RE: Long trip (over a month) advice

[Giffster]

 
Got a couple questions for the " pro"  long trip in a PU people.  
 
 1)  I m going solo, but will have a dog.  What to do with the dog when I can t take her somewhere?
 2)  Do you take alot of clothes, or just take the basics and do wash everyonce in awhile?  And where do you wash the laundry?
 3)  Did you stop on the way to a certain cg just to check out a park?
 4)  Did you take mainly " cash"  with you?
 5)  How far did you drive to get to the next cg?  And how long did you stay at each park?
 6)  Did you make reservations at each park or just show up?
 7)  Where did you refill drinking water?  Containers and on-board holding tank?
   Would you try to cross the mountains with a " no brake"  pu?  (My pu has a braking system, but no idea how to hook it up)
 9)  How many groceries did you start out with?  Did you mainly take non-perisables at the get-go?
 10)  Did the weather affect where you wanted to go or did you just deal with what came?  (or try to outrun it?)
 
 I m sure I ll have plenty more questions when I think of them.  Any help in this matter is greatly appreciated.  I have a month or so to plan this so I m not in any hurry.  
 
 Cheers
 

[tlhdoc]

 Giffster

 

ORIGINAL:  Giffster
 
 Got a couple questions for the " pro"  long trip in a PU people.  
 
 1)  I m going solo, but will have a dog.  What to do with the dog when I can t take her somewhere?
 
 Find a kennel or vet that will watch her or don t go there.
 
 
 
 2)  Do you take alot of clothes, or just take the basics and do wash everyonce in awhile?  And where do you wash the laundry?
 
 When we go on trips over a week long we do laundry.  4 to 6 in the PU limits clothes.
 
 
 
 3)  Did you stop on the way to a certain cg just to check out a park?
 
 We will stop to check a place out.
 
 
 
 4)  Did you take mainly " cash"  with you?
 
 No, I don t want to take a chance on loosing cash, travelers checks or credit cards
 
 
 
 5)  How far did you drive to get to the next cg?  And how long did you stay at each park?
 
 It depends on what you like and how much time you want to spend at each park.  We have spent the better part of 2 weeks at a couple of parks and still didn t do everything we wanted to.
 
 
 
 6)  Did you make reservations at each park or just show up?
 
 I make reservations, but if you are not on a fixed schedule you could be more flexible.
 
 
 
 7)  Where did you refill drinking water?  Containers and on-board holding tank?
 
 We get water at the campgrounds when we get there.  We drink bottle water.
 
 
 
   Would you try to cross the mountains with a " no brake"  pu?  (My pu has a
 braking system, but no idea how to hook it up)
 
 NO WAY,  get your brakes checked adjusted and working!!!
 
 
 
 9)  How many groceries did you start out with?  Did you mainly take non-perisables at the get-go?
 
 I leave with a full cupboard of dry goods and a cooler of food.  I buy the rest as the trip goes on.
 
 
 
 10)  Did the weather affect where you wanted to go or did you just deal with what came?  (or try to outrun it?)
 
 We deal with what we get, but plan to go north in the hotter months and south when it is colder.
 
 
 
 
 I m sure I ll have plenty more questions when I think of them.  Any help in this matter is greatly appreciated.  I have a month or so to plan this so I m not in any hurry.  
 
 
 Doug a month is not very long to plan a trip like this.  Any idea where you are going yet?
 
 
 
 

[ForestCreature]

 Giffster
ORIGINAL:  Giffster
 
 Got a couple questions for the " pro"  long trip in a PU people.
  Not so sure we qualify as " pro"  but......
 
 1)  I m going solo, but will have a dog.  What to do with the dog when I can t take her somewhere?
 Like Tracy said, find a kennel in the area. Be sure shes got all her vaccines and kennel cough vac too.
 
 2)  Do you take alot of clothes, or just take the basics and do wash everyonce in awhile?  And where do you wash the laundry?
 If you have enough clothes to last a month you shop to much!   I manage to pack 2 weeks worth and stop  at a Laundry Mat to wash
 
 3)  Did you stop on the way to a certain cg just to check out a park?
 We stop at anything we want to look at along the way, if you have no time schedule to keep, stop, look and enjoy when ever you want.
 
