During the holidays, a lot of you take it upon yourselves to make that long and tiring drive home.  Thoughts of seeing old friends and the taste of Christmas cookies give you the incentive to pack your shit in a hurry so that you can start chipping away at the many miles ahead.

Unfortunately, a road trip during the holiday season, directly after finals, can leave you somewhat absent minded as you start your journey.  Here are a few situations that happen to holiday road warriors year after year.

Realize You Didn’t Pack Shoes

Between getting gas, throwing your bag in the car, buying energy drinks and calling home, you somehow forget that you’re only wearing a pair of sandals.  Sadly, you’ve already driven for an hour, so turning back isn’t really an option.  It’s best to just brace for whats coming.

Mom: blah blah blah catch a cold blah blah

Dad: You must be smoking too much reefer to remember the important shit.

Sister: I guess computer science majors only minor in common sense.

Piss Someone Off In A Lifted Truck

Eating a bag of chips while playing the air drums and reaching for another Mountain Dew is asking for trouble.  At some point along this little trip you’re bound to piss someone off who enjoys “taking the law into their own hands.”  This guy will be buzzing along in an F-250 that has been lifted to the sky, has a horn that belongs in a tractor trailer, and a pair of swinging nuts from his bumper.  Inside the cab he’s saying things like “ju-anna cut me off city boy!” while flicking his high beams on and off, mere inches from your tail pipe.  Later you’ll tell the story differently, explaining how you almost got out and “beat his ass,” but we’ll all know that you almost shit yourself on that small piece of highway.

Make A Wrong Turn

In an attempt to save some time, you’ll make a detour that will take you miles out of your way.  All of the great time you made by pissing into Gatorade bottles and tossing them out the window has just been erased.  The “wrong turn” can break a man down depending on how far it takes him off course.  Just remember, with some music and caffeine, you’ll make it out of this.  Which brings us to…

iPod Dies

Somewhere around the halfway mark, or during your wrong turn, your iPod will conveniently stop working.  This will force you to listen to the local stations which are for the most part top 40, country, or in Spanish.  In a few hours you’ll be belting out Miley Cyrus and Tim McGraw tunes at a high decibel.

Come Down From A Sugar/Caffeine High

Any seasoned veteran will tell you that caffeine can be your best friend, or it can bend you over like Brandi Belle in her latest video.  In the right dosage it can give you the ability to stay up for hours at a time.  But there’s a fine line between the correct dosage and a caffeine OD.  While driving ridiculous lengths at a time, you’ll usually end up doing the latter.  While you’re in “come down” mode you’ll probably end up at a rest area in limbo mode.  Exhausted, you’ll try to catch quick nap only to realize your whole body is twitching.  And although this is an acceptable sensation for Courtney Love, you still have a lot of miles to drive.

Have you had any holiday road trip disasters?