h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As a long term friend of the M4, I can thoughroughly recommend the following game to break up the monotony on west bound travels past Swindon, or east bound travels out of Wales.

"Spot the Severn bridge" is an aptly named game which involves trying to spot the severn bridge before anyone else in the car. The game generally only works with more than one person in the car!

This game has kept me entertained for years as a back seat passenger in the family car on the trip to our annual Welsh holiday, until I fathomed the reason why my dad always won. His secret was that he knew the exact point where on a good day you can first see the bridge. This trick has maintained my interest in the game into my adult life as I am now guaranteed to win.

Mind you I haven't travelled the M4 with my dad recently, time for a re-match I think!

Well, what do you know?

Up here in bonny Scotland, we used to play a similar game when driving to my aunt's house in Alloa (near Stirling). My dad would offer 5p to the person who first spotted the Wallace monument, a bet that he invariably won because he knew the road better than everyone else.

This led to lots of futile diversionary tactics, like drawing his attention to particularly colourful petunias along the roadside for the two miles before the monument, hoping to distract him so I could claim the riches. This never workes, and was very very dangerous indeed.

We have the same kind of thing in southwestern Pennsylvania along U.S. Route 40 travelling south from Pittsburgh toward Maryland!

There is a huge white cross atop the mountain just south of Uniontown. Invariably, the humidity is so great in the area that the entire mountaintop is covered with haze and makes it tricky to spot the cross first.

A good way to break up a long drive! Although front-seat passengers are at a distinct advantage!!

This is a common game it seems. Anyone who (like me) lives in Essex and ever travels south round the M25 through the Dartford crossing will know the arched footbridge a few miles south of Dartford, across the M25, high between the hills. On the way home this small bridge is the sign of being 'nearly there', and the sight of it can lift hearts no end. Of course, when travelling North it is at about this point that one hits the back of the 10 mile queue for the Dartford crossing toll booths, which is unfortunate.