Road Trip Essentials {Summer List 2014}

Happy Tuesday! The first Tuesday of my summer break and I am loving enjoying everything this summer has to offer.

One of the things on my summer list is to take a road trip.

As much as I'd love to be spontaneous and just take off whenever I want, we all know that that is just not going to work for me! I'm a planner and a list maker and a pack-everything-we-could-possibly-need-for-a-road-trip-er.

So our road trip has a list of essentials that I just cannot forget to bring along.

cons + a cardigan | Cons are my most comfortable shoes, I wouldn't go away without them! And I'm never without a cardigan - especially in the car! AJ and I totally disagree on how cold the car should be. And I'm always always cold, no matter where we are, so the cardigan goes a long way to stop the air conditioner wars!

snacks | Some healthy snacks, like an apple + granola bars. Some not healthy snacks, like kettle cooked chips. Its all about moderation, right?

sunglasses | Do I really need to say more?

phone | Its a GPS, a camera and holds our road trip playlist. Without this, we are lost, have zero pictures to scrap and can't find anything on the radio. This should probably be number one!

documenting supplies | I always have some Project Life cards with me, along with a few of my favorite journaling pens. But for a road trip, I throw in some stamps, so I can mail postcards from the road.

hair clips + bobby pins | Nothing is worse than trying to drive with your hair in your face. And I am not above stopping at the nearest CVS to buy a clip if I need one (probably why my hair clip collection is so large!), so I'll just save us a stop and pack them.

glasses + contacts + contact solution | I learned this trick during a 6 hour delay at LGA. My contacts were driving me crazy, and I had my glasses, but no case or solution. So now I carry my emergency eye kit anytime we travel. Sometimes you just have to take out your contacts!

an awesome road trip partner | Especially one who take pictures while I'm driving, pumps all the gas and stops whenever I ask. Now if we can just work on the air conditioner issue...

a car | If you've got a car, you're going to want to make sure its ready for the trip. Before our road trip, our car is going in for a check up, an oil change, a tire rotation and to get washed and vacuumed. (Can you tell that I married an engineer?) Of course, if you don't have a car, you probably want to get one of them!

Now, you can always go out and buy one. But buying a car for one road trip might be a little extreme for you.

Fortunately, you can rent one from RelayRides, a peer-to-peer car rental agency. In a nutshell, people who have cars, but don't need them that day/week/whatever can list their cars and rent them to people who need cars.

And, its worry free for the owners and the renters. Owners can rest happy knowing that their car is protected by RelayRide's liability insurance policy, renters are screened before they are allowed to rent, and the owner has control over who they rent to. Renters can travel with confidence knowing they are backed by 24 hour roadside assistance and customer support and they can choose from three different insurance packages that fit their needs for physical damage and liability protection.

I love the idea of people sharing their resources to make travel happen!

Speaking of sharing our resources - what are your road trip essentials? Is there anything I forgot?

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Disclaimer: I was asked to participate in RelayRides Road Trip Essentials Campaign. I was not compensated by nor did I receive any products from RelayRides for this post. All the opinions expressed here are my own.