Episode 127: On the Road Again...CWG talks all about road trips

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Ian:  Hey everyone, you are listening to “Coffee with Gringos.” I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige: And I'm Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And today, Paige and I are going to be discussing a very important and significant cultural aspect of the United States which is the classic road trip. Road tripping is one of those really amazing experiences that you can have with friends, with family, and essentially, it's when you get in a car, you get on the road, and you make a long trip, wherever it might be. You might have a destination in mind, or you might just be driving around to explore things but you can guarantee that there are always some hiccups along the way, some really exciting parts along the way, and really make for unforgettable experiences. So, Paige and I decided that today would be a great time to tell our listeners all about that and describe some of our own stories of road tripping. So, again listeners, as always, if you get lost, go online and check out that audio guide and transcript at www.dynamicenglish.cl. Okay, so Paige—the classic American road trip. I get so much nostalgia and great memories just thinking about it. And you yourself, just recently had a pretty epic road trip, is that right?

Paige: I did. Yeah, I went from Boston to Silverthorne, Colorado which is about an hour or so out of Denver. It’s where the big ski mountains are. We broke it up into three days and because of the pandemic, we didn't want to fly so we drove. It would be a lot safer and so, I think that's what's been nice about the pandemic is it has brought back this road trip culture because people are afraid of flying with the health issues. So, it was really fun. I mean, the path from Boston to Colorado I will say isn't the most scenic. It's a lot of the plains states where you see a lot of wind turbines and cows and fields and it's, it's pretty flat. So, we went through Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Nebraska. I would say views-wise it wasn't amazing but when we got to Colorado and seeing the Rocky Mountains, it was breathtaking and all worth it. I think the best part about road trips like you said, the fond memories you have is just usually your life's so busy and you don't really have that much time to spend with people. But when you're in a car for twenty hours, I got to really chitchat with my friends and we just shared funny stories and had all these inside jokes after and it's just really good quality time with people, which you don't really have most days. I think it is, like you said, so different, nowadays with all we did was follow our GPS phone, where in the olden days, you would have literally an Atlas map and you'd be like, “I think it's right up here and you take Route 70 to Route 2”. And so, we literally didn't know where you were going. We just put it on the GPS and just followed the directions and we throw on some podcasts and put-on Spotify. Where in the old days, you were scrolling for radio frequency. So I think the road trip has definitely changed. What are some of your memories from road trips, Ian?

Ian: Yes, I think of really classic road trips that I used to do when I was younger. When I played competitive soccer, we would take a lot of road trips around the Midwest region, where I'm from. But what I liked about it is that I had the chance to really see parts of my own country that, otherwise, I would never see. Because if you fly in a plane, you're just looking at the sky, where you are, and then your destination where you land. I think something that's really amazing about the road trip is that you see these little corners of maybe your own state, of maybe your own country, that you would never see otherwise and you would have no other reason to go there either. But just by the fact that you're passing through, you get to see how other people live, you get to see other cultures, you get to see how people talk, how people dress. And in a country as big as the United States, that can really vary from state to state or just region to region. And so, for me, it was really eye-opening to see how people live in these areas, what they do, what the food is like, and I would never get that experience if I was just having the luxury of flying from A to B. Likewise, I also think of other really fun trips with my friends when I was in college. We would take awesome road trips out to the West like where you are right now in Colorado. We usually would take a snowboard trip every year and so it was so fun for all of us after the long semester of school to all pile into cars together and put on our music and just talk and shoot the shit and really get to know each other and bond. Because, like you mentioned, when you're in a confined space with someone else for such a long period of time and observing so many things, you're going to be talking to them, you're going to get to know them better. And so that was also something I took out of it was I really bonded with people who maybe when I was busy studying or busy with soccer or whatever it was, I didn't have the time to just get to know them—just talk to them as a person. And these kinds of opportunities really gave me that chance to really get to know them and for them to get to know me. And that's something that I won't ever forget. It’s something that I think is really special about the road trip.

