After graduating from Pepperdine in 2001, Mike Marriner, Brian McAllister, and Nate Gebhard hit the open road in a broken-down, 31-foot bright green RV for three months to decide what they
really wanted to do with their lives. Along the way, they cold-called and interviewed all sorts of people, from a mechanic in Texas and a lobsterman from Maine, to the Chairman of Starbucks and a Supreme Court Justice. Mike, Brian, and Nate's experience not only spawned two books, but a PBS series as well! Now, the three friends head
Roadtrip Nation, an organization that allows students to drive around the country, doing their own interviews and chronicling their journeys. "[Being on a road trip] feels kind of like that scene in
The Matrix with the plug in the back of the head and they learn jujitsu in like 10 minutes," Mike says. So we got the king of road trippin' to help us figure out how to master the art ourselves. Before you set out on the open road this summer, check out Mike's top ten tips for a bitchin' road trip!
1. Surround yourself with good peeps.
"I don't want to seem cheesy, but on the road, you hear [and see] things you never knew existed [and] you find things about yourself for the first time. There's a lot of reflecting," Mike says. "There are a lot of things to talk about, so that's why it's important to have good friends on the road you can relate with."
2. Don't plan so much! See where the road takes you.
"We had a pretty broad route that we sketched out, but we were flexible," he says. "We ping-ponged around a lot, with a broad route that kept us on our way."