 4)  Did you take mainly " cash"  with you?
 That s what Debit and Credit cards are for
 
 5)  How far did you drive to get to the next cg? No set distance, stopped when we felt like it. And how long did you stay at each park?Until we were tired of that area. Then we move on
 
 6)  Did you make reservations at each park or just show up?
 We aren t the norm, we wing it with no reservations. But always have more than 1 place in an area picked out just in case
 
 7)  Where did you refill drinking water? I beg for it on the road if we are going primitive, you d be suprised how many gas stations feel sorry for you when you are out in the boonies.
 Containers and on-board holding tank? Yep, fill both
 
   Would you try to cross the mountains with a " no brake"  pu?  (My pu has a braking system, but no idea how to hook it up)
 We have no breaks, but haven t gone to the Big hills yet, I d definately install the brakes
 
 9)  How many groceries did you start out with? about 4 days worth
 Did you mainly take non-perisables at the get-go?Certain items that I wasn t sure could be gotten away from home I brought enough for the whole trip.
 
 10)  Did the weather affect where you wanted to go or did you just deal with what came?  (or try to outrun it?)
 Doug, are you worried about getting to hot! LOL
 
 I m sure I ll have plenty more questions when I think of them.  Any help in this matter is greatly appreciated.  I have a month or so to plan this so I m not in any hurry.  
 
 Cheers
 
 

[Giffster]

 ForestCreature
About the heat......nah.
 
 It s June and I still haven t turned on the a/c here in FL.  Saving money.  Plus, if I get hot.........jump in the pool.
 
 Cheers

[cyclone]

 Giffster
You cleaned your pool???

[Opie431]

 Giffster
1.  We have a cat so that is not a problem,  He can stay along for hours with a litter box.
 2 We take enough clothes for about a week.  Each days clothes, except for jeans and shorts, go in Ziplock bags so we can just haul out a bag and not have to search for that last sock. The go back in the bags at the laundromat. Remember detergent, those little bags at laundromats are expensive and do not have much in them. Fill a plastic bottle with detergent.
 3 We always check out campgrounds and make notes.
 4Debit and credit cards
 5. We drive until we are tired but have more or less planned ahead.
 6. We do most of our long distance traveling in the spring and fall so campgrounds are seldom full and we do not have to worry aboout reservations.
 7.We refill at gas stations, National Forest headquarters, state parks we are checkin out, etc.  We carry water in containers and not in the tank.
 8learn.
 9 We take a box of staples along.  We have been in many parts of the country where you cannot buy fresh meat. So plan ahead in the mountains. The county seat and largest town in the county may have nothing beyond hot dogs and luch meat at it s largest sotre.
 10 We have fans that run on batteries and extra blankets for cold weather.

[AustinBoston]

 Giffster

ORIGINAL:  Giffster
 
 Got a couple questions for the " pro"  long trip in a PU people.

 Our long trip was eight weeks and 10,000 miles, so this is an area we have some significant experience.
 
 

1)  I m going solo, but will have a dog.  What to do with the dog when I can t take her somewhere?

 Our dog doesn t camp well so we have generally been able to leave her with dog-loving friends (for a reasonable fee).  Hopefully my other answers will be more helpful.
 
 

2)  Do you take alot of clothes, or just take the basics and do wash everyonce in awhile?  And where do you wash the laundry?

 We took about 6-7 day s worth of clothes.  We planned things so that we typically did laundry a few days before we had to, because not all campgrounds have laundry facilities.  If we waited to the last day, our luck would have been that we would have been unable to find laundry facilities.
 
 

3)  Did you stop on the way to a certain cg just to check out a park?

 Although we had a fairly tight itiniary with specific campground reservations, we did occasionally stop to see things that were not on the plan.  We also planned on just driving through one park, Zion NP.  We didn t have time for anything else, and we all sorely regret tasting of this park without spending at least a whole day.
 
 

4)  Did you take mainly " cash"  with you?

 My advice here has multiple parts:
 
 A. Have enough cash for a few days.  There will be times you need cash.
 B. Have a stash of traveler s checks for emergencies.  Our " stash"  was sufficient to be able to fly home from anywhere we were travelling.  Keep this away from your wallet and your credit cards, so that if those are stolen, you will still have the traveler s checks.  It is OK to open this and start using it on the return leg.
 C. Use credit or ATM cards primarily, but keep track of what you are spending so that you don t " blow the budget" .  It s easy to spend waaay more than you think when using plastic.
 C. If you will be away when the bills are due, set up a mechanism to pay them.  One option is on-line bill paying, another is to have a friend or family member cover them.  Our approach was to make photocopies of previous bills and pay using the photocopy, estimating and over-paying the actual bill.  In two months, we paid bills four times (due to varying due dates).  Remember that mail service may be a bit slower in the wilds of Remotesville than in metropolitan areas.
 
 

5)  How far did you drive to get to the next cg?  And how long did you stay at each park?

