Reclaim your summer

Remember when the days of summer stretched endlessly before your young eyes like a string of pearls? Back then you awoke each morning as if it were the first of the season, the summer sun caressing your cheek and pushing all thoughts of school out of your mind for another day. Speaking personally, somewhere in the middle of high school, summer turned into a real bitch. Nowadays, summer barges in on you in the shower right after finals, snaps off five or six Polaroids and then drops a textbook on your tile floor as it rushes out, gone for another year.

If you are feeling this, chances are you are one of those poor, unfortunate souls who opted for summer school, letting the sunshine taunt you mercilessly through the classroom windows, cutting into your good vibes and reducing the season to a deformed stepchild of its childhood memory. You think: if only there were some way to magically extend these fleeting days, to return to the carefree idleness of your youth. The good news is that salvation awaits you just over the horizon: the time-honored tradition of the college road trip. I just returned from a three-day trip and am eager to impart my wisdom.

Any successful road trip starts with, well, a car. Find a friend who owns or can steal one -- ideally this friend also possesses ample free time or a lax sense of responsibility -- and convince him or her to accompany you on your cross-country adventure. Don't be afraid to threaten force -- you can always claim you were just joking later. Make sure the sound system meets your standards, because there is nothing worse than tinny, watered-down Dave Matthews in the middle of the Arizona desert. Other than that, look under the hood if you want, but really, what do you hope to accomplish with that? You'll just end up smelling worse and wondering if that tangle of wires should be attached to something. Bottom line: if the car moves when you step on the gas pedal, you're golden.

Next, choose a destination. Don't be too specific, as having everything exactly planned turns what should be a fun excursion into a tour of the Vatican with your father. Rather, pick a general place, like "the Midwest" or "south," and then go there. Maps are a good idea, but make sure they are current. Our map of Oregon turned out to be from 1970, a fact that invalidated several "shortcuts."

Food isn't terribly important, as there are a million places to eat along the way. We left Seattle with four oranges, two carrots and a package of instant soup, and we survived the trip just fine. We didn't even eat the carrots. Lodging isn't a big deal either; you have the car, so what more do you need? The rest of the details will come to you, or else you can make them up as you go. The important thing is to take the trip; once you hit that ribbon of highway, you'll know what to do.