Yeah - I had decided beforehand that those discontinuous road-trips would serve as the “annual” vacation of the Junior-year summer (instead of a traditional 2-weeks vacation that year.)
Certainly, we had tight schedules - but it also allowed us to see parts of the country we otherwise might have never ventured to. Each college tour was a bit like sight-seeing. Occasionally, we had half a day to explore downtown areas, or window-shop, and at night we splurged on good food. There were actually some good memories I have from those trips.
And because, those was really “her” trips, there was no “are we there yet” attitude - in fact, each triggered more sharing of first impressions, likes and dislikes, during the long car-rides. After all those teenage years with declining opportunities to have “nice, long talks”, this was a great chance to have enjoyable, forward-looking, adult conversations, that didn’t come across as parents lecturing. I distinctly remember having a nice one-on-one dinner, and actually being asked my opinion/guidance by my teenager. 