Most people worry about the dangers of winter driving, which is why they wait until the summer to take vacations. However, summer driving has its unique problems that you need to take into consideration. The following summer driving tips help make sure that you and your family are safe.

Summarizing Your Vehicle

Winterizing helps keep your vehicle running smoothly during the winter, but what about summerizing? This process ensures that your car won’t heat up excessively during the hottest summer months. It also helps you avoid blown tires and flats. It requires a few simple checks, including:

• Inspecting your radiator for rots or leaks
• Refilling anti-freeze
• Flushing radiator
• Checking cooling system belts and hoses for breaks and frays
• Testing brakes on warm pavement
• Removing snow tires and replacing them with summer tires
• Inflating or deflating tires to their proper PSI
• Testing tread depth to ensure it’s over 3/32-inch thick

The reason you need to check and adjust the pressure of your tires is the effect temperature changes have on their interior temperature. As it heats up, the air is liable to expand. This may cause bulges or weak spots in your tires.

However, if your summer tires have been sitting in a garage all winter, there’s also the chance that they’ve bled out a little air.

Teens And Vacationers Are On The Road

You’re not the only person excited about summer vacations: just about everyone else you know is looking forward to some time off. That includes teens with fresh new licenses and thousands, if not millions, of them will be on the road this summer.

Perhaps that’s why August almost always has the highest number of fatal car accidents. To avoid that danger, follow these guidelines:

• Be patient – teen drivers often lack that ability
• Follow driving laws to set an example
• Check your blind spots regularly
• Pull over if you are being tail-gated – it’s likely an impatient teen who may pass at a dangerous moment
• Take side roads instead of main drags – it might add time to your trip, but fewer drivers will be present

Road Construction Summertime Blues

Summer road construction is often a disheartening problem, as excessive construction can often add hours to your trips. It may also cause you to become impatient and drive too fast in construction zones. This is a risk you shouldn’t take, as many states have very strict laws to punish people breaking driving laws in construction zones.

You’re also putting the health of hard-working construction workers at risk. If you’re worried about running into construction zones on freeways, try alternative routes. Again, it might add an extra hour or two to your trip, but it can help you avoid these annoyances.

Keeping Your Air Conditioning Working

In the severe heat of the summer, air conditioning is often a lifesaver. Even driving with the windows down can leave an interior temperature of over 90 degrees, making it easy to feel dehydrated and dizzy. It may even cause you to drive erratically or pass out. When the summer starts heating up, have your air conditioning unit inspected.

What will the mechanics check? They’ll ensure that your system has Freon (the chemical that cools the air) and also make sure that the belt that attaches your system to the rest of the vehicle is in order. This belt is more crucial than you’d think, as it often helps the water pump work.

Follow these tips and your summer driving experience will be safe and exciting. Remember: even though there’s no ice on the ground, trips during the summer can be dangerous if not undertaken properly.

5 Things I’m Mad I Didn’t Do:

1) Booked Reservations

Although I planned out most of my stops, as far as which town I’d stay overnight in or what campsite I’d inhabit for the evening, I never once made a single reservation. To be honest, I was fortunate that everything still ended up working out in my favor–I never had to spend the night sleeping in my car or having to overpay for a room because everything else was booked. But, I also traveled in the beginning of June, before summer had officially begun, so the roads weren’t yet jammed-packed full of eager travelers. Still, I could’ve saved myself some needless stress by making a couple of reservations, especially when it came to spending the night someplace. If you’re planning on traveling, especially during the busy vacation months, do yourself a favor and book a reservation in advance. Doing so could both save you money and reduce stress, which is a win-win in my book!

2) Considered the Time of Year

Another thing I wish I had paid more attention to was the time of year I’d been traveling. As I stated before, I took my trip before summer officially started, so some of the stops I wanted to make weren’t yet open because of limited, seasonal access. This happened to me in Oregon when I drove out to Crater Lake, Oregon. I had originally planned on camping near the actual lake, but upon arriving I realized that area was closed for another couple weeks. Luckily, a different campground a bit further away was open, but even that had only opened two days prior. Fortune shined in my favor that time, but just barely. Next time I’ll be sure to check and see if certain locations are only open during certain months to prevent another close call.

3) Prepared in Case of Emergencies

This seems like an obvious precaution to take before a long trip, and to some degree, I did a decent job. I had my First Aid Kit and Roadside Emergency Kit readily available, and I stored plenty of food and water inside my vehicle. But there were a few things I’d later wished I would’ve prepared for before heading out on my journey.

