Preparing for Travel, Again

and Planning the Route

So, it’s travel season again. 🚥🚐 M...O...V…I...N...G…🚐🚥This time it will be two vans traveling together. Moving from their winter home in the LTVA in Quartzsite for the Summer season in New England. It’s also traveling with the pups. They need daily walks. We need daily walks. We’re doing this as cheap as we can. Our budget features an estimate average of $5.00/gal gas. It’s almost 3000 miles one way. I have 2 concretely planned occasions so far. One is a 10 day silent retreat. The other is to meet up with my former motorcycling buddies, the Moving Violations MC. There are friends and family to visit with and make some awesome memories too! Some are destinations, others are along the routes.

One Possible Route

Planning. Preparing. Packing. It all needs to be done before departure. I do mine on paper. KrisP, not so much. I make lists with check boxes. I plan the route with gas stops, rest stops and overnight stops. Sometimes, I’ll choose alternates as well. I may include some local points of interest. I do the routing with an app, I do checklists on paper in my planner (also known as my paper brain) and I use my calendar entries on the web for keeping track of dates. Important papers go in fire/water proof envelopes and then to the safe.

I have a volunteer position at a Vermont State Park. More on that after I arrive. It will be lovely being back in New England again. Homecoming still though I've spent an equal amount of time here in the desert. The values and formational roots still read as northerner and coastal. Mostly the desert is full of people who lived elsewhere. It's quite the amalgam. The common ground is easily found.