My lady and I (while car travelin' this fall) have an entire family of stuffed animals (mostly treasure trolls and care bears), including an oversized moose that's bigger than a person. On top of that we have a 15" tall clown piggy bank (named Mad Thad Moneybags) that we put all our coins in for our rainy day fund. It's all real frivolous, ridiculous shit. I should also mention our car shrine of little nick nacks and action figures that live on our dashboard, or the box labeled "chicken feet", in which there are some cock feet we kept after killing it on her dad's farm up in WA.
I've learned that it helps to have something that cheers you up with you while you are on the road (or anytime really).