Those road trips

Panic! · 08 Feb 2018, 8:38 pm

The thing about living in a shitty city with not much to explore is that you have to travel to find stuff. Not walking, not bussing, not training, road tripping. I remember when I first got into UE a guy from down Melbourne called Big-Ears said "yeah, this is what exploring is about. We spend half our time driving around trying to find s***." He was right but as I've gotten older some times it's 80% of the time finding and driving to stuff, 10% piss farting around and 10% exploring the site.

I've done some long ones. Those drives out west to catch up with Timon in little country towns. Road trips south to Melbourne. Up north to Queensland. Thirteen hour drives from Queensland down the coast to Can'tberra with just 2 stops to fill up on fuel. Starting at 6am as the sun comes up and finally bedding down as the sun goes down at 8pm over a thousand kilometres away. Overnight road trips down the coast to explore stuff and do photography. Driving all day some times. Often finding boring stuff but the occasional amazing find like The Maltings, Orange Split, The JET and Shut Up & Run! Some times I go by myself. Some times with others. Some times meet ups in the middle of nowhere are the best of fun.

I'm lucky to have a van, so I can fold the seats over, chuck in an inflatable mattress and sleep in the back. That mattress has been one of the most useful things to take on road trips. The other thing that's super useful is toilet paper and alcohol wash. Lots of highway rest stops don't have either and when you are busting for a crap you're going to be happy you have your own toilet paper. I'm also OCD about germs, a bit of a germaphobe. Oh I don't wash my hands continiously but I do wash them after using the loo. I spent some time working in a medical service and found out that washing your hands in water generally just spreads the germs. Soap will kill pretty much all germs. If you could wash your blood with it it would kill aids, hepatitis and almost any infectious disease. I've also found a porta potty, stove, 12 volt fridge and phone charger are most handy on longer road trips. A phone with Google maps has also proven to be super useful.

Then there's music. You gotta have a sound track to your road trip. I have a CD of good driving songs. Jimmy Barnes, driving man; Willie Nelson, on the road again; Jackson Browne, Running on empty; Cindy Lauper, I drove all night; Bruce Springsteen, born to run; The Cars, drive; Talking Heads, road to nowhere; Cheryl Crowe, everyday is a winding road; Roxette, joyride; Lenny Karavits, are you gonna go my way; ACDC, highway to hell; Billy Ocean, get outta my dreams get into my car; Prince, little re corvette; The Wallflowers, one headlight, John Denver, country roads, Kasey Chambers, Mr Baylis.

So yeah, what are your favorite road trips you've been on? What was the best fun you've had on one? What do you take? Do you go alone or with friends? Any tales you care to share about UE road trips?