Shifting Gears

You may have noticed that I have not posted any articles for several weeks. Some of you may have appreciated the break from my rambling, pointless musings and long historical narratives (those who know me also know that I never stay quiet for long, however…). Since closing the chapter on the story of Will Larson (A Shining Light Emerges from Tragic Loss if you haven’t read it yet) I had to divert myself away from historical research and family stories. Instead, my attention needed to focus on my upcoming camping trips. As any of you who travel know, planning any trip is a lot of work. The longer the trip, the more planning is required. I think the only time this is not the case is when going on a sponsored group trip where all you need to do is pay for the trip, pay for the airfare to the trip launch site, and then show up. I did this in March 2023 when I took a Road Scholar trip to Death Valley, California (highly recommended, by the way). Easy peasy.

But if, like me, you are starting from scratch to make your own itinerary, then it is a much more complicated process. Many hours of effort are required depending on where you are going, how you are getting there, how long you will be gone from home, how far and how often you will be on the road driving or flying from point to point, and what you want to see along the way and after you reach your destination. Reservations have to be made. Tickets have to be purchased. Research into sights to see needs to happen. Routes need to be mapped out. International trips can be even more complicated.

It remains a sad fact of life that we can’t do everything we want or need to do simultaneously. (Multi-tasking is a total myth, by the way.) We have to pick and choose what to spend the most time on at any given moment. So I neglected my travel planning for July and October while I was preparing to go to Pennsylvania in May to research family history. After returning home from that trip I continued to neglect the road trips still in front of me while I reviewed and organized all the information gathered on the Pennsylvania trip together with all the other research I’ve been doing from home. I blended the historical information that interested me the most with the various family facts and eventually wove it all into my narrative about the Larson men who emigrated to the U.S. (see Coming to Amerika and Getting Started in Pennsylvania).

For those who have waded through those articles, you could probably tell I was totally immersed in the subject matter and fascinated by my discoveries (I hope some of you were as well!). I had to tear myself away because my road trips were looming large in front of me and I wasn’t nearly ready! Reluctantly, I put away all the papers, photos, notes and folders piled on and around my desk, and got down to the business of planning my trips.

Preparing to Hit the Road

The one week trip to western Pennsylvania in May was a practice run. I wanted to live in the camper and try out its different functions that I hadn’t used before (like the shower set up off the back of the van). My trip to New England in July will give me the chance to practice living in the camper longer than a few days or a week.

When planning a camping road trip, especially to parts of the country that are unfamiliar, there are a million little decisions that have to be made. I lived in New England for ten years so going there feels familiar even though I’m venturing into New Brunswick, which is new to me. The trip out west in the fall will be all new territory right from the start. Here are some of the questions and considerations I think about as I make my plans:

• How far do I want to go in an outlying direction before I circle back toward my final destination and eventually back home? I decided to go as far as New Brunswick so that I could say that I saw the Bay of Fundy and dip my toe in. I determined that Nova Scotia was a little too ambitious and far for me. But I will be staying in the area for several days so might venture further along the coast on day trips. Or I might just stay close to the campsite and hike along the coast, soaking up the scenery.

• How many hours do I want to be on the road in any given day? My target is no more than 300 miles driving distance in a day. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on where I am and where I’m trying to go. I want to be in my overnight location well before dark and early enough that I can settle in for the evening and enjoy the location, even if it is only for one night.

• Do I want to be driving long distances on successive days or do I want to drive from one location to another every few days? This one really depends on what I’m doing in a given area and where I’m trying to go. Am I just trying to get from point A to point B, with quick overnight stops and no sightseeing along the way? Or do I want to meander a bit along the way and savor the scenery? In July I definitely wanted to build in some relaxing time, which is why I decided not to try to get all the way to Nova Scotia. On the trip west in the fall I am building in extra time to see and explore sights on the way to the west coast, knowing that my ancestors bolted out there as fast as they could, driving between 500 and 700 miles a day. I decided that this is my own adventure as much as it is me trying to experience their adventure, so compromises were made. My trip will be much more leisurely than theirs was. That said, there will still be several consecutive days of driving here and there, especially through Texas (sorry, Texas!).

• Where do I want to stay - campsite, friend or relative’s house, or hotel? A healthy mix of all three overnight options is my goal for the New England trip. For the trip to California friends and family will not be an option and I will be broadening these options to include: a) friendly - and free - parking lots (Cracker Barrel, Walmart, Cabela’s, truck stops, and other similar places). b) Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome, where you can stay for free or make a small purchase if it is a business such as a farm, winery, etc. and c) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land (free) or National Forest campgrounds. BLM lands are considered the “people’s” land (as in, our taxpayer dollars pay for its preservation and availability to the general public) and are generally open for dispersed camping (otherwise known as “boondocking” - no facilities, hookups, amenities, etc).