One thing I wished I had checked on was my cell phone provider’s coverage area along the route I took. You can see the coverage area of four of our nation’s leading cell phone providers to compare. Had I checked this before, I would’ve realized that my provider had zero coverage in the three states that I was traveling in. For three whole days, I drove without cell phone coverage. Now, for some people on vacation, that might seem like the perfect situation. For me, driving in unknown areas for long stretches in the middle of nowhere just jacked up my anxiety! It would’ve been worth it to look into investing in a new provider plan for that extra peace of mind.

The best thing you can do is take the time to think through everything you plan on doing during the trip. Just like you’d bring certain things for a day trip to the beach or a night camping, prepare similarly for your vacation. It might help to think of your longer vacation as a string of shorter trips clumped together, thinking about what you’ll need for each one. That way you can be sure to plan for every day, every situation, and every adventure that you face.

4) Pack Less, Not More

Driving across the country with two adults and a full-grown Labrador Retriever didn’t leave a whole lot of room for extra stuff. I should’ve prioritized more on what was important, like clothes, camping gear, food and snacks, and water, and left behind the less important items, like a whole bag of dog toys for my dog who just slept for most of the trip. Some people are better packers than others, and I might fall into that category that could benefit from a college course in the subject, but one thing I did learn from my experience is that I didn’t need two suitcases full of clothes for an eight-day journey.

The more stuff you pack, the less room you have to spread out and relax. Less can be more in these situations. Prioritize, and pack just what you need. If you find you don’t have something that you just have to have halfway through the trip, chances are you’ll be able to stop and pick it up along the way. This also leaves room for souvenirs you’re likely to pick up as you travel.

If you’re like me and need some extra tips on how to pack judiciously, check out this handy blog.

5) Take My Time

I wasn’t in a big hurry during my trip, but after eight days of driving, I was feeling a bit burned out on traveling. I was eager to get home and planned on not getting in a car for another week after I arrived. Sadly, I ended up rushing my trip toward the end. Whereas the first few days of my journey were jam-packed and full of fun events, my last two days consisted of little more than long periods of driving with the occasional rest stop.

I can’t stress this enough: enjoy the whole trip while you can! Once I arrived at my destination, my vacation was over. I immediately regretted not taking an extra couple of days to see those last few sights I had driven past. Once you get home, it’s too late to go back and do those things, so instead of regretting your decision later, just enjoy yourself to the best of your ability while the opportunity presents itself. You’ll thank yourself later when the trip is over and you’re thinking about all that you did (instead of all the things that you didn’t do).

In Closing…

I learned a lot over this trip. I’m glad I did some things and mad that I didn’t do others. Still, it was a beneficial learning experience, one that I hope you can benefit from as well.

Summer isn’t over yet. Go out and plan a long drive. There’s a lot out there to see and do. When preparing for your trip, keep this blog in mind and learn from my mistakes. And most importantly: have fun and safe driving!

Summer isn’t over yet! You still have time to plan that vacation you’ve been waiting for! Hit the road with family or friends and travel to the corners of the country, experience new delights, and embark on an adventure of a lifetime!

This summer I had the amazing opportunity to drive across the United States of America, all the way from California to South Carolina. Naturally, I had a lot of preparation to do before embarking on my journey to ensure everything went as smoothly and stress-free as possible. While I can proudly claim that I did well in some preparations, I must also admit that there were some things that, in hindsight, I wish I had done differently.

This first post takes a look at some of the preparations I’m glad I did. The next post in this two-part series will take a look at some of the preparations I wish I’d done differently. These posts should help so that you can adjust your preparations when planning your vacation road trip.

5 Things I’m Glad I Did:

1) Planned Out the Trip

One of the most important steps before going on a long trip is figuring out where exactly you want to go. For me, I knew where I was coming from and where my final destination was, but I had a lot of area in between that I needed to figure out before hitting the road. Would I take the fastest route across the country, maybe traveling down the stretch of highway that once served as the Historic Route 66, or would I take a more scenic route, going out of the way a bit to explore some states I’d never visited before? What would I stop and see as I traveled? Where would I stay? And quite possibly the most important question of all: What unique and interesting restaurants would I eat at along the way? My questions seemed unending.

