Spoiler alert: No. But we had a blast trying. It started as a complaint. My wife, Lisa, slid into the passenger seat of my 2018 Honda Fit and immediately yelped. “These bolsters are digging into my glutes like a pair of angry salad tongs.”
She wasn’t wrong. We are a family of “comfortable dimensions.” We like cheese fries. We have sturdy Dutch ancestry. And we had a wedding to attend in Nashville, 1,000 miles away from our home in Philadelphia.
No, the “Big Butt Road Trip” is something far more relatable, far more American, and (literally) far more down-to-earth. It’s the epic journey my wife, my brother-in-law, and I took last summer to answer a single, burning question: Can three people with generous posteriors survive 2,000 miles in a subcompact hatchback without requiring chiropractic intervention? big butt road trip
If you are planning a trip for those with ample behinds, do not listen to the “ergonomic” racing seat people. You want a flat bench, or a couch on wheels. We should have rented a 1970s Cadillac. Instead, we made it work with pillows. The Snack Situation (A Delicate Balance) A road trip requires snacks. But a big butt road trip requires strategy. You cannot eat a whole bag of Cheetos and a gas station hot dog without consequences. The consequence, in a cramped car, is that you become a human space heater.
Happy trails—and wider seats.
So if you’ve got a big butt, or you love someone who does, don’t let the airline seat pitch scare you. Hit the road. Bring a cushion. And for the love of all that is holy, call shotgun early.
We were stiff. We were tired. But we were laughing. Spoiler alert: No
By Hank O’Hara, Special to The Asphalt Jungle
