Impromptu road trips: just what the doctor ordered

Are you sick of your same old routine of going to school and work every day? Is the rain and the lack of fun in your life simply bringing you down? If so, looks like you need a change of surroundings to spice up that stagnant life of yours! Why not take a spontaneous road trip?

Let’s cut it with the infomercial stuff: Let me tell you about how a random road trip can really change you for the better. Experiencing new surroundings, food and people is nothing but good for the soul. Doing something so out of the normal makes your heart beat a little faster.

I have had the same best friend since middle school. His name is Brady Ching and he’s a funny Hawaiian boy who loves baseball and foreign girls. Brady and I have wanted to take a road trip to California ever since we were in seventh grade, when we had ambitions to go there for our senior trip. Little did we know almost six years later our childhood dreams would come true last month.

Brady was leaving to go to U.S. Navy basic training so we decided abruptly to take a road trip to beautiful sunny Southern California for a week. Seven days later, I pulled up to his house at 6:30 p.m. sharp and loaded my Subaru Outback with all of our bags. We were off, bumping old-school rap classics over the aux cord and eating banana bread. Over 18 hours we traveled 1,150 miles taking turns driving and pumping our own gas in all the random gas stations along the way.  We arrived at our destination, a.k.a Brady’s cousin’s house, at 1:30 the next afternoon and then our getaway started. Over the week we hit every beach, went to Hollywood Boulevard, spent a whole day at Disneyland, and much more.

It was a week of my life that I wanted never to end.

On our last full day, the family we were staying with planned to take us out on their grandpa’s Sea-Doos. We took the two craft down to the harbor and got loaded up, putting all of our phones in the waterproof cubby of one. Brady and I were going to be on one of the two Sea-Doos, Brady’s cousin Natalie and her Grandpa on the other. Of course, one of them wouldn’t start so we tried jumping it using the truck, but it still wouldn’t work – so Gramps told the other three of us to take out the one Sea-Doo. I was worried, but I volunteered to drive first. After we got into the open ocean, Brady tapped me on the shoulder for me to hand him his phone. He took a Snapchat of us and puts it on his story; I put the phone back in the cubby and continued to ride around until I feel the Sea-Doo start to tip to the right. Then, it does a barrel-roll as Natalie screams. I fall into cold, but oddly refreshing, water and start freaking out. I try to climb on top of the upside-down machine as if I see “Jaws” in the water. Brady was just about to scream for  help until we finally got the craft to flip over. When we did, the cubby was open and all of our phones sank like rocks.

I thought to myself and laughed – because if I had been in Gresham right then sitting in math class this, wouldn’t have happened. I didn’t mind, because even though all the memories of the week sank to the bottom of the ocean, this would be a memory that would never leave my head. That’s the beauty of road trips.

I’m going to end this with some advice: Go on a road trip, but never take your phone on a Sea-Doo.