Paige: Yeah, I completely agree. Actually, I was very fortunate. When I was younger, my grandparents had just retired and so they decided that they would take their grandkids, which at the time was only me and my sister, on all these road trips. We would hop in the car on summer vacations because we had three months off, and we would drive from Boston to California, we drove to Wyoming, we drove to Tennessee and all these places across the US. And we would just take our time because my grandparents were retired and me and my sister weren't in school. We would stop at the “Corn Palace”, the “Big Yarn”, the all those kinds of weird attractions that are off the highway. Seeing Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, all those spots too. And we, honestly, didn’t plan, much. If we saw something we wanted to see on the way, we would stop. We would have like a “Triple-A” book and it would be like “these are the motels in your area off the highway” that you could book a room at and we really just used that. We used maps—physical maps—and we used these books to find out where we could pull over, which is just so foreign to people nowadays. Everyone's so planned and you could do everything on your smartphone and they kind of made road tripping a little more exciting back then because it really was spontaneous and you just, I feel got there when you got there more, and you couldn't really plan as much.

Ian: Like you said, you would take the time to stop maybe at the “Museum of Hair” or the “World's Largest Ball of Yarn.” And that is another fun part of the road trip is usually you have a destination but along the way, you see these funny places or these interesting places and it's fun to stop and check them out. My friends and I, we've definitely done that on road trips on the way out to somewhere, said “Hey look, the next turn there's this weird museum. Let’s check it out. We're never going to have this opportunity again.” And so, it's just a fun way to have these memories along the way and at the same time, meet local people. So, whenever we didn't have Google at our disposal at all times, you would have to ask locals for directions, for restaurants, for hotels, and going back to what I was saying earlier, that really gave you a local connection. You could talk to the locals, “Hey, what's your favorite restaurant? What do I have to eat while I'm here? What do I have to see?” And most of the time, people were super friendly, and that was something I loved is just the treatment I would get from people who would treat us with the most respect, the most kindness and try to show you the best of what their city offers or what their town offers. Unfortunately, I think in our age of digitalization, that's something we've lost a little bit. Because, like you said, we can Google restaurants, all the best restaurants in this area, or Google hotels and you could really go an entire road trip without ever talking to a local which I think is a real shame. I think that’s some magic that we lost in the process of having a true road trip. So, I hope that people still do that. I certainly try to still do that if I'm somewhere, I'm lost or if I need a recommendation for something to eat. I'll try to ask somebody instead of just Googling it just to have that connection.

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Paige: I think a big part of the road trips is the things that go wrong. In your experience, the different cross country road trips you've had, anything that sticks out of a time that you had a struggle or something bad happened?

Ian: Yeah, absolutely. I think of a few times with my family in specific where we every year took a road trip out to Colorado from Missouri to go skiing and snowboarding. And there were years where we would be halfway through Kansas, which Kansas, in my opinion, is the most boring state in the entire US. And so, we'd be halfway through Kansas and there'd be an insane blizzard; there’d be so much snow that we couldn't go anymore for the day. So, we'd have to stay an entire day in a town in Kansas that had maybe a population of fifty or one hundred. We're talking super tiny, and that was eye-opening for weather conditions. And then there were moments where, of course, you have auto trouble. So, I remember one trip, in particular, we drove to Texas for a road trip and trying to come back, the engine or something in the car blew up or something went really wrong and we were stuck on the side of a desert road in Texas for hours and hours. I remember just hearing my dad saying every curse word in the book, and me thinking “Well, are we going to get home at any anytime soon?” as a little kid . Like we mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, there's always some sort of a surprise that comes along the way. Nothing goes perfect when it comes to road trips so you just have to be ready for anything that could come your way. What about you? Can you think of any nightmares or any little things that ever happened on a road trip?

