Planning for a road trip can be overwhelming. When you don’t have to pay fifty bucks to check your luggage, it’s tempting to just throw it all in the car. But, after a few trips, I learned that going this route leaves you with a car full of stuff, none of which is at arm’s length when you need it. Now that I’m more than a week in to my epic National Geographic adventure, I wouldn’t call myself a road trip expert (yet), but if I had to boil down what’s currently in my car even further to the top 10 essentials, here’s what would make the cut.