 We decided that moving for less than a two hour drive (one way) was not worth it.  So if we were seeing something within two hours  drive of where we were, we kept camp.  We don t mind driving long distances, and so I understand others cutting that down to 1-1/2 hours or even one hour.  At the longest, we would drive no more than ten hours a day (with two drivers).  Our moves between campgrounds varied from 3-1/2 hours to 10 hours.  Which campgrounds we stayed at were dictated by what sites we wanted to see.
 
 

6)  Did you make reservations at each park or just show up?

On our trip, we paid very little attention to dates and almost no attention to days of the week.  Rather than take chances that someplaces would be crowded on the weekend, and with a tight schedule, we reserved everything we could.
 
 

7)  Where did you refill drinking water?  Containers and on-board holding tank?

We only stayed at one site without water.  I m still a bit surprised by that.  At that one site, there was a " potable water"  hose near (but not at) the dump station.  We filled there.  (Yes, there was a separate rinse water hose at the dump station.)
 
 

 Would you try to cross the mountains with a " no brake"  pu?  (My pu has a braking system, but no idea how to hook it up)

The Supercab is a lot of truck, but I don t know how big a Coleman Yosemite is.  If the trailer has brakes, I would have to urge you to get them hooked up.  I can t imagine any reason it would cost more than $250 (including buying a controller) to pay someone else to do it. (I would do it myself.)
 
 If you don t get brakes, you might regret not doing do, you might not.  If you do get brakes, you will not regret doing so.
 
 

9)  How many groceries did you start out with?  Did you mainly take non-perisables at the get-go?

We did grocery shopping about once a week, but found ourselves eating out more and more as the trip went on.  We tend to try to squeeze every last ounce out of every day, and that meant that we were often returning to the campground after 8:30 PM, exhasted.  Nobody wants to start cooking dinner then.
 
 

10)  Did the weather affect where you wanted to go or did you just deal with what came?  (or try to outrun it?)

We had tremendous luck with the weather.  There were 2-3 times we had overnight showers, 2-3 times with a few sprinkles while towing, and only three other incidents with rain.  It never impacted our itiniary.
 
 The worst weather event was when we tried to outrun a thunderstorm in Arizona.  We had stopped at Meteor Crater (aka Berringer Crater) for a couple hours.  From there, we could see a thunderstorm that was clearly headed north towards the interstate.  We decided to try to outrun it.  Big mistake.
 
 PJay was driving.  We were able to keep up 65 MPH, but when the winds hit (gusty cross-winds), we found ourselves dropping to 60...55...50 MPH.  Of course, that s when we hit the construction, with it s narrow lanes, jersy barriers, uneven pavement, and fewer lanes.  Once the blinding rain hit, we (and most other traffic) were down to about 35 MPH.  
 
 There were dust devils everywhere and I was trying to keep one eye out for tornadoes.  Dust devils look just like tornadoes.  There were lots of dust devils.
 
 Eventually, we reached Flagstaff and stopped for lunch.  We ran like banshies from the van to the restaurant, but ended up soaked anyway.  We took our time for lunch and the rain was mostly gone when we left.  Within 30 minutes, we were back in partly cloudy.  If we had decided to stay another hour at Meteor Crater, we would have missed the whole thing.
 
 

I m sure I ll have plenty more questions when I think of them.  Any help in this matter is greatly appreciated.  I have a month or so to plan this so I m not in any hurry.  
 
 Cheers

 We spent two years planning and getting ready for our trip, but there were five of us and we felt the need to pack our plans as full as possible.  If it had been just me (or me and PJay), we would have been significantly more adventureous.
 
 Austin
 

[Kelly]

 Giffster
[font=" comic sans ms" ]Not sure I m a pro, but we have done a couple of Road Trips ... here is what has worked for us ...[/font]
 
 

1) I m going solo, but will have a dog. What to do with the dog when I can t take her somewhere?

[font=" comic sans ms" ]Sorry ~ can t help here.  Our dog goes to grandma s house[/font]
 

2) Do you take alot of clothes, or just take the basics and do wash everyonce in awhile? And where do you wash the laundry?

[font=" comic sans ms" ]Both previous Road Trips have been 2 weeks long.  This year s is 3 weeks.  I usually pack enough clothes for a week to 10 days.  Lots of (private) CGs have laundry facilities, so I try to do laundry when we re at one of those.  If we absolutely have to, we find a laundromat in town some place.[/font]
 
 

3) Did you stop on the way to a certain cg just to check out a park?

[font=" comic sans ms" ]Depends on the day ~ some days are  designated  driving days (lots of miles to cover).  If we have time, we definitely stop and check all sorts of things out![/font]
 
 

4) Did you take mainly " cash"  with you?

