Packing the Essential Entertainment for a Road Trip or Monster Vacation.

First, you get all the boring stuff in the car, bags full of clothes and toiletries.  You hide them back in the dark trunk with all the other unfun stuff, the spare tire and the jack. Then, it is time for the important stuff.  The stuff you will keep in a bag up front with you.  The stuff that makes you happy.  The fun stuff that makes the time fly by.  If you are having trouble filling up that bag o’ fun with some good entertainment, I have put together a little guide of road-related content.  A list of books, music and movies that will add to the lore of the road and maybe inspire you to create your own stories.      

The Books

There are really too many great books that deal with traveling.  So due to time and space, I could only list the essentials or in other words, five of my favorites.

1. “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream” by Hunter S. Thompson – Thompson in a Cadillac from L.A. to Las Vegas and up and down the strip, looking for the American dream, an American Classic.
2. “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac – A time capsule of what the sixties meant to personal freedom.
3. “Road Fever” by Tim Cahill – This one has a breakneck pace and can only be described as Travel/Adventure.
4. “Survivor” by Chuck Palahniuk – As strange as it gets, from traveling in a car to a limo to a moving house to a doomed airplane – a great trip.
5. “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss – A kids classic, that parents can learn from too.  

The Music

Whether you are still on CD’s or have moved on to MP3’s and IPOD’s.  These are must have songs for any road trip.

1. “Truckin” by The Grateful Dead – A great ode to America through the windshield on an interstate.
2. “Tangled Up and Blue” by Bob Dylan – It is not on a journey on the road, it is an existential journey of who we are.
3. “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin – The title says it all.
4. The Weight” by The Band – Not so much for the traveling content but more because it is a great song to sing along to in the car.
5. “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson – Okay it is cheesy but just roll with it.

Bonus Track – “Take the Long Way Home” by Supertramp – Pop this one in on the way back.

 The Movies

What traveler does not have a portable DVD player for the road?  I have mixed in some kids movies because nothing calms the kids in the backseat faster than a good flick and the hum of your wheels on the asphalt.  Again, we come to the problem of so many great road movies so let’s just go with some double features.

1. “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Easy Rider” – Relive the gangster days or see America on the back of a hog in the sixties.
2. “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Fandango” – One is a dysfunctional family on the road, and the other are some dysfunctional friends on the road.
3. “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Cannonball Run” – What says road movie more than Burt Reynolds’ mustache.
4. “True Romance” and “Away We Go” – One is a misfit couple just trying to stay alive while being chased by killer drug dealers, the other is a young couple just trying to find their place in the world before they bring a life into it.
5. “Cars” and “Finding Nemo” – Two Pixar movies full of journeys and self evaluation.
6. “Ice Age 1 and 2” – They are moving the whole time in both movies and they are both great.
7. “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” -  Watch it twice if you want a double feature because it is that good and “Big Top Pee Wee” is that bad.
8. “Before Sunrise” and “After Sunset” – Two films that show the arc of two people and how significant chance encounters can be while traveling.

There you go!  That should get you started.  So get your motor running by picking up these vacation essentials and I’ll see you on the road.

 Written by Derrick Bracey