From “Are we there yet?” to “Where’s the next Starbucks?”
My memories of road trips aren’t complete, though to be fair, that’s true for most things that happened before last Tuesday.
One of the earliest I do remember was sometime around seventh or eighth grade. My mom and I were driving to Chicago (the reason remains a mystery). This was long before cell phones or satellite radio. Even the AM stations would fade out every hundred miles, leaving us to invent games like “how many different state license plates can we spot?” Back then, plates were easy to read—before bumper guards and tinted covers became a thing.
When it came time to stop, we looked for a small roadside motel flashing a VACANCY sign. (This was even before Motel 6 made it trendy.) The most vivid moment of that trip? A thunderstorm outside Chicago so intense we had to pull over because my mom couldn’t see the road.
Through the years, the formula stayed the same: improvise the route, stretch the fuel tank, hope the food was edible, and keep the kids from strangling each other. A trip from Portland to Tustin meant an 11-hour haul with a pit stop in Modesto at my aunt’s. That kind of marathon drive was just how it worked.
Later, in college, I attempted dating someone in Corvallis while I was in Palo Alto. Eight round trips in eleven weeks—10 hours each way. That relationship didn’t last, but the road-worn memories sure did.
I still have fond memories of trips with our daughter when we would have contests to see who could spot the most “Herbies” first. Some may recall Herbie was the “Love Bug” with special powers and there were quite a few VW Bugs on the roads those days. I usually lost.
Fast forward to Reno years later, and the trips were different. We’d travel back to San Jose or head to Scottsdale for Spring Training. My wife—ever the travel agent—would chart every Starbucks along the way and pre-book motels so we wouldn’t exceed the now-standard 8-to-10-hour driving limit. If I missed a turn, she’d know… and so would I.
Then: Drive Till You Drop
In the good old days, a road trip meant piling the family into the station wagon, rolling down the windows (manually, thank you), blasting one of the three fuzzy AM radio stations you could pick up, and seeing how far you could go before someone needed a bathroom—or a tire blew out.
Lodging? You stopped when everyone was cranky, hungry, or unconscious. Sometimes you scored a decent motel. Sometimes you slept in the car with a blanket or sleeping bags if you were really prepared. Either way, the objective was to get to your destination in the least time possible.
Meals were greasy. Lodging was iffy. The seatbelts were optional or non-existent, and so was comfort. But hey, we were young. And invincible. Or at least that’s how it felt.
If the trip itself was the purpose, then stopping at interesting places was more essential and eating and sleeping were what you could get.
Now: The Carefully Calibrated Cruise
Today’s road trips, especially for those of us in the 60+ or 70+ or even the 80+ club, are planned with the precision of a lunar landing. We’re not winging it anymore—we’re GPS’ing it, app-checking, and Yelp-scanning.
Instead of “Let’s drive until we’re tired,” it’s “Let’s find a nice hotel with good reviews, senior discounts, and a continental breakfast that includes waffels.”
Stops every 2–3 hours are the norm now, not the exception. That gives us time to stretch, use the facilities, hydrate, and check in with our phones—or our backs. Booking ahead? Mandatory. No more “blink-and-you-miss-it” motels.
The Rest Stop Renaissance
Back then, rest stops were glorified outhouses with a Coke machine. Today? They’ve leveled up. Seniors like us now expect—and find:
- Clean, rated-by-app restrooms
- Shade-covered picnic areas
- Decent snack options
- Dog-walking trails and mobility-friendly walkways
We have favorite states because of their rest stops. (Looking at you, Utah.)
Food with a Label—and a Purpose
Gas station burritos have lost their charm. These days, we scout restaurants that won’t wreck our digestion or our blood pressure. We’re looking for low-sodium, gluten-free, low-acid options with plenty of Google stars.
We also pack smarter: coolers filled with grapes, almonds, cheese sticks, and low-acid iced teas. That bag of chips from the 80s? It’s been replaced by fiber crackers and digestive enzymes.
Fewer People, More Peace
One of the biggest changes? We’re no longer ferrying a carload of kids. Road trips now are mostly couples—or solos—seeking quiet escapes. The back seat, once a war zone of elbows and sticky fingers, is now home to neatly folded luggage and that memory foam neck pillow we don’t leave home without.
Technology as Copilot
Maps used to cover the windshield when you unfolded them. Now our phones or even our cars tell us where to go, how long it’ll take, and where the best pie is along the route.
With apps, we can:
- Check traffic and weather
- Book hotels mid-drive
- Find clean bathrooms nearby
- Even get warned about construction zones before we’re in bumper-to-bumper regret
It’s peace of mind in the palm of our hand. And it means fewer “oops” moments at exits we can’t get back to.
Same Spirit. Smarter Route.
The road trip spirit is still alive. It’s just matured—like us. We’re still explorers at heart. We still take the scenic route. But now we plan a little more, pause a little longer, and enjoy the ride with a bit more padding—on the seats and in the snacks.
So here’s to the modern road trip: a journey of comfort, convenience, and hopefully we will experience somethings we have not run into before.
