Grown Up Road Trip Games {Part A}

I've been hanging onto this post idea for such a time as this...for a week when not much is happening. Three days of being sick on the couch with the crud lends to very little blog material. {Though we did learn what happens when one spouse uses the oven as a storage spot and the other spouse is not aware of it and cooks lunch.}

When Ryan and I headed to Florida to get married, we had a 17 hour road trip in the car. One way. I don't care how good of a traveler you are...that'll tax ya! So before we went, I worked to create some games to keep us occupied while we drove. It's hard to find games that aren't just for kids, so I did a little modifying, and here's what I came up with. Thought I'd pass them along in case you have some road trips coming up with the overgrown kids in your life!

Before we left, I wrote up all the game instructions and put them in unmarked envelopes. Whenever we thought we needed a game, I'd pull out the stash and he'd pick one at random from the stack. We played in the order he chose!

1. Road Trip Bingo

I actually found some printables for Bingo on this website - and we did the roadside version. {We looked for things along the road vs. certain types of cars ON the road.} I printed out two sheets - one for each of us and held one out so Ryan could keep one eye on the road and one eye on the things he needed to look for. Our sheets were identical in what we were looking for...everything was just in a different spot on each sheet. So if one of us spotted something, we could both mark it off...and the lucky lineup person won. {I did his marking for him to make it safer.} Apparently driving did not hinder him. He still {so humbly} won.

2. The Vacation Bucket List

 We've had a regular bucket list for a while, but I'd noticed we often said things like "we should go there someday" or "let's make that a vacation spot." My memory is terrible, and I hated the thought of forgetting the ideal vacation spot, so our second activity was to make a vacation bucket list. I found a little notebook at home that wasn't being used for anything else, and I packed it in my travel bag. When this activity rolled around, we brainstormed all kinds of places we want to visit - anything from a little overnighter at a B&B to a big bad vacation that would take days and days and 12 suitcases {for me}. We'll hang onto this notebook and add to it throughout our marriage - and hopefully cross off many destinations as we make memories together!

3. Would You Rather?

 There's a game called Would You Rather? that we have at work. In fact, a few months back, I interviewed the creator of the game during one of our Mid-Morning shows. I borrowed the game we have in the office and pulled out a few questions {20, I think} and wrote them down. As we zipped down the highway, I posed the questions to Ryan and we each answered them and offered our reasoning behind the answers. Creates some pretty exciting conversation! {Sample question: Would you rather have an itch in the middle of your back all the time or an eyelash in your eye all the time?}

4. TV Trivia

 One thing we learned is that playing games after 11 p.m. when you've been on the road for half a day with no end in sight...is a bad idea. But we played on all in the name of staying awake. I had some help with this game. Ryan loves the TV show Everybody Loves Raymond and I love Friends. So my friend Sheryl chose some trivia questions over each show from the internet and wrote them out for us. I quizzed us both and guess who won? {Hint: He was driving.}

5. A Little Fill in the Blank Fun

 This is one of the first games we played in the wee hours of the morning after our itty bitty nap at the rest stop. A little fill in the blank fun! I hopped around to different blogs that had link ups to short answer something or other on Friday and I took some of the best questions and we spent a good chunk of time talking about them. It really made for some fantastic bonding...which is hard to come by at 5 in the morning!

6. Snack Break!!

 I wanted something that was more of an activity and less of a fill in the blank thing. So one of the envelopes had directions to pull something yummy out of the snack bag and have a little treat to help you stay awake!! When you're driving through the night - this is especially important. Sheryl had packed us the nicest little treat bag - INCLUDING my favorite apples: honeycrisps! So we ate those at some ridiculously early hour as our snack break!

7. Back Rub Break!
I don't think we ever actually finished this one, so there's no photo, but I thought there might be a possibility that we'd be so eager to reach our destination that we wouldn't stop and take care of ourselves. So....we were supposed to pull over at the next convenient location and give each other back rubs. Alas, we never did it. Think I can still collect on this one?

8. Smackaroo break!!!!!!
Another one designed to give us something to do while resting. We decided to skip ahead to this one while we were stuck in the 3 hour traffic jam. Because there really was NOTHING TO DO on that stretch of road other than sleep and cry and wish you had a bathroom!!!

So those were the games we played on the way down....we had more on the way back! Stay tuned!