Paige: On the recent one that I went on this month with my friends, luckily, I wasn't driving but my friend was driving and he was driving pretty fast and he got pulled over and got a hefty ticket. So that was a bummer. But other than that, this trip was pretty seamless. I definitely have had some stories, like I said, with my grandparents. We went on countless road trips, and it's actually funny, because I was very young, I was probably ten or nine when we went on these trips, and so I was really into journaling, and I would journal, the dumbest stuff. I'd be like “We reached Kansas at ten-forty-two am” and there's how described everything. It was like I've reread them as an adult and they're so boring and I'm like why did I include this? There was way too much detail in the making.

Ian: A little reporter in the making. Already forming your career.

Paige: That's right. Yeah, so I literally have a journal from every road trip that I've taken when I was a kid, which is funny. But I can't remember any off the top of my head that were too bad but definitely broken-down cars and speeding tickets and all the usual.

Ian: Good. No crazy, murderous hitchhikers picked up or no landslides covering the road in front of your car or nothing crazy like that?

Paige: No, thank God. We'll see how the drive home goes, though.

Ian: Yeah, I was going to say you have the second leg coming up at the end of the month so fingers crossed. I'm sure it'll go great, it'll be fine. But this brings me to the next question I want to ask you. So, looking forward to the future, road trips on your list: what do you have, Paige? What are some road trips you've thought about taking some time in your life?

Paige: Good question. I would say I'm a big fan of the coasts. Like I said, like the road trip I just did was about efficiency—what's the fastest highway to get from Boston to Colorado? Very boring drive, everyone who has taken it agrees. I would love to do, maybe something that goes along the coast, maybe starting in New Orleans and going to California or something like that. Maybe, anything on the coast in the US I think would be really beautiful. Like going up by California, something like that. What about you, Ian?

Ian: I really want to buy a camper van and convert it to where I can just drive it anywhere I want all over Chile, and then hopefully eventually all-over South America, and just see the continent and see the world from my van. Bring a snowboard, bring a surfboard, and just kind of go and just see everything, do it on your own time and on your own terms, and not miss all the things like we mentioned if you fly or if you take other modes of transportation. So that one's a big dream of mine that I’m really going to try to make a reality. And then another one that's a little more ambitious that I don't know I'll ever get to, but would be amazing to do, is the famous Trans-Americas road trip that actually starts up in Alaska and goes all the way down to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina—so, the very bottom of South America and Patagonia. So, you're going from basically the northernmost part of North America, and you're going all the way down by car, through Canada, through the US, through Central America, through South America, all the way to the bottom of the world. This is a really ambitious trip and it usually takes people more than a year to do this. So, it's one of these where you really have to have the time, the resources, do what you have to do to make it happen. But to me, that would be just an absolutely amazing road trip to take.

Paige: I've never even heard of it before you mentioning it but just thinking of the places you would go through it sounds like an epic, beautiful journey. And you would get to see so many different geographies and cultures and climates and everything. It would be great. One day. I mean if we can all work remotely, if that's the future, these road trips are actually possible. So, I think times are difficult but take advantage of being able to work wherever nowadays for most people and hop in your car and explore a little of your own country. I definitely recommend it.

Ian: Exactly, and I recommend to people now, even like we mentioned, even if you have a long weekend or if you have a week to take a vacation, go for it. You don't have to take off months and have these super ambitious plans. You can just throw everything in your car, grab your friends or your family and go for it. Hit the road, go see things you've never seen before and just make an experience out of it. Anything can be a road trip and you can make it as fun and as exciting as you wish, depending on how many museums you want to stop at, what local diners you want to go to. The options are endless. The world is your oyster, as we say in English. So, listeners, as we said, road trips are just a classic fun way to get out there and explore the world so whether you're in the US, you're in Europe, South America, Asia, Australia. It doesn't matter where you are. Go for it and make those memories. So, again listeners, if you get lost go online and check out that audio guide and transcript at www.dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.

Paige: We'll see you next time.