[font=" comic sans ms" ]Very little cash ~ credit cards.  (Traveler s checks if you don t have a credit card)[/font]
 
 

5) How far did you drive to get to the next cg? And how long did you stay at each park?

[font=" comic sans ms" ]I think our record with the kids (4 little ones, remember) is about 500 miles.  Not something I want to do every day! [: (]  This is what I have figured out for this year s trip, so far ... total miles 4050, 13 drive days (out of 22 days on the road), average about 312 miles on those days.  Shortest distance - 160 miles.  Longest - 530 miles.  We have 2 nights at hotels (just to get through Nebraska!) and 3  one-nighters .  The rest of the stays are 2 to 3 days.
 Obviously we like to cover a lot of ground and get a taste for all sorts of areas of the country.  [/font]
 
 

6) Did you make reservations at each park or just show up?

[font=" comic sans ms" ]I travel with kids, Doug!  I make reservations ... This trip we have one stop that doesn t take reservations, but we re meeting somebody from PUT there and she s going ahead of time to stake out our spots. (thanks campincrazy!)[/font]
 
 

7) Where did you refill drinking water? Containers and on-board holding tank?

[font=" comic sans ms" ]I freeze gallon jugs (1 for each cooler) & 20 oz bottles of water (I think I have about 2 dozen) before we leave and use them to keep things in our coolers cold.  As they thaw we use that water for drinking.  I also have a really big Thermos thing (what are those called?) with a spigot that we fill with water and ice before we leave.  If we have to, we buy more gallon jugs on the road.  We don t use our holding tank at all ~ we always get hookups and use that water for dishwashing and kid washing![/font]
 
 

Would you try to cross the mountains with a " no brake"  pu? (My pu has a braking system, but no idea how to hook it up)

[font=" comic sans ms" ]Depends on your system.  We tow a light trailer with a big ole Suburban and don t have brakes (on the trailer[]).  We haven t had any problems.  However we ve only towed the trailer through the front range of the Rockies, not up into them.  We tend to park the PU at the CG and travel through the mountains without it.  [/font]
 
 

9) How many groceries did you start out with? Did you mainly take non-perisables at the get-go?

[font=" comic sans ms" ]Take this with a grain of salt ~ I may be a little too organized in this area!!  I m not sure how this will work for a 3 week trip, but this is what I did for the 2 week ones.  I planned ahead of time enough meals to get us through the trip.  Then I purchased all the non-perishables here and loaded up a 14-gallon Tote.  I marinate and freeze enough meats for about 5 days (this may change with my new Xtreme cooler!).  I bring enough perishable stuff for about 5 days and then we buy the rest of the perishables as we travel.[/font]
 
 

10) Did the weather affect where you wanted to go or did you just deal with what came? (or try to outrun it?)

[font=" comic sans ms" ]Never affected where we wanted to go ~ we ve made a few adjustments to accommodate it, though!  We just deal with what comes our way.  (Never had to outrun it, but those wind storms in WY are Nasty [: (])[/font]
 
 

I m sure I ll have plenty more questions when I think of them. Any help in this matter is greatly appreciated. I have a month or so to plan this so I m not in any hurry.

[font=" comic sans ms" ]You might want to pick up the pace a little bit.  You re heading into some very popular areas during peak tourist season.  Lots of CGs are full already ~ especially on the weekends.
 
 Hope this helps.  Email me if you want more info.[/font]
 
 

[Civil_War_Buff]

 Giffster
Without replying directly to each question, I will share how we are managing our cross coutry trip which begins 7am, 6-27-2003.
 
 We won t be taking our pets, but we will be on a tighter schedule between California and Pennsylvania.  We plan on traveling 500 miles/day, and we did make campgound reservations for the trip out, but have a loose schedule coming back, so I  made reservations for Branson only, because we have tickets for a show, and know when we will be in town.  Other than that, we will just begin calling (using the Trailer Life Directory) when we are about an hour away from where we want to stop for the night...no stress that way.  We will take enough clothes for about 5 days and we usually do laundry on the road, (when I made the reservations, I looked for laundry facilities as one of my criteria). As for cash, we will have " some" , but mostly we will rely on traveler s cheques and our ATM card, with a couple credit cards as a back-up, (I recommend that if you have several credit cards, that you leave  most  of them at home...this way should you lose your wallet or purse, the damage is minimized). As for water, we will use bottled water for drinking, and will have only a small amount on board the trailer for emergency and on road use.
 If you do not have trailer brakes all set up, adjusted and a prodigy controller, I say, don t leave home without them, also, if your trailer has brakes, they are probably required in most states so for you not to have them working may be against the law in some places that you might go.
 Hope that this helps!

