hey michelle how's everything hey lindsay good good good i am in the mood to take a road trip
road trip i love road trips they are the best snacks the snacks oh yeah like what's your
favorite road trip snack well you know it depends on who i'm road tripping with but sometimes
like candies or a little yeah like chocolates or lollipops or something but when i did my big road
trip around the country i couldn't do that it was just iced coffee just black iced coffee that's all
i did i didn't awake because otherwise you take a two-month road trip and you eat snacks every day
yeah right right right but it is fun to get the snacks like and i don't know there's something
like oh it doesn't count if it's if you're yeah if you're on the road right right if you're at home
it does if you're on the road it doesn't count as much right yeah like you wouldn't you wouldn't eat
like unnecessarily like an entire bag of like chex mix like when you're you know just like sitting or
maybe you would i don't know and whatever you want to do that's fine like but like on the
road it's uh something like oh well we're just eating it yeah for sure where are you thinking
about taking a road trip too oh i'm i don't know i'll need some advice from you maybe okay
all right give me some ideas um but yeah lindsay you've taken a ton of road trips including a very
special one that actually our listeners can go on with you me isn't that crazy yeah guys i know it's
called the connected communicator online course i rented a car drove 12 000 miles a big loop
around the country went to chicago california new york city texas the deep south all over the place
cowboy country out here in the west and i take you through these interviews that i did with native
speakers so to get into that course michelle where can we go go to all ears english dot com slash
connection all right definitely the most unique english course on the internet no question um so
all right so talking about things that we can do in the car i mean what what does that come
to michelle yeah well i mean i think of like when i was a kid like lindsay you mentioned you told me
that you used to go to delaware like yes with your dad on road trips uh were you happy to be in the
car for a while or were you like an are we there yet kid and what do i mean by that i think on
long trips when my brother and i were in the back of the station wagon you know typical 90s style
i definitely hated that because my brother was always you know obnoxious and just when when are
we gonna be there was the refrain right constantly asking my parents my poor parents um but when it
was just me and my dad and i got just hit in the front that kind of thing i think i enjoyed more
what about you are you kind of angsty as a kid in the car ah i'd have to ask my parents i can't
really remember but yeah probably but but you know it'd be fun and there are things that you can do
in the car as kids like typical typical games you can play like i guess you would call it a
car game or a road trip game or something like that that are like pretty like common or famous
with kids and adults right lindsay oh for sure for sure my first road trip i took in in college it
was right after 9 11 actually that my friends and i decided we need to to do something deep
and so we took a cross-country road trip and we camped we played a lot of those games like
those car games and not card games car right right right that's simple so being careful there right
yeah do you get carsick one day i really don't i'm lucky um so i can be in the back all the
time but some people who get carsick need to sit in the front right yeah well can you read um
i don't usually try to read in the car that much just because it's too chaotic
um but i can i can talk i can look out the window i can listen to podcasts or music
or something so yeah that's it's not too bad that's good that's good so today we're going
to share some of these games um and this is good because this is a great way to connect with people
um if you are on a road trip and these are great games to play i mean some one of them that really
has to be in the car yeah one of them really has to be in the car for sure and i want to say you
know if you you know it's interesting because american culture is really a car culture right
thanks to henry ford and the building of the freeways like we really are such a car culture
and if you come from a place that's not a car culture like to me japan is not a car culture
what do you think michelle when you were there trains uh yeah it was a lot of trains i mean
i'm not sure like other parts of japan that i didn't visit but yeah certainly yeah because i
was in like you know big cities so if you're in new york i would also say not a great culture
no i don't know yeah fair point although in japan i remember taking the train the local train out
to the countryside like away from tokyo all the way to the other side of the country you could
take this oh wow that is not the case here we have an amtrak but it's not very good and the
bathrooms are not clean oh well yes certainly if we're talking about the quality of the trains
and especially the bathrooms it's like i'm so scared to like you know go on the train because
i specifically don't want to use the best oh they're awful i avoid them at all costs but what
i'm trying to say is you know if you do relocate to the u.s or maybe canada probably canada too
you know a way to build a relationship is to invite someone on a road trip a little weekend
road trip that need someone you want to get to know better and that is a part of the culture so
knowing what to do in the car is a key thing right exactly all right so let's talk about let's get
into the games lindsey get into the games okay get your head in the game michelle that's right what's
the first what's the first game okay this is the one we said we really need to be in the party
so the license plate game um in this game you look out and you try to spot a license plate from as
many different states as you can and what do you do michelle do you tally the number you've seen
right well i don't i think it's really up to you if you want to like it like i feel
like i feel like how i played it was just like you would shout it out when you saw it
i don't know if we were that serious about it but i could imagine it getting competitive if
somebody's like writing it down or telling it did you play this yeah yeah we played this on
