So, I was reading one of those slideshow lists on MSN.

23 Great Road Trips Worth the Gas

Now, the ninth of the those Road Trips is Fort Worth to Oklahoma City. Now, I don't mean to insult either city (as a Texas Longhorn I reserve my insults for Norman, OK), but I don't see 200 miles up I-35 much of drive. Now, I should point out that they called them Road Trips, but it seems to me that a great Road Trip should also be a great drive.

So, what makes a great drive? I think we can come up with a few rules for a great drive, and hours on an interstate won't be part of it.

1. Scenery
   
   For me, it is hard to imagine a great drive through the Nevada desert.
   
   I need a quick sidebar here to explain that almost every year of my childhood I was tossed into the back of a station wagon and hauled from California to Utah. Most of those years that meant driving across Nevada on I-80...twice. The stretch of I-80 from Lovelock to Wendover is still, 35 years, my definition of a boring, depressing stretch of road, and the antithesis of a great drive. Close sidebar.
   
   Now, the scenery doesn't have to be spectacular, but it certainly adds to the pleasure of the drive if the scenery is easy on the eyes. Also, I don't much care what the scenery is, mountains, hills, forests, seashore, desert. Just as long as the views out the windshield are nice. Personally, I think that the best drives include scenery that is down right distracting, but that is just me.
   


2. A good road
   
   Now, there are two parts to this. First, the road needs to be in good repair, and well constructed. It isn't going to be a great drive if you spend most of your time dodging potholes. Treacherous is not a word that I associate with a great drive either. A road that is too narrow, or lacks any sort of improvements is not really going to give a good driving experience.
   
   But, I think a great drive requires more than a solid well maintained road surface. When driving, straight is boring, at least if it is too straight for too long. It is possible for a road to be too windy, though a windy road can be a fun all its own, but a great drive requires turns. A windy road presents us with continually changing vistas, which helps immensely with #1. A windy road also means that we work a little while driving, which, for me at least, increases the pleasure of the drive.
   


3. Light traffic
   
   Traffic will kill a good drive faster than anything I know of, so any truly great drive will have to avoid frequently travelled roads. If other people know about it and use it, then it needs to be removed from the itinerary. Now, sometimes, almost every road gets busy, so we should not remove a road from our list of great drives because we encounter traffic once, but the greater the traffic, the less great the drive.
   
   Another sidebar. I am a big fan of Top Gear (the UK version) and they are terribly annoyed with Caravans. In England they don't seem to have the huge motorhomes that we have hear, but they do have smaller ones, and it seems that every summer, thousands of Brits pack up their caravans (usually trailers) and campervans (motorhomes) and head out across the country. Unfortunately, they seem to clog up the very roads that the Top Gear presenters love to drive on. They tend to go slowly, and long lines of traffic get backed up behind them on Britain's smaller roadways.
   
   In the US, I think our trailer and mobile home campers tend to stick a bit more to the freeways, but I think you can see that spending your "great drive" going slowly behind someone pulling a camping trailer is not going to add to your experience.
   


4. Interesting places
   
   The places you can see from your car are one thing. The places you can get out and see along the way are another. They may not technically be part of the drive, but unless the drive is one of a few short hours, then drive is going to include stops, and interesting places to visit along the way are going to increase the enjoyment of the trip.
   
   A trip up the California coast highway (Highway 1) is nice. A trip up the coast with a stop at Muir Woods National Monument is better. It may be a nice drive with a good picnic spot, or a good restaurant, or a quaint B&B for an overnight stay, but something that improves the trip, while your not driving, can turn a nice drive into a great one.
   


5. A fun-to-drive car
   
   If you watch Top Gear, you might imagine that the only way to enjoy a great drive is in a powerful sports car. A Ferrari or Porsche may be an excellent car for a great drive, but I don't think it is necessary. All that is required is that you enjoying driving the car on the roads of your great drive.
   
   Back in #2 I talked about good roads, and the key thing is that you do not want to spend your drive fighting the road. You also don't want to spend your drive fighting your car. I don't think a Ferrari is required, but I don't think that a pickup truck or a Minivan is going to add much to the drive. They really key thing is that YOU enjoy driving the car on the roads that you take.
   


6. Tune-age
   
   Or should it be spelled tunage? I think music can be a great addition to a great drive, but upon reaching this part of the essay, I considered changing the title, but adding conversation to the title seemed overly long, and Sound just didn't seem to say enough. If you have a Ferrari, then the sound of the engine may be more than enough accompaniment to your drive, but in most cars, something else may add to the enjoyment of the drive.
   
   Conversation with a passenger may be even better than music. On a longish drive, a passenger gives you someone to share the experience with, which I think will increase the enjoyment of a good drive. If you don't have a passenger, then music can be another good addition to your drive. A specific sort of music is not required, just something you enjoy.
   


7. More than just A to B
   
   The purpose of a great drive is itself, the journey, so any truly great drive must be about more than just going from point A to point B. You may in fact need to get to point B, but a great drive is unlikely to be the fastest or easiest way to get there. The freeway is faster, but a freeway drive is something to be finished as quickly as possible. A great drive should be something that you enjoy, were the journey is the goal, and the destination is just the end of the journey.

Well, I think that finishes up my look at what makes a great drive. I haven't taken all that many, but the items above are the things that I can point to that have on occasion turned a trip from point A to point B into a great drive.