What to do for hours in a car?

April 30, 2008 9:27 AM

My whole next week is basically a big long car ride (band's playin' out!). What kinda manual, car-friendly, non-electric things can I do to keep from losing my sanity? We're talkin' sitting for 5–15 hours at a time, with a few breaks (hah!) when it's my turn to drive.

I'm bringing some books, but I'm afraid I'll get sick if I read too much in the car. Sketchbooks and some pens and pencils are pretty standard.

I'd like to do something potentially useful, learn some kind of crafty skill or some such thing. Should I pick up a book on crochet or something? Perhaps something more manly? Can blacksmithing be done in a car?

Gimme some ideas! Thanks!

posted by Plug Dub In to travel & transportation (29 comments total)

Crosswords. Lots of 'em.
posted by avocet at 9:35 AM on April 30

Knitting and crochet are super-manly, but I find that I get much more sick trying to knit in the car than trying to read. Just an FYI.

Crosswords, sudoku, and other "pencil puzzles" are good because they can be done in fits and spurts. Solve a puzzle, look at the scenery, talk to someone, then do another one.
posted by muddgirl at 9:36 AM on April 30

What instrument do you play in the band? Is it small enough that you can use it to write music for the band while riding in the car? That could also be a group thing.
posted by netbros at 9:38 AM on April 30

My family always liked Where's Waldo for long trips. It can be shared by the people in the back seat and if you get one of the harder books it takes up an astounding amount of time.

Learning origami might be a good way to kill time. The supplies don't take up much space and you'll just need a hard surface (like a WW book, fer instance) and an instruction book. It takes a while to master and the results a good fun.
posted by Alison at 9:51 AM on April 30

Well, firstly, try not to sit so long in the car if you can help it. Stop, check out cool places. Stretch your legs. Take goofy pictures of your friends, etc.

Learn to juggle (in the back seat). It is harder in such a confined space, because it forces you to control your motions. The learning curve, however, may be rather annoying to your companions.

Learn to crochet. My grandmother taught me in the car between Boston, Mass. and New London, Connecticut. Not very manly I confess, but it does give you something to do with your hands. And chicks dig it ;-)

Try and do that weird trick of rolling a coin across your fingers. I still cant do it, but it looks really cool if you can pull it off. And relatedly, magic tricks or any prestidigitation.
posted by elendil71 at 9:53 AM on April 30

Audio books! Download some from iTunes or Amazon and catch up on your reading. If you can find something your carmates all want to listen to, play it over the car radio, or use some headphones.
posted by zachlipton at 9:57 AM on April 30

If the people you're traveling with are game, get books on tape. I've been taking long family car trips my entire life and have never found a better way to pass the time. Collections of essays or short fiction often work well, since you won't miss any plot if you fall asleep for an hour. Super-long epics (e.g. Lord of the Rings) can be good, too, if you're into that sort of thing. Since it seems you'll be doing multiple dozens of hours of driving, you'll probably want to get a wide variety of books so no one gets sick of listening to the same thing.

Whatever you do, don't get anything dense or boring. If you get novels, get ones with a good moving plot with a lively reader. The last thing you want is to put the driver to sleep.
posted by Commander Rachek at 9:57 AM on April 30

Read a good book or three.
posted by The World Famous at 10:02 AM on April 30

Audio books! Download some from iTunes or Amazon and catch up on your reading. If you can find something your carmates all want to listen to, play it over the car radio, or use some headphones.

Similar, but you can also catch up on some podcasts. Find a new one (or several) and listen to all the archives.
posted by Nelsormensch at 10:03 AM on April 30

Unless you have a great attention span, you'll want to mix it up. Bring along some books, some crosswords, an mp3 player, maybe buy a Nintendo DS. Whatever you do, you'll likely not want to do it for 15 straight hours.

Also, FYI, crocheting in the car makes my wife car sick.

As for constructive activities, maybe you can buy some language tapes and learn a foreign language. I'm sure you find a package that has tapes or CDs (or downloadable mp3s) accompanied by a workbook you can use to follow along.

Or, you could learn something like the Rubik's cube. Or whatever the modern-day equivalent is, I can't think of one.

I'd suggest learning to whittle, but if you hit a bump...
posted by odragul at 10:05 AM on April 30

i spy
posted by zeoslap at 10:18 AM on April 30

Seconding audio books, but I find they are much easier to follow if I speed them up using Audacity or the like.
posted by mockdeep at 10:20 AM on April 30

Satellite radio! I know this isn't a creative non-electric (solar powered satellite?) suggestion but I would not have made it the 1600 miles from CT to TX w/o. Tons of listening options from talk to sports to tunes.

