| One of my favorite travel games is chess. Okay, it's | | | | considered bad form for the driver to slow down, |
| just one of my favorite games, and I have | | | | letting more cars pass, so his guess will be the |
| three-ounce set with a cloth board, so I can take it | | | | closest.One classic travel game involves the alphabet. |
| anywhere. The last time I used it was in the town | | | | Try to spot something starting with an "a", and be |
| center of a small pueblo in the Andes Mountains. The | | | | the first to call it out ("apple tree!"). Since the Qs and |
| games below are primarily car travel games, but can | | | | Xes are difficult, they can be skipped. The player |
| be adapted to other forms of travel too. Have | | | | with the most "firsts," is the winner.Using the radio, |
| fun!Educational Travel GamesSome games get you | | | | you can have a game in which everyone tries to be |
| thinking, learning something, or at least showing off | | | | the first to call out the name of the artist when a |
| what you know. Here's one for the family. Have the | | | | song starts. Then change the station, so you don't |
| driver, or another designated host, asks questions like | | | | have to wait through a whole song to continue the |
| "What temperature does water boil at?" or "What's | | | | contest. In one car radio game, each player chooses |
| the Capital of Columbia?" or "With sales tax of 7.6%, | | | | a word. The player whose word is spoken (or sung) |
| what's the total cost of a $23 sweater?" For the kids | | | | first on the radio is the winner.Here is one you can |
| to love this one, you may have to pay twenty-five | | | | play anywhere. Someone starts a story with a |
| cents for each right answer.Another car travel game | | | | sentence or two, then each person in turn adds a line |
| starts with someone looking out the window and | | | | to the story. It can get personal, but this usually |
| randomly selecting an object. Players then try to | | | | creates a story that has everyone laughing.Try one |
| imagine a creative way to make money with it. Old | | | | of these on your next trip, especially if you have a |
| barns become places to advertise, cows are rented | | | | car full of kids. They are easy, and unlike my chess |
| out for kids parties, and an house that is being | | | | game, you don't need anything but a few people to |
| moved becomes a traveling discotheque."Red Car" | | | | play these travel games.Steve Gillman hit the road at |
| Travel GamesGuess how many red cars will pass in | | | | sixteen, and traveled the U.S. and Mexico alone at 17. |
| the next ten miles or ten minutes. It can also be blue | | | | Now 40, he travels with his wife Ana, whom he met |
| cars, trucks, or whatever everyone agrees to. It's | | | | in Ecuador. |