Knowing How to Have Fun and Be Safe on Summer Road Trips

My brother and I both play travel baseball. We’ve done this since we were seven years old. While I have taken planes to a few of my tournaments, most of our travel happens on the highways up and down the east coast. Every summer, my mom, dad, brother and I would get in the car on weekends and drive hundreds of miles to tournaments to play. Sometimes we’d win; sometimes we’d lose. However, the time we spent on the road was very important to us.

What I noticed a lot about driving for a long period of time is that it would get boring for us. For my brother and me, we could pass the time taking naps, playing video games, watching movies, talking or listening to music or even just horseplaying in the back of the car. However, this isn’t the case for the person driving. They must stay focused on the road, alert and fully aware of their surroundings. Ever since I was a small child, I recognized that driving was something extremely difficult to do, especially because of the many distractions inside of and outside of the car.

With my parents in the car, I noticed they’d try to talk to each other to keep each other awake, or they’d play music to try to keep the other one attentive. I also saw sometimes that they would try to tell stories to get us all involved in a conversation. I also always remember my mother telling my dad to use his phone to navigate when he was driving. I learned this was her way of making sure he stayed focused on the road and nothing else.

The best part of road trips would be taking breaks. Most of the time we would just stop for food or a quick bathroom break. Other times, before getting back on the road, my mother would find amazing local attractions for us to waste a few minutes and get some rest. All of this made our little road trips fun and memorable, but I know it also kept whoever was driving from possibly being tempted to pick up their phones to be entertained.

There were times when my dad couldn’t go with us for road trips, which meant one of us could sit in the front. I would tell my mother to let me sit there, but she would make my brother and me take turns. When it was my brother’s chance, I had a little bit of jealousy. There was way more leg room in the front and a better view. However, the real reason I didn’t like him in the front was I noticed how much of a distraction he could be for my mother. It was very frustrating. He’d try to show my mother random videos that he thought were hilarious. Other times, he’d lean his seat all the way back to watch the movie playing on the DVD in rear of the car. Sometimes, he’d play loud music and dance so wildly his arms would flail, and he did all of this just to try to make her laugh. Regardless of how funny we thought this all was as little kids, it was not always safe for us.

When I got older, I became increasingly more aware of the danger that my brother was really subjecting us to. When I sat in the front, I’d try to keep calm and still. I would check in with my mother to make sure she wasn’t tired. My mother loves old school R&B. So, I would always connect my phone to the car and then pick all of her favorite songs to play. She’d sing along with me and my brother, and I could tell how happy she was driving to our tournaments.

Now, I drive, and I know it can be lonely, even when you have people in the car with you. It’s easy for everyone to do what makes them happy to pass the time on the roads. Passengers have a lot of choices, but the driver really doesn’t have any at all. They have one important job, and that’s to keep everyone safe by focusing on the road. It’s the most important part of any road trip, but it is also the hardest because of the distractions we have today.

It’s important for everyone in the car to make road trips and every day car rides safe for everyone. Whether you are a passenger or driver, everyone has a role to play to keep to be safe on the road. Drivers should make sure they keep their eyes on the road, stay well rested and avoid distractions inside and outside of the car, and passengers need to make sure they aren’t a distraction to drivers.