Although I’m sure I would’ve managed had I simply put in my final destination in my GPS and followed its directions the entire way, it would have made for a much duller, uneventful journey. Instead, I planned my route on a free travel website, first figuring out what states I wanted to visit along the way and then narrowing my path to touch on interesting locations, shops, restaurants, and other attractions I just had to see. Before I knew it, my general route was planned out and I had coordinated enough entertaining stops along the way to keep each day fresh and exciting, as a summer road trip should be!

2) Added Plenty of Variety

Another thing I did well (if I do say so myself) is plan a lot of variety in our stops. I didn’t want my trip to just be a string of restaurants and hotels. Don’t get me wrong, I love eating fast food burgers and sleeping in a nice, cozy bed as much as the next person, but I also enjoy variety. So one thing I was sure to do was step out of my comfort zone a bit. I invested in some affordable camping gear, researched some camping locations along my route, and spent a few nights underneath the stars. It was a lot of fun and broke the regular rhythm of driving from hotel to hotel. It was a welcome change.

I did the same for locations and attractions. One hotel I stayed at had an indoor waterslide so I could get wet and wild before hitting the road for another stretch of driving. I saw Mount Rushmore drove on Scenic Byways one day and explored the downtown areas of major metropolitan areas the next. The extra time it took to add more variety along the trip was well worth the effort, making every day as exciting and adventurous as the next.

3) Remained (Somewhat) Spontaneous

Even though I had most of my trip planned out, I still allowed enough freedom to allow for those on-a-whim detours or pit stops. After all, there’s nothing worse than driving past a neat attraction and deciding not to stop just because it’s “not on the schedule.” Unless you’re in a tight time constraint, allow yourself to be spontaneous now and again. There’s so much to see all over the country, that you’re bound to run into something new and unexpected from time to time.

Some of my best memories along my journey took place at stops I never planned on. Possibly my all-time favorite stop was at a small town in South Dakota that I’d never heard of before called Wall Drug. Driving east on Interstate 90, I saw hundreds of billboards alongside the road advertising this tourist attraction town, each sign describing a different attraction than the last. If the signs could be believed, Wall Drug had an arcade, gift shops, buffalo burgers, panning and mining stations, five-cent coffee and homemade donuts, and even an animated T-Rex! Needless to say, by the time I arrived at the Interstate exit leading toward Wall Drug, I was hooked. I pulled into town and had the time of my life.

I’m glad I took the extra time to stop and experience this hidden gem for myself. And I strongly urge you to stop and do the same if you come across an interesting roadside attraction that you hadn’t planned for. It could very well be the highlight of your entire trip!

4) Prepared a Budget

Road trips can be expensive, especially if you’re driving from one coast to the other. But the trip doesn’t have to wreck your finances. Prepare a budget before the trip, establishing how much you want to spend. Be sure to account for gas, food and snacks, attractions and pit stops, and hotels or campsites. It might seem like a lot at first, but with a little budgeting and some slight compromise, you’ll find that you can afford to see and do most of what you want.

A few things to keep in mind: Pack a cooler full of snacks and drinks and refill the cooler at every hotel. Virtually every hotel these days has a free ice dispenser. Top off before checkout to keep your snacks and drinks fresh and cool. Also, try not to go overboard on souvenir shopping. Sure, everywhere you go is going to offer one-of-a-kind T-shirts and coffee mugs that are highly overpriced, but why not stick to something more affordable and just as unique like a postcard or thimble? Or just take pictures in front of iconic locations to help memorialize the stop. That way your souvenir is one-of-a-kind, personalized for you, and free! You can’t be that!

5) Serviced my Vehicle

Possibly the greatest of all my pre-trip accomplishments was getting my vehicle serviced a couple of days before departure. I had planned my drive to be just shy of 3,500 miles. That’s a lot of roadway to cover, and the last thing I wanted was to be broken down on the side of the road because I didn’t get my car checked out properly. Fortunately for me, my routine checkup spotted a huge potential problem: my rear brake pads were so worn that they could’ve given out at any moment! The mechanic replaced the brake pads and checked over the rest of my car to make sure it would make the trip without a problem.

Having that routine service check could’ve been the deciding factor between a great trip and a disastrous one. Some important things to have checked out before a long drive are the fluid and oil levels, the brake pads, tires, window wipers, headlights, brake lights, and the battery. Also, it doesn’t hurt to let the mechanic know you’re planning a long drive; that way he knows what to look for to best ensure your vehicle continues trucking along during your drive.