
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on September 12, 2016, 03:55:22 PM
I liked to give new meanings for the signs. For example, this one...
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Spain_traffic_signal_r305.svg/480px-Spain_traffic_signal_r305.svg.png)
... which means 'no overtaking', was always taken by me to mean 'red and black cars only'. Although technically, since it's a prohibition sign, it should have been 'no red or black cars allowed on this road' :-D.
We also did it, I remember saying this sign:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Spain_traffic_signal_p17.svg/218px-Spain_traffic_signal_p17.svg.png)
which means that the road stretches in both sides, meant "Danger because of bottles",
and with the yield sign with the "
ceda el paso" (the direct translation would be something like "give the way", though it simply means yield) inscription
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Spain_traffic_signal_r1_%28Variante%29.png/272px-Spain_traffic_signal_r1_%28Variante%29.png)
we said it spelled "
ceda el vaso" (that translated means "give the glass") and added it was a special sign for drunk drivers...
Old good times :sombrero:
Quote from: vtk on September 29, 2016, 10:01:14 AM
Quote from: slorydn1 on September 28, 2016, 10:54:27 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on September 12, 2016, 08:53:50 PM
For some reason we only did this on the Belt Parkway: We'd read the BGSs phonetically as they appeared. "Ocean Pkwy" was "Ocean Pickway" and "Shell Rd" was "Shell Rid," for example.
Same here with the changed pronunciation. FL-858 was always Hallandale Beach BLIVID to us, for example. Or, if we were feeling really froggy and thought we could dodge dad's backhand quickly enough we would call it Hellandale Bitch Blivid.
I remember a trip to Clearwater Beach, Florida, where Dad felt it wasn't inappropriate for us kids to hear him pronounce Bearss Ave as "Bare-Ass Avenue". Mom expressed disapproval but I think she was entertained nonetheless. I think I was about 12 or 13 at the time, and my brothers within 3 years of me either way...
I have a friend whose first language is Spanish, and he always just pronounced it "Bare Ass" as well. It is kind of a weird name...I just followed his lead.
On the topic of goofily-pronounced town names, back in the 1970s when we drove to Nags Head my mom always referred to two towns in North Carolina as "Barfo" and "Slimeo."
When I was a kid, road trips with my older brothers and sisters would always begin - once we got on the highway - with Mom leading us in reciting a Catholic rosary. After that, Dad would keep us entertained by giving each of us, in turn, short quizzes on our favorite subjects. While my brothers' and sisters' quizzes usually had to do with sports or current events, my quizzes were always about something relating to roads, bridges, and the like.
Quote from: peperodriguez2710 on September 29, 2016, 01:43:32 PM
I remember that whenever I was in the car with my cousins (being a looong road trip or a fifteen-minutes drive), and sometimes in the street, we always played a game called "Coche amarillo" (Yellow car).
It consisted that when you saw a yellow car, you had to say ¡Coche amarillo!, and the first one who said it was allowed to give a colleja (untranslatable, a quick slap on the back of the neck) to the rest. We always ended fighting, and drove our parents crazy.
Then there are some other classical games in my country for roadtrips, like "Veo veo" (I see I see [Yup, the name is kinda weird]). In that game you said "Veo veo una cosa que empieza por la letra X" (I see I see one thing starting with the letter X) where X was the first letter of something you had seen and the others had to guess the thing you saw. Then, the one who guessed it was who was next.
I also played these two. However, I did a variation on the first one, as we tried to hit each other's shoulder every time we saw a Mini car.
Quote... a Catholic rosary
As opposed to a Jewish or Protestant rosary? :-D
Quote from: 1995hoo on September 30, 2016, 07:22:55 AM
Quote... a Catholic rosary
As opposed to a Jewish or Protestant rosary? :-D
Yah, I know - Department of Redundancy Department and all that. However, I presume there are readers here who are not familiar with the term 'rosary'.
Quote from: kphoger on September 10, 2016, 12:50:42 PM
Quote from: DandyDan on September 10, 2016, 03:40:30 AM
When I was a kid, I had this one book which had a version of the license plate game where you got points based on the state you were in when you spotted the license plate. It was higher the farther away the state was. I think it was always 1 point if the plate you spotted was a neighboring state, so if we were in Wisconsin (which happened a lot when we went between Minnesota and Illinois), we got 1 point each time we saw a Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, or Michigan plate, but there would be a lot more if it was a California plate. I'm not sure how Canadian provinces were scored, but I think there was points in that, too. I just wish I knew what happened to that book.
I'm now going to invent my own game based on this idea and have my son play it when we travel. Thank you.
