Social Media to the Long Car Ride Rescue

While watching the Oklahoma Sooners defeat the Oklahoma State Cowboys’ football team recently, I had this crazy idea that it would be fun to travel to Dallas to watch the Big 12 Championship game. It would be the Nebraska Cornhuskers vs. the Oklahoma Sooners after all, and how could I miss the last opportunity to ever see this great college football rivalry?

Like most passing thoughts, I had completely forgotten about my idea until a few days later when I received a text from my husband Steve informing me we had scored big with fantastic tickets to the game. Unfortunately, by the time we decided to make the trip, flights to Dallas were slim to none. So we decided to drive. Great idea. There’s only one problem – I’m not a patient passenger.

Enter my DroidX. Thanks to my Smartphone I was able to find distraction from the seemingly endless number of miles traveled to and from Dallas. So, the next time you find yourself in need of a social media rescue, here is a list of my top 10 mind-occupiers — and social media survival tools — from my Dallas adventure for you to use as a guide:

1. Tweet – I owe all my followers an apology for my pregame excitement and the spike it caused in my daily tweet counts. I’m sure I overwhelmed many of them with a little too much football talk on Friday and Saturday. However, after the heartbreaking loss on Saturday night, football was the last thing I wanted to tweet about during Sunday’s trip home. Instead, I spent my time in several nonfootball conversations — mainly about cleaning products. While the constant tweeting may have cost me a few followers, I had some great conversations with others and killed nearly four hours of the trip.
2. Facebook – Most of my time here was spent lurking and waiting for any update from one of my 452 friends to add some excitement to the drive. I’m sure I hit an all-time high with my constant “liking” of others’ status updates, including the one about “Sunday Funday”! I’d estimate that I ate up about six hours on Facebook.
3. Play Angry Birds – I found myself in a constant cycle of trying to beat each level on my own, then giving up and resorting to YouTube for tips and tricks on how to beat said level. This rotation kept me busy for most of the trip. WARNING: Angry Birds is not for the weak-willed and is only suggested if you want to keep your heart-rate high and swear occasionally. Proceed with caution!
4. Sing – Again, I’d suggest you proceed with caution during this activity. I’m not sure my singing was welcomed and I was often reminded of my underappreciated efforts as I was asked, “Who sings this song?”
5. Drink coffee, water, Rock Star – While proper hydration is recommended, doubling up on caffeinated liquids and water for an excuse to stop hourly at “interesting” looking truck stops is not. Still, I killed probably one hour each way with my requests and also have a newfound appreciation for Interstate 35’s massive supply of wolf T-shirts.
6. Google the width of Oklahoma – Seriously! These long drives allow for good refresher course in geography. There might be a test later, and you’ll want to be prepared!
7. Count Nebraska license plates - Caution: this is only if you are really bored and is not recommended while driving as it can also lead to #10.
8. Play navigator against the GPS – I enjoy a good competition, but I should know better than to engage in such one-sided fights because the GPS lady usually wins.
9. Try to pronounce (out loud) the names of towns – While completely silly, it caused a few giggles – which has the added benefit of a good abs workout while sitting for extended amounts of time.
10. Sleep – I wouldn’t recommend this unless you have one of those fancy neck pillow things. Of course mine spent the entire trip to and from Dallas sitting in my garage. Good luck getting comfortable!

Tell me about your favorite road trip survival tools. Do you prefer those found in social media? Or are you more a fan of the old school methods?