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Ahh, the drive we love to hate. For those of us in Southern California, a trip to the mountains for snowboarding or skiing usually means we head to Mammoth Mountain. This drive can take up to 7 hours if you’re coming from the San Diego metro area. Luckily, since moving to Los Angeles, I’ve conveniently shaved about 2 hours off my trip. Still - 5 hours in a car is a mighty long time. You can only listen to so many hours on an iPod or CD player… Me, I like to interact with the people in the car with me - so it comes down to good conversation.

Good conversation can come about naturally, especially if you’re with a naturally loquacious carfull of buddies. But, sometimes you’re with people you don’t know that well, so it’s fun to “force” the conversation by playing games or asking personal questions of one another. Here are some of my faves, which I’ve been known to pull out of nowhere in dead silence in the middle of 395! I guess you could classify these as “the superlatives.”

• What’s your favorite place to snowboard and why?
• What was the worst injury you ever sustained, and how did it happen?
• What was the most embarrassing moment you’ve ever experienced? (note: these usually involve farts, sex, peeing, or some other bodily function, so this Q can be fun when everyone tries to one-up one another.) Also fun to break the ice in a group of strangers you may be car-pooling with!
• What was your first concert? First record you ever bought (bonus points if it really was a record! Damn youngsters…)
• What’s your favorite place you ever lived?
• What is the rudest thing anyone ever did to you?
• Describe the worst haircut you’ve ever had.
• Weirdest name of anyone you ever dated

You’d be surprised at how well these spark conversation and break the ice among strangers who you may be spending the rest of the weekend snowboarding with in your group Mammoth condo!

You can also play silly games like:

• Pick a category, then have one person start with an item in that category. Go thru the car taking turns naming another item that begins with the letter that ended the first item, and so on. Example: Category is Movies - first one “Transformers.” Second one “Silent Night, Deadly Night.” Third one “Terminator.” Fourth one “Rosemary’s Baby.” You get it! (and boy did I pull out some obscure ones there…)
• the old favorite, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (works especially well in carloads of snowboarders from Los Angeles, haha)
• Pick a category and see how many items in the category you can name without repeating one - for example “ice cream flavors…”

The games are fun but for my money, “the superlatives” are way more fun. What are some other (legal) ways to pass the time in a car?