University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, March 26, 1991
Features
9
Road warriors: Students break monotony with spontaneous trips
By Lara Gold Kansas staff writer
The intoxicating smell of adventure inspires them to pack up the car and leave.
Kansan staff writer
For most people who love to take road trips, spontaneity, little money, an overpacked car and good friends are the keys to success.
Jason Leoen, Northbrook, Ill., sophomore, made some peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches and headed for Charlotte, N.C. to see KU play in the NCAA Southeast Kansas University's basketball tournament.
"It was pretty spontaneous," he said. "We got free tickets." Lobb and two of his friends left Wednesday morning and drove for 16 hours.
"I didn't take any money," Loeb said. "I broke in my new Discover card and ate Amoco Food Shop meals."
Loeb has taken road trips to other KU basketball games in the last three years.
However, this road trip was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
"We just went crazy and berserk during the game," he said. "I am a tremendous, tremendous sports fan."
Loeb said the road trip to Charlotte was an extended spring break.
Spring break road-trip mania will continue for Lobeb if he goes to Indianapolis for the Final Four, which he plans to do if he gets tickets.
Some road-trip enthusiasts didn't go to the game. Instead, they went to hear and see more than 400 live hands.
Ramon García, a KU graduate from LeoTi, drove with three of his friends to Austin, Texas, this fall. The trip is South by Southwest Music Festival.
Last spring break, Garcia and his friends drove 360 miles out of their way while going to Florida, because they didn't have a map.
"The drive down was pretty uneventful," he said.
But, Garcia said, half the fun and one of his road-trip rules is never take a man.
"We didn't use a map this time," he said. "But we didn't get lost."
Garcia's rules for road-tripping:
- Always pack the car to capacity.
- Take barely enough money to survive on.
- Always make sure you know someone where you end up so you can sleep on their floor.
Never use a map, because it's
- Find a convenient, all you-can eat place and make the people sorry you stoned there.
"The best thing about this road trip was first, getting out of Lawrence and second, the music we got to bear," Garcia said.
He said that more than 7,000 people attended the festival and that more than 400 bands played.
"It's been a hell of a weekend," he said. "It's fun to hit the road with a duffel bag and just enough money to live on."
Greene has road-tripped to Elvis' house, Graceland, in Memphis, Tenn.; to Mar迪 Gras in New Orleans; Boulder and Aspen, Colo.; Dallas, Madison, Wis.; and St. Louis.
Ben Greene, Wilmette, III., junior,
agreed.
"Mardi Gras was the most fun," Greene said.
Dean Harris, Northfield, Ill., junior, said he and Greene had a blast when road triped to Boulder on the spur of the moment
"We were both sitting around bored and decided to take off," he said.
It was a Friday afternoon and nothing was going on in Lawrence. Greene and Harris decided that skiing was in their future.
More road-trip memories for KU students are likely en route.
"Colorado is definitely the hot spot," Harris said. "You just shoot down I-70 all the way."
"Going to the Final Four in Indianapolis would be the ultimate road trip." "Harris said. "It would be better than skiing in Vail with 50 inches of fresh powder."
All the road-trippers agreed that hanging out with friends makes a road trip worthwhile.
Greene and Harris said they were trying to get tickets to the NCAA Final Four in Indianapolis to see the KU basketball team in action.
Top ten things to bring on a road trip:
10. Late night driving tunes to keep you awake. Good ones to try are the Red Hot Chill Peppers, Living Colour and Concrete Blonde.
9. A copy of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" and Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."
8. A cooler with tons of beer. Food is optional. If you do bring food, nothing healthy.
7. Sunflower seeds. Food that makes you work and stay awake.
6. Atomic Fireball jawbreakers. They keep you awake because the roof of your mouth starts to peel off.
5. A camera for taking embarrassed blackmail photos of your roadtipping friends.
4. A sleeping bag so you can crash on someone's floor.
3. A brick to put on the gas pedal in case you don't have cruise control
2. Sunglasses because road-trippers are always cool.
1. Credit cards. You never know what you can buy at a gas station.
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