Hitting the road this Labor Day? Steer clear of road-trip hell by checking out these 20 common holiday driving blunders and get it right this year!

It all sounds very nice in theory doesn’t it? Hop into the car, speed off onto the open road with the wind in your hair for a fun-filled Labor Day road trip.

Unfortunately it doesn’t always work out like this, I’ve certainly had some road trip shockers that’s for sure.

But this is the year to turn it all around! Check out these 20 sure-fire ways to screw up your Labor Day road trip and get it right this time!

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1. Neglect Your Vehicle

It seems pretty obvious that you should give your car a maintenance check before you set off on a long road trip but you’d be amazed how many people don’t think of this.

Oil, water, wipers, headlamps, brakes – check it all out!

2. Drive Dirty

It’s not the nicest experience being stuck in a filthy car for 7 hours so why not give it a clean – inside and out? If not now, when?!

3. Be Spontaneous

Road trips and spontaneity are not the most comfortable of bedfellows.

Plan, plan and plan some more.

Get tips and recommendations from friends and use an road trip planner online to work out ideal destinations, distances and driving times.

4. Believe “Breakdowns Don’t Happen to Me”

Let’s hope you don’t break down but you just might.

Pay up for roadside rescue, if the unspeakable happens, you’ll be overjoyed you did.

5. Leave Your Papers at Home

License, registration, insurance – put the documents in your glove box. Now!

6. Jump in the Car with Anyone

You receive a last-minute offer to bunk in on someone else’s road trip, great!

But you need to STOP and THINK: “will I enjoy being stuck in a tin can with these people for many, many hours”?

If the answer’s no then DON”T GO!

7. Join the “Follow the Signs” School of Thought

Believe it or not the road people didn’t have you in mind when they made their signs.

Get a map.

Plan your route.

Sure, you can use GPS but take the map too. Just in case.

8. Starve Your Family/Friends

Food and drink is important. Gas station food sucks. Bring your own.

9. Put Style over Comfort

It’s not a fashion parade. You’re sitting in a car. For hours. Dress comfortably. Slip-off shoes are great for all those “in the car, out the car” stop-offs.

10. Forget that Children Get Bored

Don’t expect the kids to sit like angels in the back for hours on end. It’s just not going to happen.

Games, puzzles, crosswords, car games. Have some ammunition in your armory – you’ll need it.

11. Sentence Your Passengers to Silence

Singing along to your all-time favorite songs is one the very best things about road trips.

Sort out the tunes before you go and get ready to belt it out!

12. Be the Hare not the Tortoise

Your road trip is meant to be fun and enjoyable. And, at the risk of sounding like your mother, it’s a marathon not a sprint!

You’ll lose time along the way (possibly even hours) but don’t sweat it. It’s not worth it.

Break up with your trip with stop-offs every hour and half.

Your passengers will love you for it.

13. Assign Rigid Roles

The driver will get bored of driving and the navigator will get bored of navigating.

So swop.

Much more fun for everyone.

14. Become a Road Trip Dictator

Consult your fellow road trippers about diversions and activities otherwise your bossiness will spoil everyone’s fun.

Get the kids involved in tracking your route. It will keep them occupied. Maybe.

15. Be Slap-dash with Gas

Don’t wait until you’re running on empty until you think about filling up. You can never be sure when the next gas station will appear.

Cool widgets like this Gas Calculator helps you work out exactly how far your fuel will take you. So there’s no excuse!

16. Be Stingy with Bathroom Breaks

If someone really wants to go then let them.

Refer to Hare and the Tortoise and Road Trip Dictator points above!

17. Work Yourself up into a “Lost Frenzy”

Yes getting lost can be stressful and sometimes scary but panicking/shouting/blaming your significant other isn’t going to help the situation.

Breathe, relax, get some perspective and I guarantee you’ll find your way. Eventually.

18. Be a Traffic Fool

Tailback misery, it’s not fun. Set off early, come back late. Even better, take an extra day either side of the holiday weekend.

19. Get Arrested

A sure-fire way to screw up your trip if ever there was one.

Don’t speed, belt up and don’t get arrested.

20. Take the Whole Thing too Seriously

Let me remind you again that this whole thing is meant to be FUN. If you happen to pass a cool place to stop off, take a detour and if it works out that way (shock, horror) change your route.

What’s the worst that could happen?

Got more road trip tips or Labor Day disaster stories?? Post up your comments below, we want to hear from you!

Coming soon… How to Beat the Post-Vacation Blues. Don’t miss out, sign up for free blog updates below.

I recently took a two week trip to Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

No trip to Jordan is complete, of course, without a stop at Petra. One of the most interesting and beautiful sites in a region that is absolutely overflowing with historical sites, Petra is also one of the most picturesque. Shutterbug that I am, I got up extra early to head to Petra before the crowds did. I was in luck– the place was nearly empty and the lighting was beautiful.

And I had an “on” day with the camera– it seemed like I could do no wrong, each shot was coming out perfect. I was surprised with myself, but thankful as well, and I said a silent prayer of gratitude to the Camera Gods.

When I arrived in Beirut and started click-click-clicking away again, my memory card hit its capacity. I went into a copy place that, amongst other services, burns photos to CD. I surrendered my full memory card to them, went to breakfast with a friend, and returned an hour or so later.

“We couldn’t put all your pictures on one CD,” the guy behind the counter said, “so we burned it to DVD instead.” He handed me the full DVD and the empty memory card. No problem, right?

Apparently, there was. When I got home, I found a DVD full of blank files– the sizes were there, the names were there, but the pictures were empty. I passed the DVD to several friends– you know, tech types– and they all scratched their heads and said they’d never seen anything like it. One of them asked me if I’d taken more pictures on that same memory card. Indeed, I had. “Ooo, that’s too bad,” he said. “If you hadn’t, there is a way to recover deleted photos.”

Sigh.

As I have been mourning the loss of my pictures– and the memories they captured– I have vowed to never let this happen again. Learn from my lesson and:

1) Carry extra memory cards with you. They’re small, they’re portable. They’re relatively inexpensive. Yes, burning to CD is cheaper, but it’s better to spend a little extra on backup memory cards then to take a chance that what happened to me will happen to you.

2) Find an internet cafe and burn them to CD yourself– cutting out the middleman reduces the margin of error.

3) If you have someone burn them for you, ask to check the CD (or DVD) before you leave. Chances are, they still have your photos on their computer… and if you check the CD and find there is something wrong, you can ask them to burn it again.

4) The best bet? Don’t delete your photos from your memory cards until you get home and see them safe and sound on your computer. Fill memory card after memory card while you’re traveling AND burn to CD as a backup (double-checking the CD after you do so). This way, if anything happens to the memory card, you’re set– and if anything happens to the CD, you’re still set.

However, if both the memory card and CD fails… well, you must have offended the Camera Gods. In which case, you must appease them (and I don’t have any tips for that).

This might seem like a lot of unnecessary precautions, but it’s worth it. It’s not always possible to recover deleted photos. It’s better to be extra careful… better safe than sorry.