Archives 2019

The driving force of a good car journey.

“Are we there yet?” Let’s be honest — after 5 hours in a car, is there anyone not thinking that? Whether I’m the driver or a passenger, there’s always a point when I just want to get out of the car. Add in never being able to fall asleep in a car, and I’m always thinking of new ways to make car trips more productive, entertaining, or just bearable. During my recent road trip, these were the main reasons I didn’t drive myself (completely) insane. Pun intended.

Podcasts

My favorite podcast to listen to in the car has most recently been the BBC 2 Confessions podcast. Listeners write in their confessions and the hosts read them out then decide whether to “forgive” or not. One of my favorite confessions is a woman’s story from when she was a kid: she and her sister burn everything in her mother’s closet except a ball gown to keep a bonfire going for as long as possible.

The podcast ended in December, but there are tons of past available episodes to play. I have also heard that the show will be starting up again on Scala radio and they say they’ll be starting up a podcast soon. Right now, they are only on Youtube.

If confessions aren’t your thing, there are plenty of other options for podcasts or audio books. Whether you want to learn something new, have a good laugh, catch up on current events, or get into politics there’s probably at least a dozen different podcasts to choose from. Here are a few ideas from Afar Magazine to get you started.

Music

Okay, this is a given. It’s the classic road tripping tool. Blast your favorite genre and sing along. If you use Spotify, they have some excellent already built playlists. This one was my favorite for this past road trip.

Games

If you’re driving with people, playing games is a great option. I’ve grown especially attached to a game based on license plates. Take the letters from a license plate and try to think of a phrase with those letters as the first of each word. For example, the letters STW might turn into “Snakes Take Weapons” or “Speak Truthful Wisdom”. Try to think of the wackiest phrase and everyone in the car will end up laughing.

If that game isn’t your cup of tea, you can look here for a few other game options.

Have any other ideas? Share your road trip tricks in the comments!

Without the Lipstick or Mascara

My Flying Carpet has moved! I finally shelled out the money for three years of domain hosting and committed to johannaflashman.com. A wise copywriting guru told me it’s best to have my blog connected to my professional website, so here we are — being “professional”. I’m getting “serious” with my website.

But I have a confession: making a website is way harder than I was expecting. Sure, I’ve had this WordPress blog for five years and an online portfolio for almost four years, but it’s all been very low key. I haven’t thought about search engine optimization (SEO), branding, user experience, or any of that background work. And it is a lot of work.

Let Someone Else Make Your Website

If the backend stuff isn’t something you really want to wade into, it’s probably worth the money to have someone else make it. If you do decide to choose a free WordPress theme and code your own CSS to make it something you actually like, don’t be surprised when you spend hours agonizing over details like “WHY IS EVERYTHING STILL PINK?”.

My suggestion: unless you plan to go into web design or you want a really simple website, put down some extra money and leave it be. At the very least, pay for a premade theme and customer support. I’ve found “Pro” WordPress themes advertising just $40 per year that come with a how-to guide and support system. If you have the money, a pro web designer is a bit more pricey (I got a quote for $600-800 from this guy who came recommended), but could still be worth it just to get the site up and move on with your life…

Moving Forward

Anyway! As I learn more about web development and marketing, I’m sure I’ll be updating this site. Two years from now it might be completely different. I’ll look back at this set up and cringe. But you have to start somewhere, right?

Moving forward, my posts will be on this site instead of “myflyingcarpet.wordpress.com”. My love of puns and traveling hasn’t changed though. I’ll still be here cycling through the rain and setting my tent up on picnic tables, but with any luck, my posts will actually get better. I’ll be putting in more headers, making posts more service-based, giving my past posts some extra love, and generally stepping up my game.

Monthly Newsletter

I’m also starting a monthly newsletter with updates, articles I’m loving, and more puns! If you want to sign up, click here.

In a good way

I discovered cruise control on this trip and I’m not exaggerating when I say it has done wonders for my driving. Okay, I started driving in July 2018, so I’d probably improve no matter what after doing 3 to 8 hours of driving each day for 6 days, but still.

Starting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I went up to Denver to pick up a friend who drove to Salt Lake City via Moab with me. Then I had two 6 1/2 hour solo driving days and one slightly lonely night of camping until Oakland, California.

The entire time, three thoughts kept running through my head. One, “where can I be spontaneous and find something I wasn’t looking for?” Two, “where am I sleeping tonight and can it be free?” And three, “where can I find the cheapest gas??” Well, the most spontaneous I got was going to a lunch spot in Reno and ending up with a bowl of rice, sea food, cucumber, sea weed, and mango. I’m not going to say it tasted bad, but I drank a lot of water with it and had to throw away the last bit because I was so full.

Most of the trip, I found free campsites. My friend showed me this website that shows a ton of free campsites around the country (and some in other countries too). A lot of the campsites they show are more for campers or RVs and sometimes just rest stops or parking lots, but there are plenty other gems in there like this one I found near Austin, Nevada.

We found all three campsites we used from that website and they were all A+ (toilets, flat ground, accessible, nice views).

As for cheap gas, the further west I got, the more expensive gas prices got. However, the small towns in Nevada generally had more expensive prices than somewhere like Reno. Google maps also gives a ball park idea of prices and Siri can also tell you average gas prices of different cities (for when you’re driving alone and can’t look at your phone).