Picture by -Snugg-, Flickr

As well as reading BSB I love Rookie. And their roadtrip.. looks so amazing. But I also feel really terrible about it because we can’t do roadtrips here! And I can’t drive (neither can my friends) –  I just feel really sad that they make it look so fun when I can never do that too? How can I feel better? I know that’s really selfish!

Well, Cadet. I hold Rookie in a similarly high regard – how can one not – and I have also felt the abortive pull of the American-style classic roadtrip here in the UK. But – you can’t have everything you want *, and if you could you’d never have to grow at all. You can’t roadtrip. What can you do?

You can embrace everything about yourself that the roadtrip of your dreams would encourage. You can trip your town – and I mean this like “shop your closet (wardrobe)” not “get high down a back alley” – and you can blow out the cobwebs of social stagnation with a fresh blast of why-the-heck-not. If you can’t travel, be the ultimate form of your trapped self. In short, take responsibility for your own fun.

I am going to make you a list, and you are going to tick off each point of it. Submit your prove-it photos to the tumblr!

• Read a book you’re shy about reading, in a public area
• Drop in and visit people
• Strike up conversations with the people who are selling (or lending, in a library) you things. Ask questions you actually want to ask. Think of more questions you might want to ask. Ask those too
• Dress up, subtly or not subtly, as a Great American Road Author. Go out; take notes.
• Take public transport to a different town; before you go look up ONE place to eat and how to get there. Devote three hours ground time to your visit.
• Buy a drink somewhere you’re nervous to buy a drink. Do it alone – sit alone, and drink alone. Feel how you feel.
• Stop a stranger and ask them something, but nothing cruel. If you’re shy tell them it’s for “ a project”.
• Wave at the drivers of vintage and novelty cars
• Read
• Read in place you haven’t read before
• Read everywhere.
• Smile at babies. Double points if the baby was about to cry, and then doesn’t
• Start at the edge of your village/town/city; move through and document it like you’re a stranger
• Buy a multipack of boxes of juice, the kinds with straws. Take one on every outing you make – drink it like it’s your trademark.
• Spit off a bridge over troubled water
• Find a themed diner! Pool your cash, go there for breakfast and lunch.
• Learn which berries are OK to eat; eat them when you see them.
• Swap out your usual method of music-listening for radio. Listen for the entire day.
• Puddle/stream/pond/lake/river/sea — Paddle
• Paint your toenails & take pictures of them in the wild
• Make a burger, entirely from scratch (you may buy the buns BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO): eat it with your hands
• Buy a comic. Read it to your friends, out loud, preferably in public. Do the actions.
• Wink at people who catch your eye and keep a tally of your winks
• Camp near a town with friends & walk everywhere
• Take an umbrella to the park – stay AS LONG AS YOU CAN. Don’t forget sunscreen, and stuff to do.
• Look up Brownie badges, and complete them. No cheating; if you earned them as a Brownie it doesn’t count.
• Scour charity shops for a picnic-y basket
• Fill it
• Picnic.

Photo: mine. THEMS MY TOES

But you don’t have to do what I say! See you in July..

Clairefix.

*”what” including “when”