Safe Travels!
posted by doorsfan at 10:30 AM on April 30

I literally bought "Sudoku for Dummies" on a recent plane trip and was surprised how much I liked it once I got the hang of it. It's brainy and challenging enough to make you feel like you're mentally working out and staving off dementia in later life, and easy enough that anyone can learn it. I feel a bit unhip about it but I'm still working on the puzzles in that book and I take it on the subway and stuff.
posted by loiseau at 10:37 AM on April 30

Definitely invest in a Nintendo DS but it would be better if your bandmates also had one. I've wasted a few hours in a car playing Mario Kart DS against my friends.

The last time I went on a 20 hour road trip I brought along Mad Libs. Those are insane amounts of fun if everyone goes along with them. Plus, it's fun putting in food types (Mexican, Chinese, Italian, etc) when you're asked for a food. It makes things....interesting.
posted by Diskeater at 10:45 AM on April 30

Botticelli.

Also, learn to weave chainmail! Well, actually, you probably don't have time to get the supplies before your trip, but next time. You'd need two jewelry-size pliers (straight or round-nose - I have one of each), and the rings, probably in a cheaper material for practice. Overview of how to get started, linkfarm you have to browse around a bit. You can make everything from jewelry to bags to full on armor with this stuff, and it's very, VERY manly - obviously.

But you know, crochet is totally a guy's thing as well.
posted by bettafish at 10:53 AM on April 30

Seconding audiobooks. You could also take that time to start learning a new language with some of the podcasts available on iTunes.
posted by ddaavviidd at 10:58 AM on April 30

I've been playing with my Korg Kaossilator on a few plane trips recently. See who can make the freshest 2 bar loop. Yours for just a little more than a DS.
posted by saukrates at 11:15 AM on April 30 [1 favorite]

Talk & listen to music. Have everyone bring a mixtape. If this is a band trip, with other band members in the vehicle with you, you will be surprised at how much ground you can cover (song ideas, band concepts, music talk, etc.) and how fast the travel will fly by.

As everyone in my groups get busier in their lives, the road time becomes extremely valuable shared band head-space. Wasting it with a crossword seems like, well, a waste.

FWIW
posted by Aquaman at 11:16 AM on April 30

Bucky Shades come with earplugs. I use something like this to get decent sleep on the road, along with popping some melatonin. Sleeping can be difficult when traveling (I drive from TX to Detroit every year, which is an 18-hour drive!).

Also, cross stitching can be fun to do/learn. You could make potholders or something with the band's name on it and sell it in the merch area!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 11:47 AM on April 30

AUDIO BOOKS!
posted by swbarrett at 11:51 AM on April 30

Seconding Aquaman's suggestion. I find that anytime the band is all in one place is an important time to discuss the band itself. You don't have to do it the whole time of course, but take advantage of the lack of distraction to tackle issues that might not normally b discussed at rehearsal or whatever.
posted by rooftop secrets at 12:25 PM on April 30

20 questions with your bandmates!

And if none of your bandmates read askmefi... you can have them try to guess "cold fusion." My friend did that to me and I think we went like 30 questions and a couple of small town before I completely gave up. :)
posted by reebear at 12:26 PM on April 30

Just to re-emphasize the actual question:

What kinda manual, car-friendly, non-electric things can I do to keep from losing my sanity?

------

Crosswords. Lots of 'em.

That's my default answer as well. However, if you haven't done many crosswords before, do keep in mind that the quality of the puzzles varies greatly. Good puzzles can be witty, clever, engaging, and addictive. Bad ones are lazy, simplistic, annoying, and result in more boredom than when you started.

My recommendations, as someone who loves crosswords, but sticks to relatively easy ones:

Look for books edited by Will Shortz. Specifically his collections of "easy" New York Times Puzzles. They may specifically say they are "Monday" and "Tuesday" puzzles, based on what day of the week they ran in the Times, Monday being easiest, Sunday being hardest. These will be in the game books section of the bookstore, not the magazine section where the crossword magazines are. The books are more expensive than the magazines, but they are worth it.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 1:21 PM on April 30

Take up smoking.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 1:32 PM on April 30

I'm another voting for the talk-to-folks tack.

I've always found beauty in the camaraderie of the road trip. And, since I hail from the Midwest US, I've seen plenty of 'em.
posted by Netzapper at 2:46 PM on April 30

Jotto! I can explain it better if those directions don't make sense and you're interested.
Following reebear's lead... have someone try to guess "audio." The four vowels make it killer. (Though now that I think about it, bandmates might find that one easier than some people.)

Sign language? You could practice fingerspelling, at least.

Educate yourself about cars. Practice recognizing silhouettes when you're still too far away to see badges.
posted by hippugeek at 8:58 PM on April 30

Learn to play jaw's harp
posted by hortense at 9:29 PM on April 30

Learn to play jaw's harp.

Right. And you'd better put a GPS locating device on it too, because it's going straight out the window in about 3 minutes.
posted by Aquaman at 9:03 AM on May 3 [1 favorite]