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 |  A trip of discovery and adventure |
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One of my dreams has always been to see the U.S. in all its facets and diversity. In September 2018, I made the dream a reality! Here are my thoughts and impressions as we traveled from Virginia to Oregon, down the California coast, and back through the heartland. Enjoy the journey with me... |
| "...The exercise of discipline is not only demanding but also a complex task, requiring flexibility and judgment." M. Scott Peck, M.D. With the itinerary mostly set, I turned my attention to other plans:( Here's where the discipline and flexibility came in.)  All laundry completed and put away (You don't want to be greeted with dirty clothes and linens when you return, do you?) No perishables left in the fridge or bread box. this chore became an episode of "Chopped", my favorite show on Food Network. (Nobody wants to throw out moldy bread and clean the fridge when they return from a trip.) I set all my houseplants out on the deck on the chance that we would get some rain at home. Not much chance of temps below freezing in September in Virginia. Make sure all bills will be paid electronically from my tablet. This also made it easy to keep track of credit card spending (used for most all expenses along the way, except where we had to pay by cash.) I only took several $100.00 along for little necessities like a candy bar here or a bottle of water there or entry fees to some sites. Make sure that prescriptions and over- the- counter drugs were labeled and packed. Note: If you might need to have prescriptions refilled, make sure you contact your doctor in plenty of time before leaving, especially if your prescriptions come in the mail. I checked several websites for packing suggestions since I always over-pack even for a weekend trip. Here is my actual packing list based on these recommendations: 1.A small backpack with car items for our dog (water, treats, leash), a small container of dog food (bought more as needed along the way), her dog bed, blanket and favorite toys. 2. Passports because we might have to detour through Canada if the wildfires are not under control in the northwest, only one credit card and debit card per person and a small amount of cash (don't take more cards than absolutely needed to avoid added problems should you misplace a purse or wallet and always lock your car). I am a little paranoid about misplacing valuables so I always checked the room, purse, backpack, and luggage when we left where we were staying. Actually, we did leave bottles of water in the frig. a couple of times but it was easily replaced. 3.Electronics: computer, tablet, cell phones and chargers. Note: We put the travel app on GPS but also took the Road Atlas for backup. My husband always takes his computer whenever he travels. There is no way he could go that long without writing. I took my tablet to keep track of the finances and have reading material for downtime. I also took a journal and several mechanical pencils to make notes while traveling. 4.Packing cubes (first time using them, very inexpensive and good use of space). I used one cube for personal care items. This cube went in a sachel with our prescriptions that I put in individual small storage bags labeled morning and evening. For clothing, I put two days worth including sleepwear in a small cube in the sachel so we didn't have to pack and unpack the large suitcase every night. All the other clothing went in two large cubes in the suitcase along with shoes and jewelry. The cubes conserved so much space that my husband could use half the case for his items. This way we managed with one sachel and one large suitcase. Even so, our car was full with luggage, and doggy supplies. Note: Since we were traveling cross country in September, I took summer and fall outfits. Well, I think that is enough for my second entry. I hope this information is helpful to fellow travelers. I'll have more to share along the way with pictures and adventures as well. |
| "The tide of time, which nothing alters, nothing halts, nothing hastens has brought us to the beginning of our journey." Edwin Way Teale My husband and I have talked about doing more traveling in the Continental United States for the past several years. But we always put it off, opting to travel to Mexico (5 times in the last 6 years) and last year, the Dominican Republic. We still have foreign travel on our "bucket list" but we felt it was time to actually make the cross country road trip. This Blog is my attempt to share our wanderings, adventures and our experiences with others who have or will take to this type of travel. I will share how we made decisions, how we planned, where we found helpful information and what we saw along the way. And I welcome feedback from fellow bloggers. Let's share this experience together. Our decision went something like this: We decided to drive from our home in Virginia to Portland, OR (to visit family), down the California coast (to visit family) and back through Fulton, MO (for my 55th high school reunion. So we figured if we were going to drive that far, we would pick out the places we wanted to experience along the way. And since we planned to be gone for at least 3 weeks, we had to take our little dog Macy. There was no way that my husband was going to leave her with family or anyone else for that long. Thus, a major road trip plan to include a small dog became a priority. NOTE: Dates were dictated by the need to arrive in Fulton by Sept. 28 for my class reunion and the number of places we wanted to see, the family we wanted to visit, and the amount of time we were willing to drive per day. Then we factored in a few extra days just to be flexible. With a cross country road trip to be planned, I started looking in a large bookstore for information and maps that could help; not as easy as I thought. The most helpful information I found came from the 2019 Rand McNally Road Atlas. With the Road Atlas in hand, we started looking at various routes and points of interest. Once we had a good idea of where we were going, my husband looked at a few travel planning sites online. We chose "Scenic Road Trips" and started plugging in locations. We had to change some suggested routings to make it more personalized. Even this got changed from time to time as we discovered other places of interest. Now we were able to not only determine the routes for the first and second days but also where we would stop for the first and second nights. We went to Booking.com and plugged in Columbus, OH and then Cedar Rapids, IA. Both easy drives for the first two days. We found the Windham chain offered pet-friendly rooms and a free breakfast for under $100.00 a night with senior discounts and earned points for signing on as members. We'll let you know what those two stays are like and if we continue to book with them. RECOMMENDATION: The Rand Mc Nally Road Atlas, Scenic Road Trips.com and Booking.com. They were very helpful in planning this trip.....to be continued. |
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