3 million road trips: Welcome to Voices from the Road

Welcome to Voices from the Road, a brand new storytelling project from Roadtrippers. 

One reason why I love hearing people’s road trip stories is because road trips are completely unreliable. They almost never go as planned—and that’s part of what makes them so fun. 

Some of my own favorite stories include the time I got caught in a lightning storm while riding a motorcycle through the Andes Mountains in Peru and had to duck into a shed next to an abandoned church to wait it out; the time my friend’s motorcycle broke down on day two of a two-week cross-country trip and we had to scramble to figure out a backup plan; or the time I was riding home from a weekend in Mexico and a violent desert sandstorm almost blew my motorcycle off the road, forcing me to turn around and spend another night in San Felipe. 

None of these experiences were all that enjoyable in the moment, but in hindsight they helped turn each trip into an adventure. This is what my friend Genevieve Davis calls “type two fun,” defined as “the fun you have looking back on an adventure that was actually miserable or stressful while you experienced it.” And type two fun makes for really good stories. 

Stories like that of Chanel, a self-described “city girl” who found a surprising treasure hidden in the California mountains. Or Matteo, who moved across the country in a vintage RV with two dogs in tow in the middle of a pandemic. Or Olivia, who escaped this past summer’s wildfires in Oregon on a motorcycle. 

What we see on Instagram—gorgeous photos from scenic locations, where there are no vehicle breakdowns, no one is hangry or lost, and the weather is always perfect—isn’t necessarily the full picture. To get the full road trip experience, you have to be up for an adventure. You need to be flexible with your plans, able to accept a certain degree of discomfort, and willing to compromise. But if you can do all of those things, there is no more rewarding way to travel than getting in your vehicle and going exactly where you want, without the route limitations of trains, planes, or cruise ships.  

And this is what Voices from the Road is all about. Here, we want to hear your stories. 

Last year, Roadtrippers users planned more than 3 million road trips spanning 2 billion miles total. That is 3 million potential stories about the ups, downs, joys, frustrations, adventures, and unexpected experiences that any road trip brings with it. What’s your story?