Ten (and a half) tips for road trips

6. Tend to division of labor
Some people are good at navigating; others couldn't read a map if they tried. Some people are good at planning meals, while others think a big bag of chips counts as a good dinner. Know who does what well, and what really matters to your traveling companions, and you will get things done efficiently and to the satisfaction of all. Divvy up and delegate jobs by talent and predilection.

7. Join a roadside rescue service
If you take enough road trips, eventually you will end up stranded on the side of the road outside East Gibbip a few miles from Podunk, equidistant from the four corners of Nowhere. Having that 800-number that immediately ties you in to approved local tow services and mechanics is going to save you a lot of hassle, and also shield you from some of the dangers of the road that none of us wishes to encounter.

8. Supplement your cell phone with a phone card
On a recent trip that took us to the far reaches of the Olympic Peninsula, we had a plan to connect by cell phone with friends from one of the many small towns dotted along Route 112. A friend who lived along the route said he had an intermittent but functional cell signal, and thought our plan should work fine.

Save for one problem; he had a different cell service than we did. Our service worked great near our hometown; his was pretty much the only one that worked well on the Peninsula.

Long story short, the only pay phone in existence on the Peninsula ate $3 of loose change, and I ended up in a small grocery store begging to use the landline. It all worked out, but I really could have left my cell phone home that trip. Had I a reliable and easy-to-use phone card, my problems would have been solved. I know you can use your credit card for many phone calls, but it's an added step you'll be happy to avoid if you get in a jam.

9. Have your documentation and a clean record
I don't know about you, but it sometimes seems like my new insurance card takes days or weeks to get into my glove box. If you are traveling without current documentation of license, registration or insurance, you could be in for a world of hurt if you are pulled over for any reason. Further, you may want to clear up any old traffic and parking tickets before you go; under the right (or perhaps wrong, in this case) circumstances, your car can be impounded for your scofflaw sins.

10. Know when to hold 'em, and when to fold 'em
Sorry for the hokey country song phrase, but sometimes on the road you need to play the hand you are dealt, for better or worse. This advice might apply to road trip decisions both small and large. On an eight-week, 15,000-mile circle of the border states of the United States in 1991, we were driving up Route 1 near Big Sur with a mind to staying with friends in Santa Cruz. We pulled over to stretch our legs near a restaurant/hotel, fully intending to get back behind the wheel in short order to continue grinding northward. It took only two or three deep breaths for us to decide we were going no further that day. It ended up being one of the best long afternoons of the trip.

However, later on the same trip, we woke up in a state park in Wisconsin with about a week to go with a plan to linger in Chicago and Detroit, cut across Canada to Buffalo, come down through the Finger Lakes region, and generally finish off our trip at a leisurely pace. As we headed for a gas station to fill up for the day, we turned on the radio to listen to the news from the previous evening that the United States had invaded Iraq to repel their advances into Kuwait. When we arrived at the gas station, we found that gas prices had spiked about 25 percent, and the proprietor told us to expect more increases in the next few days. We quickly made the decision to make a stop in Chicago — we couldn't blow off one of the country's greatest cities — and then to bolt eastward to get ourselves home. It turned out that the sight of our front door and our own bed was more welcome than we had anticipated; we weren't home early, but rather right on time.

Here's wishing that your road tripping finds you on time and in the right place, even when you least expect it.

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