Something
has been bugging me this past week.
Writers
are supposed to write realistic and plausible stuff, but sometimes it can be
really difficult to do unless they’ve actually experienced it. Particularly
road trips.
I
recently went on a road trip. One I carefully planned for, studying all
possible routes. And google maps was very helpful, giving me not only the
distance, but a time estimate.
This
trip was in four parts, each leg approximately seven to eight hours long. We
planned our departure times accordingly.
Now
if any of you understand what is entailed in driving anywhere long distance,
you know you can’t just drive straight from point A to point B. You are going
to have to stop once in a while or you could run into other obstacles. That
estimated travel time doesn’t take into account any of that.
Not
a problem. You can plan for that. Add thirty minutes for every two hours on the
road. So guess that an eight hour drive should take about ten hours. Then plan
to keep stops as short as possible. Always stop at traveler’s stops. (Food, gas
and bathrooms.)
So
you hit the road. But somehow it still takes longer than you thought it would.
Road
construction, heavy and slow traffic, two lane hi-ways and some lower posted
speed limits. And with all the delays, you have to stop more.
I
was dreading the second leg (and by extension third) of our trip because our
information said we’d have to drive through numerous construction zones, so
lots of delays.
The
reality? Both trips on that part of our journey took approximately seven to
eight hours, with stops, traffic and construction zones. Not so bad.
Before
we left I figured the easy part of our trip would be the first (and by extension
last) leg of our journey. Only about eight hours, a fairly straight shot and
little or no flags for construction zones.
The
reality? Both times it took us twelve to thirteen hours, by far the longest
most tedious stretch, and the return trip included about an hour on the hi-way
moving maybe three miles per hour, if at all.
When
I got home I realized writing stories with road trips in them just couldn’t
come close to describing the reality of it unless a person actually tried it.
Plus
when you’re writing there is supposed to be road blocks.
From
here to Salt Lake City is about a six hour drive, it’s another, maybe three to
where my sister lives. So about nine hours. A popular college is another hour’s
drive beyond there. Do you think anybody could do a ten hour drive in just ten
hours?
I’d
be willing to bet it would be impossible, especially with a carful of kids.
And
from what I heard, that hour drive between where my sister lives and that
college town turned into something between three to five hours because of the
eclipse traffic this past week. (College town was a point of totality.)
So
knowing the distance from point A to point B and an estimate of how long it
should take to travel that far doesn’t tell you how long it will take.
Now
that I think about it, writing about a road trip should give you plenty of ways
to throw in some obstacles for your leading characters to deal with.
Right
now I can’t think of any stories I’ve read that included tales of being on the
road, unless you count epic journey stories such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s books or “Eragon”.
Can any
of you name some that might be worth reading?
Smile.
Make the day a brighter day.
