The Ultimate Road Trip: The Andersons’ Travel Journal – Bad Weather, No Problem

The Ultimate Road Trip

“Inspired by Nissan Pathfinder, writer Chris Atwell has written a series about the fictional Anderson Family and imagined the adventures they might have on a summer road trip with Pathfinder. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this article are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, or entities is intended or should be inferred.”

The first lesson of our family road trip is that not everything goes according to plan. Darryl and Denise Anderson have special plans for tomorrow and a long drive ahead if they’re going to pull them off. If only the weather will cooperate. It won’t be the last time on this road trip that the rugged all-new Pathfinder faces a weather challenge and rescues the Andersons’ best-laid plans. Darryl explains:   

It rained today. All. Day. Long!

The forecast said we might get a little precipitation later in the afternoon, but Mother Nature had her own ideas. A half-hour after we hit the road this morning, it started to pour. That’s the thing about long road trips. You can plan routes and stops, but you can never count on the weather to cooperate. You simply must roll on, which is what we did. We had a schedule to keep and some serious ground to cover today—more than 250 miles from Rockville, Maryland, to Virginia Beach.

Despite the rain and challenging road conditions along the way, we made the drive in just over five hours. Denise and I split driving duties, and I can say without a doubt that we both truly appreciated the Pathfinder today.

What made the difference was the Pathfinder’s rugged design and safety technology. We’ve been driving only during the day so far on this trip, so I hadn’t used the High Beam Assist before today’s downpour. The feature provided excellent visibility. The Pathfinder’s Blind Spot Warning system can help see what the driver can’t see in the blind spot area, perfect for tricky lane changes. When I heard that first burst of rain this morning, I braced myself for a difficult day. As it turned out, the Pathfinder delivered us to our destination safe and dry and with hardly any time lost.

Keeping to the schedule was particularly important for this leg of the trip because I made special plans.

Years ago, Denise and I visited a spot on the Virginia coast when we first got married. We’re heading back there for a couple of hours on horseback, just the two of us riding along a gorgeous stretch of beach. I figured it’s only fair that we get to have a little romance time for ourselves.

The family will be back on the road soon enough!

Next up: Heading off-road to honor the ancestors…

• _{Blind Spot Warning:  Blind Spot Warning cannot prevent collisions and may not detect every object or warn in all situations. Driver should always turn and look before changing lanes. See Owner’s Manual for safety information.}