Road trip bingo for kids: 4 free printable cards

The true story behind the squares

Found a square? Here’s one thing to say about it, and a story to play for the back seat. Each one is a Tumbly Drive story, with its sources on its page.

• 🌉 Bridge. Heat makes a bridge expand and cold makes it shrink, so builders leave gaps. Some joints let a bridge move up to about a meter. Why do bridges need room to wiggle?
• 🛣️ Overpass. Stretched steel tendons squeeze the concrete so it can resist pulling. Eugène Freyssinet patented the idea in 1928. Why squeeze concrete before cars drive over it?
• 🌁 Two-level bridge. The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge runs one direction on each deck, for about 5.5 miles. The Roller-Coaster Bridge
• 🚇 Tunnel. This tunnel near the Golden Gate Bridge is one lane, so a traffic light takes turns. The wait can reach 5 minutes. The One-Lane Tunnel
• 🎨 Painted wall. The rainbow on the Robin Williams Tunnel was painted in 1970, and it faces only the drivers heading north. The Rainbow Tunnel
• ⛽ Gas station. The fuel sits in tanks under the ground. Tank trucks fill them, and each pump measures what goes into a car. Where does a gas station hide its fuel?
• 🔌 Electric car charger. Car batteries only charge on direct current, but the power grid mostly delivers alternating current. Fast chargers change it outside the car. Why do electric cars need electricity helpers?
• 🚥 Traffic light. The first ones went up in December 1868 on Parliament Square in London. In South Africa people call them robots. Who directed traffic before traffic lights?
• 💡 Street light. Many have a light-sensing cell that turns them on when it gets dark. Long ago, people lit oil lamps by hand. How do streetlights know it’s bedtime?
• 🚸 Picture road sign. Picture signs were first developed in Europe, so travelers could understand them across languages. Why do road signs use pictures?
• 🕳️ Manhole cover. A cast iron cover can weigh 100 to 300 pounds, which keeps it in place under traffic. Ancient Rome used stone grates. Did ancient Romans have sewer covers?
• 🪵 Lumber truck. Most building lumber is softwood from trees like pine, fir and spruce. Where does the wood for a house come from?
• 🔨 House being built. Most houses in North America are framed with many smaller boards. Panels of plywood nailed on give them much of their strength. How do you build a house?
• 🏠 New roof. Many roofs are wooden trusses made ahead of time. Even a flat roof slopes a little so water runs off. How does a roof go on a house?
• 🚧 Road work cones. Asphalt is crushed rock and sand held together by sticky bitumen, laid in layers and pressed down tight. Why do roads contain tiny rocks?
• 🚗 Very old car. Carl Benz’s Patent-Motorwagen, widely called the first practical car, had three wheels and a one-cylinder engine. Why did the first car have three wheels?
• ⛰️ Mountain. Earth’s shell is broken into plates that move up to about 10 centimeters a year. Mountains can rise where they meet. Can Earth’s shell build mountains?
• 🪨 Bare rock hill. Rain, rivers, waves and wind carry soil and rock away. Some bits travel thousands of kilometers. Can pieces of hills go traveling?
• 🌲 Very tall trees. Some redwoods in Muir Woods are more than 1,000 years old, and the tallest stands 258 feet high. The Giant Redwoods
• 🚂 Train. The railway up Mount Tamalpais, opened in 1896, fit 281 curves into just over 8 miles of track. The Crookedest Railroad in the World
• 🗼 Lighthouse. Point Bonita Lighthouse was first lit in 1855. It had the West Coast’s first fog signal: a cannon. The Lighthouse and the Fog Cannon
• 🏛️ Very old building. Fort Point was built from 1853 to 1861 to guard San Francisco Bay. Its cannons never fired in battle. The Fort Under the Bridge
• 🚰 Canal. The California Aqueduct is canals, tunnels and pipelines over 400 miles long, carrying water from the north to the south. Where does your water come from?
• 🚤 Boat. The Marinship yard in Sausalito built 93 ships from 1942 to 1945. The Ship Factory and the Giant Puddle
• 🌊 Lake or bay. Tides come mainly from the gravity of the Moon and the Sun, along with Earth’s spin. Can the Moon move this bay’s water?

How to make the game last

• Everyone gets a different card. With the same card, two kids mark the same bridge and win together. That’s why there are four.
• Pick the card for the road ahead. Swap cards when you leave the highway. A card with no squares in sight is no fun.
• Change what counts as a win. A line, then four corners, then an X, then the whole card.
• Make the rule about sharing. A square counts when you see it yourself, or when a sibling points it out before it’s gone. Decide before you leave.
• Bring a clipboard. A card on a lap is hard to mark. A crayon won’t roll away the way a pencil does.