Planning for long term road trips
In addition to planning the route for national and state parks, there are a lot of other things to consider when planning a long trip. At this point in time, we don't have any pets or plants, so we don't have to worry about that, but we do need to make sure our house, yard, snow removal needs, car, and mail are taken care of. Luckily we have some fantastic folks who do all of this and keep the house occupied and active whenever we are away.
For this trip, knowing that we would be on the road and in campgrounds with our things more accessible and exposed, we called our insurance agent to make sure we have everything in order. We wanted to check that we have the right home and car insurance coverage both in case something happens and our house is broken into or if we run into trouble on the road. We also moved some valuables out of the house to a secure location. Plus we took photos and video in every room so we'd have a better record of what was there in case we need it.
It's always a challenge to finish all the perishable food in the house before a trip, and we did a pretty good job this time. Some things could come with us since we are bringing a cooler and a food box, but we are watching weight and space in the car, which I'll talk about more in a future post around how to pack for a road trip. We also tried to maximize the amount of work we completed during this time for our jobs so that we could relax more, especially at the beginning of the trip when there is heavy driving and not a lot of down time.
The other complication with this particular trip is that we are going to be gone over Christmas and have little ones who still believe in Santa. That required some advance planning. We bought one small gift that each kid had asked for (a watch for the 4-year old and binoculars for the 6-year-old) and wrapped them at up home to be from Santa, since who knows where we’ll be for Christmas. We planned to pick up a few other small things for them on the road along with one gift for each of us. We bought wrapping paper to wrap those things on Christmas Eve. We’d normally be with family for the holidays and are sad that Covid has made us change those plans. No sense in endangering grandparents or in exposing ourselves to a whole lot more people we love. This trip will be far less risky and we can exchange gifts with family at a later date.