[Giffster]

 cyclone
Yeppers.  It s nice and blue now.  I kinda miss the " pond"  look though.

[Giffster]

 Giffster

6) Did you make reservations at each park or just show up?

 I guess if I don t make reservations, I could arrive and depart during the week (Tue - Thur).

[Papaso]

 Giffster
Hey Doug,
 When I made my trip I didn t have a PU, I believe if I were to do it alone I would leave the PU home. I had a pickup with a cap on it. I built a platform out of 3/4"  plywood between the cap and pickup bed and slept on the top half, and storing all my camping stuff underneath. I stopped at State rest areas and slept right there and they all had clean rest rooms. I did have a tent but used it only at the National parks and I believe most of the parks were dry camping anyway. I did stay at a private campsite in Borglum SD right outside of Mt. Rushmore and slept in the back of the pickup. I just think that if I were to do it alone I would try to make things as easy as possible and since your only going for a month I believe you ll be on the road most of the time. Let us know where you plan to go, maybe you could get someone to go with you to share in the driving and expenses and then I would take the PU. Whatever you do I m sure you ll have a Blast.
 Happy Camping

[Giffster]

 Papaso
I m trying to talk my Dad into going.  He ll be in Arkansas for 2 weeks in Aug, so he d have to catch up to me in Montana or Wyoming.  Plus, if I talk him into going, he can get the National Park Senior Pass and get 1/2 off at the campsite!

[sandykayak]

 Giffster
Doug, I envy you....sell the sub shop and hit the road....sounds good to me.
 
 The last time I took a week s solo trip (in the 95 VW EruoVan camper) I was lonely without the doggies - must be an age thing!.  The first 3 days were part of a paddling trip and I couldn t take them.  The doggies are great company.  You might want to take a copy of Steinbeck s Travels with Charley with you.
 
 Hope you do get your dad to join you....would probably be a good " late in his life"  bonding thing....plus the senior citizen discount would be a great deal.
 
 I can fit one (and even two) Coleman camp beds in my minivan.  I m hoping to do a solo trip (only have about a week available) and will sleep in the van (plus I ll take a small tent with lots of screening) for overnighters.  I want to go to the E Georgia mountains - near Helen.
 
 Since you do have a pick-up you could probably arrange to sleep in the bed - they even sell (check out www.campmor.com) a tent that fits over the bed - when yer just passing thru.
 
 If you wear nylon shorts with the built-in underwear you can wash them in the shower and minimize some of the laundry problems.   do take laundry detergent with you as they charge the earth for the wee packets or they may not be available at all.
 
 www.tilley.com (i think that s it) sells some fabulous underwear that is very quick drying.  I paid $15 each for two pairs and only use them for travel.  I bought another pair from, I think, www.travelsmith.com but they re not as quick drying.
 
 also, I d suggest getting some Supplex fishing-style shirts, shorts, and slacks - better yet, get the slacks with the zip-off legs.  You can hand-wash supplex and it also dries quickly.  campmor, rei, and sierratradingpost.com have lots of this.
 
 you might want to check out rick steves  (do a google search) site.  he has some excellent packing tips.  
 
 you can pop into grocery stores en route to stock up....
 
 keep us posted.

[GeneF]

 Giffster
Giff
 
 1.  Pick up some of those " New Hampshire Loves Campers"  or other states that love campers at one of the rest stops.  They are camping guides to campgrounds in the area.  We have found them very handy.  If you have AAA, you can get tons of stuff from them on campgrounds and places to see.  They can also help you plan your route, let you know where you can t go with the propane and advise you on routes to avoid with the camper.
 
 What we have done is to look through these books and then use the cell phone to call ahead and make a reservation for the night.    Getting to some cg s after five may mean you won t get a site especially on a weekend or a holiday.  We generally do this for one night stays.  Longer stays, we generally check out the websites and make reservations.
 
 KOA s are generally a safe bet.  Clean with a pool but might be a bit pricey.
 
 2.  We use our atm and credit card when travelling.  Generally don t have more than a hundred in my wallet while we are on the road.  Never really had a problem writing a check.  Don t think I have ever been turned down. But a couple of traveler s checks could you a bit more flexibility.
 
 3.  If you are heading out west, may I strongly suggest you find out about hooking up those brakes.  Depending on your route, you may run into some steep downhills especially in the mountains.   It isn t any fun when you get out and see your wheels smoking.
 
 Have a blast of a trip.
 
 As for the dog, be great company but there may be places that you can t bring the dog and it might mean you don t get to see or do something.