Summer might be coming to a close, but road trip season never has to end. Picture this: the open road, endless blue skies, and the promise of a sweet tailgating session followed by an unforgettable game. The best thing about road trips is that you can tailor them to be as extensive or short as your schedule allows. So sure, you may have to go to work on Monday, but you can have an incredible weekend filled with sports, fun, and the pull of the endless highway. Plan the ultimate sports-themed road trip — ready, set, go.

Be Proactive with Tickets

It may be tempting to arrive on game day without purchasing tickets in the hopes of finding a scalper with better deals than you could find at the door. However, there are some pesky risks involved with this option that could result in you alone, swigging brewskies in the parking lot, listening to a play by play of the game while your friends take the party inside the stadium.

Occasionally, scalpers can swindle you out of a legitimate seat by providing you with a duplicate ticket that won’t work once you get to the gate. Avoid this sad picture by getting tickets ahead of time. Buy them from a verified source like Ticketmaster, where you know they’ll be authentic.

Map Out the Ride

Going to the game does not need to be the end of it. With a little mapping along the way, you can design a trip that includes more stops than just the stadium. Enjoy a whole sports-themed road trip with excitement and adventure by including stops at sports museums or by checking out the other stadiums. Check out Along The Way, an app that can help you find restaurants, bars, shopping, attractions and recreation as you are traveling, saving you the hassle of planning in advance and opening the possibilities.

Crank the Tunes

One of the best parts of road trips is being able to chill out and enjoy killer tunes. You can enhance your experience by tapping into a variety of apps to fuel your road trip from start to finish with the freshest tracks around. In this vein, check out Songza, an app that works in a similar fashion to Pandora or Spotify but offers increasing levels of specificity depending on genre, mood and decade. The app then offers playlists to fit anything you might desire.

Stay up to date

Finally, as you travel you can remain in touch with everything that’s happening in the sports world and even catch some games if you feel inclined. With apps like theScore, you can get up-to-the-second game statistics, look up past scores, and follow teams as well as individual players. Also, if you’re into fantasy football and want to keep tabs on the games you might miss, or want to watch the highlights of any game, the official NFL Mobile app gives you all of this and more. Apps like these can keep you connected to the teams and players you like 100 percent of the time.