Paige: “Coffee with Gringos” was brought to you by Dynamic English, where you can learn English simply by using it. If you’re interested in taking classes or just want to learn more, go to our website at dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.

Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

 1.     hiccup (noun): unexpected problem.

a.     It is almost certain that one will experience a hiccup during a road trip.

2.     scenic (adjective): providing beautiful scenery of a place; beautiful.

a.     The drive was very scenic and we could see many beautiful attractions.

3.     breathtaking (adjective): so impressive or beautiful that it takes one’s breath away.

a.     The drive through the mountains was absolutely breathtaking. I couldn’t stop looking out the window.

4.     fond (adjective): nice; pleasant; close to one’s heart.

a.     I have so many fond memories of road tripping.

5.     to chitchat (verb): to casually talk or have a conversation.  

a.     I like to chitchat with my friends on long drives.

6.     inside joke (noun): a joke with a context that only the people involved in the situation or development of the joke can understand.

a.     After spending so much time talking in the car, we had several inside jokes that we can laugh at now.

7.     eye-opening (adjective): something that unexpectedly makes us realize or understand something.

a.     Traveling by car can be an eye-opening experience to other cultures that exist.

8.     to pile into (phrasal verb): to get inside of something with a large number and in an unorganized way.

a.     They piled into the cars and started heading towards the West Coast.

9.     to shoot the shit (idiom): to chitchat; to have a casual conversation.

a.     I love to shoot the shit with my friends on long road trips.

10.  to bond (verb): to establish a relationship with someone based on shared feelings, interests, or experiences.

a.     My friends and I bonded with each other on every road trip that we took.

11.  confined (adjective): closed; restricted.

a.     Spending so much time in a confined space can make you feel crazy.

12.  retired (adjective): no longer working.

a.     My grandparents are retired and love to travel around the country in their car.

13.  Triple-A (AAA) (noun, acronym): Th American Automobile Association.

a.     We used AAA maps whenever we traveled before smartphones.

14.  spontaneous (adjective): unplanned; impulsive.

a.     We decided to jump in the car for a spontaneous road trip to the beach.

15.  to stick out (phrasal verb): to remember something specifically or be noticeable.

a.     Our road trip to Canada is a trip that really sticks out to me in my mind.

16.  blizzard (noun): a severe snowstorm with high winds and low visibility.

a.     The blizzard was so intense that we had to stop and wait for the night.

17.  curse word (noun): an inappropriate, profane, or obscene word.

a.     The driver was yelling every curse word he could think of because he was so angry.

18.  hefty (adjective): large; heavy; significant

a.     He received a hefty fine for driving too fast on the highway.

19.  bummer (noun, slang): something disappointing or annoying.

a.     It was a bummer that it rained the whole time, but we still had a great trip.

20.  seamless (adjective): smooth and without any problems.

a.     Our drive from the East Coast to the West Coast was seamless and we had no problems on the way.

21.  to journal (verb): to record and document the events that happen.

a.     She started to journal at a young age during her road trips with her family.

22.  top of my head (idiom): without having to think about something before speaking.

a.     I don’t have any road trip stories off the top of my head, but I can think of some and tell you later.

23.  hitchhiker (noun): a person who travels by getting free rides in passing vehicles.

a.     The hitchhiker was looking for someone to help take him to the city.

24.  landslide (noun): when mud, dirt, and/or rocks fall from a mountain or cliff.

a.     The road was blocked by a landslide and we couldn’t exit the valley.

25.  second leg (noun): the return trip of a road trip, usually back to the original place of the trip.

a.     We have the second leg of the trip next week, so hopefully our car will be fine.  

26.  to convert (verb): to modify or customize something.

a.     I want to convert a camper van so that I can travel all over the world in it.

27.  the world is your oyster (idiom): to have the opportunity to go anywhere or do anything that you want.

a.     You’re still young and ambitious so the world is your oyster.