the first road trip i was on road trip one um and i have them all ordered you know
experiences yeah yeah we did we had fun with it so we were in college just having fun
just trying to entertain ourselves yeah kids college kids middle school kids makes sense
right yeah so yeah you just guys i mean because there are 50 different kinds of license plates
and if you're on a road trip yeah you might see a lot of the license plates of the place that
you the state that you're in but then you also see different ones like do you ever um well so you're
from new hampshire do you ever when you are like in i don't know if this happens but if like now
you're in denver do you ever see a new hampshire license plate and you're like oh oh not so much
and probably not that i don't know that i've seen one in denver because it's so uh so far right
right exactly that's pretty miles um but certainly in new england you see them and i've always taken
a lot of pride in my license plate because our state motto do you know what it is we've talked
about it i think before uh new hampshire's state motto is live free or die which is oh yes it's so
it's so serious compared to like the civilian the sun sunshine yeah right colorado the golden state
yeah yeah yeah free or die it's like a big threat um right i mean i i always get excited when well
for me it's you know a lot more common because new york and maryland yes yes like whenever i see
the maryland license plate i'm like oh yeah you feel what is your state's motto i was so scared
that you were going to ask me that i knew i was going to ask you that yeah i like i was like oh
maybe i'll just move on no i didn't i didn't look it up wait i i'm gonna be so embarrassed
oh my god that gives me a great episode idea michelle another day we could do an episode
on how to quickly change the topic because you feel a question is coming that you can't answer
uh let's see what is the maryland oh my gosh and then license plate
okay okay well all right i'm gonna have to look i'm gonna have to have a little bit of homework
they can look it up and maybe yeah next time we'll talk wow okay that was very embarrassing okay
um it's fine if you asked me a lot of trivia about my state i wouldn't be able to answer it it's okay
um what's the next question what's the next the game so 20 questions now how does 20 questions go
this is a very common one again i think everybody has their own variations on these things but
basically somebody thinks of something yeah and you have 20 questions to guess what it is
and i think it's mostly like yes or no questions right so like
so it might be something you see or something you think of or maybe you can do a category like
you know maybe you're doing like celebrities or movies or you know something like that
i think a lot there are a lot of variations but that's the main idea is like you have 20 20
questions and then you know to guess and that's a good one so obviously you know games that are not
popular in cars are things like charades because you can't see the person you can't stand up and
act out something that's more of a living room game right a living room dinner party game right
so 20 questions is totally verbal right right right right exactly so that's really good for
the car um so wait let's hear it lindsay um okay let's play let's play a short version um okay um
you want me to think of something yeah you think of something just anything so okay i'm never gonna
get it in three questions i've got something good luck thanks uh is it a person no is that a thing
uh um i don't know how to answer that it's an animal oh okay uh is it a dog yes
he's right behind me if you guys are seeing this on video but you can't see him he's all
nestled into the couch oh funny oh my gosh it's my dog kiefer michelle yes keeper that's so funny
um i love it um and then there's i spy which is kind of similar you know like
i spy with my little eye something yeah and then you know like right yeah it seems like
this one would be a fun one to play with little kids right like i spy with my little eye like
it seems like something kids would have fun with younger kids in my mind right right right right
exactly so lindsay what do you do if you're in the car and you want to suggest playing these
games how do you how do you say it because like maybe everybody's just sitting there or maybe the
music is blaring and you're kind of just like yeah you know you don't feel like listening anymore you
wanna you wanna do a game yeah okay so this is a great way and very common guys write this one down
wanna play you know 20 questions want to play i spy right wanna play so again we're not saying do
you want to play we're saying wanna play okay so that's so real that's such real english michelle
exactly exactly now this one is good it kind of uh you know lets them know that you know it's
you know a kid's game right yes you could say i know it's a kid's game but maybe we should play
yeah and that's good to admit something that you know everyone else is going to be thinking
so you just say it at the beginning right right right just i i know i know it's silly and i know
you know we're adults but why not you know why not why not exactly or if you just want to be more
straightforward you say let's play 20 questions right let's let's do this let's play 20 questions
okay right right right exactly so um yeah lindsay these are these are good ways to suggest
playing the game um and i think you know they're they're really good games to play
when you're bored in the car they're really great for road trips yeah i agree i agree this is fun um
so guys again it comes back to you know where are you likely to build relationships
in american culture or maybe maybe in canada i don't like i said i don't totally know
road trips are so common even if it's just a three-hour road trip to another town that
someone invites you for a day trip take advantage say yes go with them explore the countryside
it is so cool exactly exactly and play these games along the way lindsay this was fun brought me back
to my childhood so oh okay well glad we could do that for you michelle i love it i love it so guys
to learn more about the course that we mentioned right connected communicator online course go to
all ears english dot com slash connection all right awesome all right this is fun lindsay
have a safe drive wherever you go next okay you do michelle talk to you soon bye