5 Gifts for Your Car

As you are purchasing gifts this holiday season, I thought it would be fun to feature some of the newest and coolest gifts for your car. If you can’t put a new car under the tree, you can at least have some of the features the latest car might have. It will really jazz up your used car.

Automatic Adapter can help you monitor your car’s health. If you see an indicator on your dashboard or the check engine light is on, it will help you figure out what is going on. It is the same kind of system mechanics use to see what’s wrong with your car. It’s also an app that will report your driving behavior. It will help you know how many miles you get per gallon, it has a GPS with maps and can help you keep track of travel expenses which is great for a blogger like me when I am traveling to or from an event. It will even alert emergency personal if you are in an accident or need assistance.

Magellan RoadMate is a state of the art GPS system. GPS is still not standard in cars and using your phone can be a pain. Some of the features of the RoadMate are the 7 inch screen for easy reading. Alerts when the speed limit changes, and locations of parking garages. If you have ever traveled somewhere where they offer parking garages, you might not know where they are. I remember when we went to St. Louis and had to park in a parking garage, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out where it was among all the big buildings.

A portable DVD player for the car is always a great gift. Noah asked me to buy one yesterday so he can watch Minions when we are on the road. He keeps thinking we have one, but we only have a case from his uncle. I can’t believe I don’t already have one with how much I love movies.

For a fun and geeky stocking stuffer there are Star Trek decals that look like the little stick families. I think that would make any Star Trek fan super excited and happy. I know quite of few guys who would giggle to receive it.

For the adventurer you could even give them a driving experience as a gift. It’s not really a gift for their car but it would be an experience of a lifetime. There’s so many of them to choose from. You could give them the gift of driving a race car around a track or give them the chance to drive their dream car for a few hours. Who wouldn’t love that?  

How to Create an Epic Holiday Playlist

I thought it would be fun to write a post about how to create an epic holiday playlist for your road trip this season. Unless you have satellite radio, you have to become creative when it comes to listening to music on road trips. You can try and listen to the radio. That presents a couple challenges, you can’t really have a theme, the stations will fade, and some of the content is not family friendly. My family loves to sing in our used car on road trips. I love to create playlists and even before that, CD’s that would have a theme for the trip.  I think it would be fun to carol in the car to some of the best holiday songs out there as a family. It really helps time pass by.  Here are some tips to help you create an epic play list.

Pick a theme for your trip. If you are traveling for the holidays, holiday music would be fun. It can really have any travel theme or just your favorite songs. They could be songs you listened to growing up too.

Pick songs that you actually like. Don’t just pick random songs that you have never listened to. You might not like it, and then skip it every time it comes on.

Make sure the song doesn’t drive you crazy if you listen to it more than once. Sometimes when you shuffle your playlist, it will play the same song again. Noah likes to listen to music while he falls asleep, and he recently learned about the repeat button. He likes to listen to the same song over and over again.

Have options for everyone and make sure your music is family friendly. There are some songs I like but I would never let Noah listen to, not that they are horrible but they might have something inappropriate in the lyrics.

You may want to create a couple playlists for variety too. You can make a playlist with soft holiday music to play to help your kids fall asleep.

Here’s what is going on my holiday playlist:

Jingle Bells

I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Carol of the Bells

Frosty the Snowman

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Grandma’s Killer Fruit Cake

The Christmas Song

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

Let it Snow

Silent Night

O Holy Night

Let There Be Peace on Earth

Where are you Christmas

Mr. Grinch

The Whoville Song

Winter Wonderland

Away in a Manger

Little Town of Bethlehem

O Come all Ye Faithful

The First Noel

Jolly Old Saint Nicolas

Do you Hear What I Hear?

All I want for Christmas is you

Merry Christmas

Silver Bells

What’s on your epic holiday playlist?

Travel and Car Quotes

I love quotes of all kinds. They can be funny or inspirational. I really enjoy reading quotes when I am going through a hard time or just for fun. They can really help inspire you or bring you joy. It may make you feel like someone else knows how you feel. It’s also great to unwind with a few laughs.

 Here are some great car and travel quotes:

“Hey, people who travel with their bed pillow. You look insane. ” – Jim Gaffigan

“It is not down in any map; true places never are.” – Herman Melville

“There’s only four ways to get unraveled; one is to sleep and the other is travel.” – Jim Morrison

“My fear of flying starts as soon as I buckle myself in and then the guy up front mumbles a few unintelligible words then before I know it I’m thrust into the back of my seat by acceleration that seems way too fast and the rest of the trip is an endless nightmare of turbulence, of near misses. And then the cabbie drops me off at the airport.” – Dennis Miller

“I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine.” - Caskie Stinnett

“Kilometers are shorter than miles. Save gas, take your next trip in kilometers.” – George Carlin.

“You want to know what it’s like to be on a plane for 22 hours. Sit in a chair, squeeze your head as hard as you can, don’t stop, then take a paper bag and put it over your mouth and nose and breath your own air over and over and over.” – Lewis Black

.“A child on a farm sees a plane fly by overhead and dreams of a faraway place a traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse and dreams of home.” – Carl Burns

“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” – Fitzhugh Mullan

 “I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.” – Bill Bryson

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill

“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T. S. Eliot

“Travel like Ghandi, with simple clothes, open eyes and an uncluttered mind.” – Rick Steves

“When you come to a fork in the road….take it” – Yogi Berra

“Did you ever notice that the first piece of luggage on the carousel never belongs to anyone?” – Erma Bombeck

“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” – Mark Twain

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover”. – Mark Twain

“I know a lot about cars, man. I can look at any car's headlights and tell you exactly which way it's coming”- Mitch Hedberg

“The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it”.- Dudley Moore