Trip planning

How do you plan for a 70+ day trip across unknown territory and questionable weather? We tried to pack as minimally as possible, so we didn't have to leave items visible in the car while parked in strange neighborhoods. Aside from clothing (and we lacked winter clothing in L.A., it was all in storage in northern CA), we packed two towels, two sleeping bags, two camping chairs, a camp stove and minimal cooking gear, for in case we got caught having to camp and cook dinner. Two pillows, an inflatable mattress (of questionable integrity) and a set of sheets rounded out the packing. Of course the laptop was in the mix, but we weren't sure what Internet availability would be like, since free modem access via Adam's hacked Razr was recently cut off.

Our major expense was to order a plug-in type cooler. We figured it would really cut down on restaurant costs if we could carry some of our own food easily, like eggs, milk, bread, etc.

If you aren't familiar with them, they are pretty neat- A cooler that plugs into your car lighter (or with adapter- a wall outlet) and chills the contents without ice! Cold foods, no sloppy mess! The major limitations are that it only cools to 40 degrees F below the outside temperature (so not great if the weather is over about 85 F), and the amount of power that it draws, it can run your car battery down in something like 2-3 hours if your car isn't running (there's no problems as it is running). So we also bought something called Battery Guard, which shuts off power to the cooler before it drains it to the point you can't start your car. Thus far (I'm writing this more than a week into our trip) it has worked great- we are driving a lot, and when we park somewhere for the night (hotel or at a friend's) we bring it inside and plug it into the wall. We ended up going with Igloo brand over Coleman or others. Coleman was cheaper, but it didn't appear that they had replacement parts available. We like to buy things for the long term. There was also a much more expensive brand available, that I guess truckers use, but we didn't need it that sturdy!

A way we figured we would save on trip costs was something we had learned from Adam's Dad- Couchsurfing.com. This is a website that allows people to register profiles, and optionally offer a couch (or floorspace or guest bedroom) available for other to stay at- for free! Now before you start thinking about safety- there are a couple of safeguards in place, like optional verification process to certify that people are who they say they are, a record of messages exchanged between hosts and potential guests, and of course common sense during exchanges. We registered with a profile (offering a couch while we were in Simi) and started contacting people about potential stays in places we'd be going.