• How much am I willing to pay for a campsite or hotel? There is wide variation of prices of campsites, just like there are for hotels. There is only so much planning I can do ahead of time, and will be intermittently “winging it” once I’m on the road. State parks usually require payment up front and may or may not offer refunds if you cancel. So I want to be pretty sure what my plan is before I spend too much money ahead of time. I try to make reservations in state parks in popular areas that may not have availability otherwise.

• What’s my budget for the trip and what are some of the unexpected costs that could arise? This one is hard to predict and plan for, since I haven’t ever been on the road for more than a few days at a time. I’ll need to figure out how to get my laundry done (haven’t been to a laundromat in years). I may have to pay for filling my water tank, or in some places I may have to pay to take a shower. What will I be eating day to day? Haven’t even thought about that yet (and I leave in just a couple days!).

• What do I have to bring with me and what can I live without? How will I keep everything in the van organized? How many shoes are too many? (this is a trick question) Packing clothing and personal items can be tricky because it is impossible to anticipate every weather eventuality or personal preferences for a given day. I am a notorious over-packer, which means that I typically bring a huge suitcase even if I’m only going to be gone a few days. I inevitably end up wearing only a fraction of what’s inside. A month seems a long time and I don’t know how often I’ll be able to do laundry or take a shower (daily routines often get compromised when camping - there are multiple ways of staying clean that don’t involve a full shower or a washing machine). Nights could be icy cold. Days could be blisteringly hot. How will I keep cool in the van? How much rain should I expect? What about bugs and mosquitos? For the fall trip, I’ll be starting October 1 and won’t be returning until early December. Big change of seasons will be happening while I’m travelling and I’ll be going through mountains, so I’ll need to be ready for snow as well as sun and surf.

• How will I keep track of everything? While I am a big believer in checklists in general, I tend to make things more complicated than they need to be. For example, I am using RoadTrippers to create the road trip mapping my route and places I’ll be staying. I’m using Microsoft OneNote to keep track of my costs, to-do lists, notes about the trip plan, etc. I store my photos on Microsoft OneDrive. I’m using Google Calendar to plot out my days so that I have a calendar visual of where I’ll be when. This kind of redundancy creates opportunities for mistakes if I’m not paying close attention. I’m also printing out emailed campsite receipts so that I have reservation info in paper form in case I’m not connected to the internet for some reason.

• And perhaps most importantly, how do I plan for the things that could go wrong while I’m out and about all alone? What don’t I know that I need to think about? After getting stuck in the mud last summer (twice in the same weekend), I now have a set of traction mats and hope that I will never need them. I also know where my shovel and tire jack are, as well as the place on the front of the van where my loopy thing goes so that a tractor or tow vehicle can grab on and pull me when I’m stuck.

Everything Coming Together

I’m happy to report that I now have my skeleton schedule and reservations made for the east to west portion of the 1938 Project trip starting in October, and I’m super excited. That trip is slowly taking shape and becoming a reality. The next step is to work on the return schedule and route, which will happen in November. I also need to begin researching the history of the places I’ll be visiting.

The July trip is all set and I will try out different daily driving distances as I make my way through that part of the country and into Canada. I’ve built in visits with some of the important people in my life who live in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I’ll also be visiting some nostalgic places that were favorite haunts when Jay and Conrad and I lived in the area back in the early 2000s. And I’ll visit some places that I’ve never been, such as the Bay of Fundy. These coastal sites and sounds are sure to bring me joy, peace and serenity as I soak up the stunning Maine and Canadian coastline, then circle back down through Massachusetts on my way to Cape Cod.

Now that I have the schedule and reservations in place, I can focus on packing. The camper has been serviced and checked out so she should be ready to rock and roll on the highway without any mechanical problems. Since I’ve never packed for a month before, I’ll have to estimate all sorts of things like: how long the water supply will last, how to preserve electricity when I don’t have a plug-in at the campsite, where and how often I will be able to do laundry, how to fill my water tank when it starts getting low, etc. etc. That’s why this trip is important. Some of the outer limits of my van camping experience haven’t really been tested yet. Being self-sufficient for a month is very different than being self-sufficient for a couple of days or even a week. I need to know how to anticipate potential problems and be able to deal with them. The only way to figure that out is to do a field experiment and see what happens. And I’ve always loved a good field trip!

Executing the Plan

If you read my Planning to Plan article, you know that I have many retirement priorities that I’m constantly juggling. Since this is largely a vacation trip, I’m expecting to have lots of free time to pursue my varied interests. So I am filling all available discretionary space in the camper with the following:

• bicycle and supplies

• swimming gear

• crochet needles and thread/yarn (and instruction books)

• banjo (and instruction books)

• sketching materials

• several books to read - both fiction and nonfiction

• computer (so I can continue to blog)

• portable office box with files of my historical information that doesn’t exist electronically (so I can continue to work on the family stuff and hopefully blog about that)

The good news is that in July I won’t be far from family or civilization if something were to truly go wrong. That may not be the case if I get myself stuck in the middle of Texas or Arizona in October, so I need this July trip to build my confidence and self-sufficiency for the bigger fall trip.

With any luck, my next post will be from the road in the next few days. Stay tuned!