Road Trip Prep

Welcome to the beginning of our journey! 5/25/2023

I think we all can agree that planning for any trip is stressful. From finding things to do to saving the money and remembering to pack everything, it can be hard to remember its supposed to be a vacation. In this post, I’ll tell you all you need to know about what we did to prepare for our extensive trip. To be honest, we really have no idea what we were (or are) doing. We did research and put our heads together to try to think of everything we could. Hopefully this post can give you an idea of what we had to do to get ready, and maybe give you ideas for your own adventure!

The Truck

We first knew that we’d need a vehicle that we could camp out of, seeing as the weather can be unpredictable and tent camping would not be ideal. I have a 2002 Honda Accord- very functional but also very small. When the road trip was just an idea, not a guarantee, Griffin had 2007 Ram 1500. Although it could have worked, we would have had to put a lot of money into it and Griffin was thinking about getting a new vehicle anyway.

Enter the 2014 Chevy Silverado LT! A beauty in grey-blue, it caught Griffin’s eye immediately. After months of searching and test driving, he finally settled on his new truck. An added bonus? It was in such good condition that we could take it on the road. Still, there were things that needed to be modified in order to ensure we would have a smooth trip. The biggest purchase (aside from the truck itself) was a topper so we could sleep safely in the back. He found a used one that matched the muted blue color scheme, was carpeted inside, and was relatively cheap.

Griffin’s new truck and topper.

The Builds

Once we had acquired the topper, we showed our plans to build a bed in the back to Griffin’s stepdad, Jeffrey. As a weekend project, the two created a platform with enough space to sleep and store most of our items. Spanning all 6.5 feet of the bed of the truck, the drawers underneath provide ample storage and the platform, with a mattress, is long and wide enough for us to sleep on without having to curl in a ball.

The left drawer contains everything we need to cook with including a two burner propane camp stove, dishes, pans, collapsable sink and drying mat, and a tea kettle. Additionally, at the back of that drawer are all the miscellaneous things we’d need such as bear spray, ratchet straps, a tire iron, tools, and more.

The right drawer holds our clothes for all the diverse conditions of the western United States. From swimsuits all the way to thick flannels and rain jackets, we made sure to pack what we’d need and nothing more.

Also in the bed of the truck is a flip up storage compartment along the left side to hold smaller, less used items. We have Velcroable window covers that go over each window of the topper to keep out the sun and unwanted eyes. Three battery powered lights hang from the ceiling and can be controlled with a handy remote.

After the platform was built in the bed of the truck, we decided that we would need yet another platform in the cab. Griffin and I took out his back seats and enlisted Jeffrey’s help yet again. This time, a small, table-like platform was set nicely in the back of the cab. This second platform would allow us to have a level space to set our cooler, water jug, and food bin. It also provided extra space underneath that we would not have had (or would not have been able to organize as well) where we store Griffin’s camera equipment, our shoes, and shower necessities.

We ran into a slight issue after we’d gotten the platform situated- the center counsel in the front seat could not fold up. We knew we’d want to be able to flip it up so one of us could take a nap across the seats while the other drives. We realized this too late for Jeffrey to help, so we asked my dad. Even with a bad back, my dad and Griffin got to work immediately and made a small cut out in the platform to allow the counsel to flip up. A huge thank-you to both Jeffrey and my father, Ryan!

The Route

When planning our two month route, we kept weather, gas, and ease in mind. We decided to make a western loop, going South first to hit those states when it isn’t the middle of summer. Then, we’ll hopefully be going up and around the coast towards the middle of summer to stay warm as we travel North.

Cutting out certain stops was difficult, but we knew we had to keep the route as simple as possible to save money on gas and to avoid back tracking. Luckily, we both are focused mostly on National Parks and select cities, so the route is pretty straightforward with not a lot of tangents.

One thing that we really relied on when planning our trip was Furkot.com. This website allowed us to input our points of interest and mapped the best route for us to take. There are many settings that can be utilized such as allowing the website to plot places to get gas or to sleep along your route. We still use it to track where we are going as the trip progresses!

The Little Things

There are a lot of things we had to think about and find solutions to as the planning became more specific. First, we still had to pay rent. This meant we had to not only let our landlord know we were going to be gone and ask a friend to watch the apartment (thank you Logan), but we also had to get money to our landlord. To avoid any misplacement, we decided to bring our checkbooks and send rent checks through the mail as the months go by.

Secondly, national parks are expensive! $35 per vehicle would add up quickly, especially with in addition to other expenses. Luckily, the national parks want to encourage visitation and therefore they have an American the Beautiful National Parks pass. For only $80, you can get into most (if not all) national parks, monuments, etc. Over 2,000 sites are now free with that pass. Thank you mom and dad for the wonderful Christmas gift!

We also knew that not everywhere we stayed at would have showers, or showers we want to use. We didn’t want to risk using harmful soaps in lakes and most campgrounds and rest/recreation areas we’d be sleeping at wouldn’t have them. So, we settled on getting a gym membership to utilize their bathroom facilities. After some research, we found that Planet Fitness has many locations along our route. We wouldn’t go longer than 3-4 days without crossing paths with a Planet Fitness, so we got the Black Card Membership. For a $10 start up fee, a $25 monthly fee, and a $50 annual fee, we could split the cost and spend about $60 each throughout the whole road trip on a place we could for sure get clean whenever we wanted.

One of the easiest but most headache inducing things we do is find free places to sleep. Whether that is 24 hour Planet Fitness parking lots, Walmart or Target locations that allow overnight parking, free camping on Bureau of Land Management land or other places we find on apps such apps Free Roam iOverlander. We have yet to be at a loss for free places to stay!

Groceries are always thought of when anyone goes camping or on vacation. We knew that since we were going for two months in a truck, we would want our food to be affordable and able to be used efficiently. I took charge of the food as the resident cook of our apartment. I decided to plan week to two week meals that revolve around the same ingredients. This would work well in two ways: 1) with the same ingredients in bulk, less space would be taken up with random ingredients for meals. 2) we wouldn’t get sick of eating the same things every week. One of Griffin’s fears was that we’d be stuck eating sandwiches so often that we’d get sick of them. I took that as a challenge. Our first week or so has the main ingredients of noodles, rotisserie chicken, tortillas, and breakfast meats. We’re hoping this system will take up less space, cost less, and allow us to avoid going to the grocery store too often.

Lastly, we allowed both of our mother’s to have our locations at all times. Griffin’s mom is using Find My iPhone while my mom is able to see where I’m at with Life 360. This way, if anything were to happen they would be able to find us, or at least our phones.

Conclusion

There are a lot of things that went into the planning and preparation of this trip. I don’t think I could ever express all we had to think about over the course of the year we were planning the trip. Naturally, I definitely didn’t cover everything but I tried to give you a general summary of the major things we had to consider. If I forgot anything, I’ll pepper the information throughout other posts.

Thumbs up for the bed and thumbs up for the next post!