How to Caravan on a Road Trip

Maybe it’s a real road trip (The Grand Canyon!) or maybe it’s a trip to Aunt Myrtle’s house in Buttonwillow for her birthday. You have at least two cars: how to go about keeping everyone on the same page, er, road. Here are some thoughts…

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. The obvious: plan ahead and hand out directions to the destination in case you get separated. Everyone should have a road map.
2. Plan stops ahead of time. You know that you need to stop for gas in Louisville because you can’t make it all the way to Indianapolis from Nashville. You know one of your passengers can last only two hours between bathroom stops. So discuss all of this ahead of time.
3. Carry cell phones—preferably ones that are charged. Walkie talkies work, too (make sure you’re on the same channel).
4. Call if you lose the person in front of you, call if you have to make an unplanned pit stop. Don’t pull a, “Oh, we’ll be in the restroom only five minutes, we’ll catch up.” The minute you do, the car in front will inevitably pull over somewhere else, you’ll get back on the road and suddenly you’re in front of them on the highway—unknown to them!
5. This is crucial: Decide if you’re really going to hang together car-wise on the road or if you’re simply going to meet at a rest stop or the destination. Nothing incites a riot like a car that drives like a bat out of hell and leaves the followers in the dust crying, “You lost us as soon as you got on I-65!”
6. If you’re hanging together on the road, have the cars that are following turn on their lights. Then the leader can keep an eye on them in the rear view mirror.
7. If the leader needs to change lanes, he or she can turn on their turn signal—but not change lanes right away. Have the followers change lanes first—thus creating a space in front of them for the leader to move into.
8. If you’re hanging together on city streets and the leader makes it through a light and the followers don’t, protocol says the leader pulls over to the side of the street and waits.
9. If you organized a trip and know that the roads might be deeply rutted, get as much information ahead of time as possible. You and your 4-wheelin’ big truck might make it through the creek-bed type road, your friends in their sedans might not. A flat tire—or worse, a broken axel—is bad news. And towing charges in the wilderness are not pretty.

Tips & Warnings

• Bring snacks so you don't have to stop for food every hour.
• Fill up the gas tank the night before the road trip rather than forcing the caravan to wait on you as you hunt for the cheapest gas on the way out of town.