I'm well underway in making this. The structure is all there; I just have a little more data input to do. This is in advance of a family vacation to Colorado and Utah we've planned for next year. Here's how I've developed it:
This includes all US states (plus DC), Canadian provinces and territories, Mexican states (plus DF), Guam, Puerto Rico, and the USVI. I shall here refer to all of them as 'states' for the sake of simplification. I rounded down on all figures; that is, 6,720,401 became 6 million, and 1665 miles became 1600 miles.
DistanceFor Canada and México, distances are based on the most populous city in each state. For the USA, distances are based on the most populous city
in the most populous county in each state. These are calculated
as from the state you spot the license plate in, using the primary routing on Google Maps. I'm using Wichita as the reference point in Kansas (because that's where we live), Denver for Colorado, and Moab for Utah (because that's our general destination there); reference points would likely change for each trip.
States less than 300 miles away = 1 point
States between 300 and 600 miles away = 2 points
States between 600 and 900 miles away = 3 points
[continue pattern]
States between 3000 and 3300 miles away = 11 points
States between 3300 and 3600 miles away = 12 points
Because you cannot drive to or from the following states, I assigned a flat number of points to them; these would be adjusted for travelling closer to the coast, but they suffice for this neck of the woods. They are intended to represent how far away they are from the coast.
Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands = 3 points
Nunavut = 4 points
Shipping bonusIn addition to the points assigned above, states from which a driver must ship his vehicle by air or sea also receive bonus points based on the cost of doing so.
Hawaii = 12 bonus points
Puerto Rico & Nunavut = 13 points
Virgin Islands = 14 points
Guam = 16 points
Population bonusIt's more exciting to spot a plate from a small state than a large one, because you don't see them as often. For example, in Cleveland it's still more exciting to spot Rhode Island than Texas.
State pop. greater than 9 million = no bonus
State pop. between 6 million and 9 million = 1 bonus point
State pop. between 3 million and 6 million = 2 bonus points
State pop. between 250,000 and 3 million = 3 bonus points
State pop. less than 250,000 = 4 bonus points
Border bonusCrossing a border is a hassle and therefore deters people from driving internationally. Some borders are more of a hassle than others.
Most of the USA - no bonus
Alaska - 1 bonus point
US Territories - 4 bonus points
Canada - 5 bonus points
México - 12 bonus points
I might tweak it here and there, but this seems good so far. Examples:
Texas, spotted in Kansas = 1 point
Texas, spotted in Colorado = 3 points
Illinois, spotted in Kansas = 2 points
Illinois, spotted in Colorado = 3 points
New York, spotted in Kansas = 4 points
Delaware, spotted in Kansas = 7 points
New Hampshire, spotted in Colorado = 9 points
Alaska, spotted in Kansas = 15 points (although they are surprisingly common here)
Hawaii, spotted in either state = 17 points
Manitoba, spotted in Kansas = 10 points
Ontario, spotted in Kansas = 8 points
Prince Edward Island, spotted in Kansas = 16 points
Northwest Territories, spotted in Kansas = 16 points
Nunavut, spotted in either state = 25 points (shipping is no piece of cake)
Chihuahua, spotted in Colorado = 15 points
Jalisco, spotted in Kansas = 17 points
Quintana Roo, spotted in Kansas = 22 points (and I've spotted this one here, too)
Puerto Rico, spotted in either state = 21 points
Guam, spotted in either state = 26 points
Quote from: bandit957 on September 12, 2016, 11:07:26 AM
Also, we blurted out stupid parody lyrics to songs that were on the radio. The line in the Madonna song that said "She's trouble" became "She bubbled."
I also have a huge affection toward intentionally botching radio song lyrics.
When taking a road trip with my friends, ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" became "I've got the runs."
Let me explain.
"I TOLD YOU BEFORE
THAT WHEN I SHIT ON THE FLOOR
I've got the runs."
Kphoger, may we play your game? Looks fun.
We can be your betas...
Quote from: kphoger on October 26, 2016, 12:02:34 PMState pop. less than 250,000 = 4 bonus points
So none? Or were you considering territories and PEI here too?
Quote from: GaryV on October 26, 2016, 04:39:01 PM
Quote from: kphoger on October 26, 2016, 12:02:34 PMState pop. less than 250,000 = 4 bonus points
So none? Or were you considering territories and PEI here too?
Answered in the same post. Not that anyone can blame you for missing something in that mile-long post.
Quote from: kphoger on October 26, 2016, 12:02:34 PM
This includes all US states (plus DC), Canadian provinces and territories, Mexican states (plus DF), Guam, Puerto Rico, and the USVI. I shall here refer to all of them as 'states' for the sake of simplification.
Not so much games, as activities, but we always stocked up on fun pads, and those Yes & Know books with the invisible ink pen.