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Carol and Phil White have plenty of miles under their belt and are more than happy to share their adventures.

Carol and Phil White are road trip experts. Having spent a year on the road exploring every part of the United States, they certainly know a thing or two about this country of ours. Actually, they wrote the book on road trips – it's called Live Your Road Trip Dream.

1. What one thing do you never leave home without?
Zip-loc bags! You can use them for everything – keep wet from dry, pack your airline liquids in and keep all your toiletries safely contained. They are indispensable in an RV or car when you are road tripping for everything from snacks to taking advantage of small spaces. I always recommend taking everything out of boxes. Clip any cooking instructions and put those in the bag and tuck into any small space. They are also great for containing things like batteries, art supplies for kids and much more.

2. What's the best meal you've had while traveling?
We've had lots of great meals on the road, both simple and fancy. We had a really memorable lunch in a tiny farming town in Minnesota. We had driven for miles through luscious fields and were starving. Like we have done so many times, we pulled into a small town and looked for the local diner – never a fast food place. (Why eat fast-food when you can sample the local flavors?) We were definitely the only tourists there. Farmers were talking about weather, crops and feed as they enjoyed their mid-day meal. We thought the hot roast beef sandwich sounded just perfect. Not only was it the best hot roast beef sandwich we had ever tasted, it was more than we could eat! It was served with mashed potatoes and gravy, a simple salad, plump dinner rolls and fresh green beans – a real farmer's lunch for about $5.00 and everything freshly homemade. But what made it really special was not merely the food, but the conversation with the locals about their crops (mostly soy beans) and their farming life.

3. The best hotel you've stayed in?
This is easy. Hands-down, it's The Greenbrier Inn in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia. If you want a romantic location, impeccable service and old-style luxury and ambiance, then The Greenbrier is for you. Not only are the hotel and grounds beyond compare, they understand what makes people feel welcome and want to come back time and again. When was the last time you experienced the staff knowing your name from the moment you arrive (how do they do that?), or when the servers in the restaurant are ever present, but not hovering? We can hardly wait to return.

4. The attraction that really blew your socks off?
Phil and I have a difference of opinion on this one. He says Mt. Rushmore, and I say the Oklahoma City Memorial. He had never seen Mt. Rushmore and found it so much more spectacular in person than the pictures. He was also blown away by what the craftsmen went through to actually carve the faces. Totally different than his visual experience at Mt. Rushmore, was my awe-inspiring experience visiting the Oklahoma City Memorial and really understanding what happened that terrible day. Both the plaza and the museum were very well done and created a real sense of being there, yet provided a sense of serenity and peace at this sad place and time in our history.

5. Your best souvenir purchase?
When we were on our year long trip in a 20-foot Pleasure-Way Class B motorhome, you can imagine that our space for souvenirs was quite limited. We did ship a few things home along the way, but really favored paintings and posters as we could roll them up in tubes and they took up very little space, yet provided great memories throughout our home when we returned. One of my favorite items that did take up a bit of space, but we treasure, is the handmade Sweetgrass basket that we bought from a street vendor in Charleston, SC. The signed basket is more beautiful today than the day we bought it.

6. How early do you really get to the airport?
That depends on where we are and where we are going. In small airports, we find that 45 minutes ahead is more than enough. In larger airports we arrive about an hour or so ahead – that means to actually check in. If we have to return a rental car or eat or have other special circumstances, then we add that time on. If we are traveling internationally, we always arrive two hours ahead as there are many more things that can go wrong and more places for you to be delayed. We try to avoid the frustration of feeling hassled and upset about making a flight. We have done that far too often on business trips to let it happen now. We'd rather enjoy a latte and read a magazine than run through an airport.

7. Are language books/tapes ever actually worth it?
If you have a lot of time to prepare for a foreign destination and the time to really study, then yes, they help. But we aren't that disciplined! What we find most helpful are the small books or even pocket cards that you can point to the foreign language sentence for what you want to know. I do think it is a good idea to learn at least a few basics. It makes you seem less like "the Ugly American" and more like you are really trying to enjoy the culture of their country.

8. What is the most useful word to know in a foreign language?
Thank you – said with a smile.

9. What do you look for in a traveling companion?
Someone who enjoys seeing/doing the same types of things you do – at the same pace! Someone who has good common sense to work your way through unexpected situations and someone who makes you laugh.

