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Hydration Nation - Roadside Poll Results

April 8, 2008

These days, scientists dispute the conventional advice to drink “8 glasses of water a day.” The crazy regimen apparently makes no difference to your health, and over-watering may even sucker-punch your kidneys. Second thoughts about soaking ourselves come way too late to divert the bottled water industry….

Still, liquid refreshment is important for any lengthy road trip — H2O for hydration between stops, energy drinks for energy, caffeinated drinks for good ideas (and lightning driving and arguing reflexes).

In our first Roadside Poll, conducted over the last week or so, we asked:
On long road trips, how do you get your (non-alky) drink on?

The predominant choice picked in our non-scientific sample is unsurprising:

61% of you “Plan ahead, take iced cooler and beverages.” This makes sense, especially for a home base-originating trip, where you can use your own cooler, and raid the fridge for beverages and free ice. So a majority of our respondents plan ahead, or like to think they do.

29% of respondents, however, “Skip the cooler, stop whenever for beverages.” This suggests a confidence in America’s infrastructure of convenience stores and gas station vending machines. These travelers might also be the first to die if that infrastructure ever collapses, the power out, money worthless, with cannibalistic gangs terrorizing the back roads. Possibly that’s a minor worry.

5% picked one of our own strategies, “Buy a cooler, ice, drinks on the road.” We buy a cheap styrofoam number from a convenience store, a bag of ice, and assorted beverages. Of course this works best after you fly into a region and all your liquids have already been confiscated by airport security.

3% of you — our small, genetically engineered audience — voted for “Skip beverages, accumulate moisture from air.” Unless your skin telescopes into a spongy accumulation tarp, this seems like a risky approach.

Some of our stranger friends boast of never drinking liquids of any kind. They tend to sit in the back seat, quietly dessicating, while we guzzle with abandon.

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