National Road Trip Day

There’s nothing quite like celebrating the joy of being on the open road! Wheels on the highway, windows rolled down, map in hand and music blasting. Short or long, on your own or with a group, road trips provide the opportunity to get away and be free, even if just for a little weekend getaway.

National Road Trip Day brings awareness and attention to the fun and adventure of spending time on the road!

How to Celebrate National Road Trip Day

Have fun and enjoy National Road Trip Day with some of these ideas for making the most of the day:

Take a Nostalgic Road Trip

Pack those snacks and get ready for some family fun! While today’s world offers all sorts of comfort and convenience, perhaps this road trip can be a special one with a blast from the past. Go retro by turning off smart phones, getting rid of headphones, and engaging in some fun activities with the group. Enjoy some road trip games, sing some silly songs, and even roll down the windows and stick your feet out for a few minutes!

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to roll back time enough to pay only $.60 per gallon to fill up the gas tank! But cars are certainly more fuel efficient than they used to be, so that should help balance things out a little.

Watch a Road Trip Movie

Those who don’t have the ability to head out on a road trip in honor of National Road Trip Day might want to observe the day by accessing road-trip-style entertainment. Check out some of these movies that pay honor to the mighty American road trip:

• Vacation (1983). Chevy Chase heads up an all star cast in this classic road trip movie from National Lampoon.
• We’re the Millers (2013). What can go wrong when a drug dealer recruits a fake family to make an illegal road trip to Mexico?
• Little Miss Sunshine (2006). This drama comedy follows a family’s adventure across the country to enter their daughter into a beauty pageant.

History of National Road Trip Day

Road trips have been around since the time that vehicles were able to be driven for distances. Though they have been made easier by convenient gas stations and smoothly paved interstate highways, road trips have been an enjoyment for over a century.

In fact, the first record of a road trip happened in 1903 when Horatio Nelson Jackson took a road trip from San Francisco to New York. Of course, his traveling companions for the 63 day road trip were his mechanic and his dog!

When Route 66 opened up in the United States in the 1930s, and as the automobile industry grew over the next decades, road trips became more prevalent. With memories like packing a picnic, singing songs, playing the license plate game and riding backwards in the ‘way-back’ seat of the station wagon, road trips bring with them a certain type of nostalgia for many Americans.

National Road Trip Day started a bit more recently, though. The brain child of Pilot Flying J travel centers, this event was first celebrated in 2019.