10. What destination did you most enjoy when you were in your 20s or 30s?
Wow! That was a long time ago! Let's see… we did a lot of camping with the children when we were that age. Partly because we couldn't afford much else, but partly because the great outdoors that we have at our doorstep throughout the western United States provided such a rich opportunity to enjoy ourselves and enjoy our children. Whether it was the beach, a mountain lake or the desert, we always found fascinating things to do. I think if you asked the kids what they remember most, it would probably be the weekend ski trips to nearby Mt. Hood, or the year that we rented an RV and camped our way to Disneyland and back.

 

11. What destination do you most enjoy now?
My real answer is "the next one!" We have had the good fortune to travel extensively, not only in the US where we have visited every state and all the National Parks (except we're still missing a couple in Alaska!), but internationally to Canada & Mexico, much of Europe, China and are currently planning a trip to Africa. Even with all that travel, we seem to go back time and again to Hawaii. Not only is the weather always nice, but we love golfing and water sports, so it is a perfect place to indulge ourselves with our favorite pastimes. We find it relaxing and just enough change in the culture to make the experience always educational.

12. What was your biggest moment of culture shock?
It has to be the squatting toilets in China. Even though we were warned (and always carried our own "supplies"), it still was a shock when we first came face-to-face with them.

13. If you could go back to one place, what would it be?
Chicago. We got cheated out of our time in Chicago on our long trip. We had so many things on our list to see there, but the day before we were to go there, I broke my ankle in Wisconsin and was on crutches and still in pain. Phil did get to see the Bears play at Soldier field, and I got to see "Sue" at the Field Museum, but navigating attractions and doing walking tours (one of our favorite ways to see a city) were out of the question. We promised ourselves we would get back there.

14. Where would you never go back to again?
We don't believe that there are awful places – awful experiences can happen any place. And one person's awful experience can be another person's best cultural encounter. We have been blessed to view travel with open eyes and hearts and learn something from every situation. Have we been scared before? Of course. That is part of traveling. But we have never had an experience so terrible that we would completely write-off a place.

15. Has there ever been a cultural tradition you tried to take home with you?
I think the biggest thing we have learned from traveling both domestically and abroad is that "things" don't make happiness. People can live in the most basic of circumstances and be absolutely happy and rich in their lives. From them we have learned to be gentler to the earth and to live with less "things." I remember one evening when we returned from our year long trip. I was sitting in our living room (it seemed huge to me after living for a year in a small motorhome) looking around at all our possessions and thinking, "I lived perfectly comfortably without all of this for a year – we had everything we needed and were happy – why do I need all this "stuff"?" We still live in that home, but we are much better at not accumulating more things. We try to consume less and enjoy more.

16. What one thing has held true no matter what land or country you've been in?
The one thing that has held true is the basic good nature of people everywhere. In spite of all the horrible things we read in the media, most people are good people who care about other human beings and are willing to reach out if you are willing to accept. Of course, there are some people everywhere, whose life experiences have destroyed their good nature, but we have been really encouraged by all the really wonderful, hard-working, honest people we have met in our travels.

17. What has been your biggest surprise while traveling?
Having grown up in the West, we were really surprised at how small many of the Eastern states really are. And maps make it worse. Buy any map of Oregon and Delaware – and they both take up the same amount of space on the page, but it is a shock when you find that in thirty minutes you have traversed half the space on the map – and half the state!

18. How do you stay safe when you're traveling?
Awareness of your surroundings is the big key for us. We try to park and travel where people are around and in places that are well lit. We try to map out where we are going and ask about safety issues before we leave the hotel or campground. We stay alert to what is going on around us and don't carry a lot of gear that could make us easy targets as tourists. But probably most of all, we try to portray an air of confidence and keep eye contact as we move around in public so as to not be easy victims.

19. What are the ingredients for the perfect trip?
A companion you love traveling with, a destination you are looking forward to seeing, comfortable weather, a healthy sense of adventure and a generous dose of humor.

20. What's next on your list?
We will be traveling throughout the East Coast on behalf of RVIA (Recreation Vehicle Industry Assn.) in September, including representing them at the National AARP Convention in Boston. We're looking forward to being back in New England for the fall "leaf peeping." And, of course, we have our Africa trip to look forward to next year.

 

If summer makes you long for the open road, check the Travel channel all season for insight from road trip experts in addition to tried and true itineraries for great road trips of your very own.