Car

First Long Road Trip

A first long road trip has four moments where the car stops being transport and becomes the problem. The night before, when you realise you have no idea what you'd do about a flat tyre or a dead battery two hundred kilometres from anywhere. Hour three, when the passenger's neck and the sun through the side window both start to hurt at once. The petrol station, where the phone, the music and the one working socket all need sorting while someone else is waiting for the pump. And arriving, when everything you brought is on the floor of the back seat and nobody can find the charger. This scene follows those four moments on a three-day, two-night drive and the handful of things that made each one calmer. Expect to spend between $120 and $240 for the whole kit, with the jump starter and the tyre inflator taking the largest share.