[at-l] Road Trip Planning (long)

Sat May 2 11:36:48 CDT 2009

One of the big issues in a road trip is attempting to keep things organized.Since we sleep in the back of the truck, that also meant that things had to be fairly compact.  After two years of road tripping - we have a fairly decent system.  

In the back seat we keep 1) a plastic kitchen box with pot, pan, can opener, cutting board, knife, spatula, spoon, 2 cups and bowls, dish soap, spare stove and fuel, a few spices, scrubbee, plastic dish pan, & plastic bags of all sorts; 2) small butane stove 3) cooler with soda, beer, cheese, milk, salad, etc.; 4) box of books & maps (Every time we pass a used book store we stop.  Sometimes you can exchange, sometimes not.  RV Parks are also good for book exchanges.)  5) Another plastic box has non-perishable food - cereal, soups, stews, chili, coffee, tea, etc.  Bread and bananas sit on top.  

In the back of the truck went the packs, sleeping bags, comfortable folding chairs, jugs of water (we used a large 1 or 2 gallon juice container and carried a spare 5 gallon container for free camping on the BLM land or in NFs in the desert - not the rest of the time.), and our clothes bags (1 each).  There was a box of tools, car spares, and odds and ends gear we didn't use much but knew we'd need later.  As others have said, you aren't going to outer space - there are stores everywhere you will go.  (Speaking of which - if you will need to renew prescriptions along the way - get your prescription to some place like WalMart that is all over the country.)  

When we reach a campground, we'll take out the water and kitchen box and set them on the table.  The food generally stays in the car because raccoons and other hungry critters are common around campgrounds.   The clothes go from the back to the front seat and we move into the back (if the weather is bad or it's buggy) or set up the folding chairs and enjoy the afternoon/evening outside.  The long term gear boxes and packs, including daypacks, stayed in the back of the pickup.  Don't forget to bring toilet paper - not all campgrounds get stocked with it regularly.  Civilized folks (not us, IOW) put a tablecloth (costs about $3 at Walmart) or old shower curtain on the table.  We had a small lantern but rarely used it. In summer the days stay light until 9:00 or so (later up north) and we had headlamps that worked if we wanted to read later.  

As to campgrounds - if at all possible, try to avoid them on the weekends.  The party crowd and large family groups come out on Friday night. Do you have earplugs?   I like the primitive NF and BLM campgrounds (or just free camping in the desert or forest) but sometimes a shower or electricity is nice.  State parks are more likely to have showers than National Parks.  Some RV parks have cheap rates if you aren't using electricity and hookups, but we also found a few that didn't allow tent campers (either they had no bathrooms or they had had bad experiences in the past with the less moneyed crowd.) 

As to the trip itself, most important for me is to not push the miles too much.  We tried to find a reason to stop every few hours.  A lot of state parks have hiking trails.  An hour out walking makes it much easier to get back in the car.  We generally did fairly short mile days because sitting in the car for long hours can get painful.  We did bring lots of music and listened to courses from The Teaching Company for an hour or two during the day.  They have lots of interesting courses. Books on Tape are a possibility too.  

I am a sucker for tourist brochures - we ended up with tons of them, which mostly had to be tossed afterwards.  But every time we entered a new state we'd stop and find out what unexpected attractions we might see.  If nothing else, the free maps and brochures about  state parks and hiking trails were great.  Even so, we ended up mailing a lot of stuff home to be sorted through later.  

Have fun -

Ginny
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