Getting Ready for a Road Trip…
This picture was taken back in May 2007, somewhere between Artesia, NM and Hagerman, NM on the Old Lake Arthur highway.
I feel it’s appropriate at the moment, because we’ve been getting ready to take a family road trip. We’re going to the MCRD (Marine Corp Recruit Depot) in San Diego California, and we leave in about 6 days.
From our house to San Diego is about a 16 hour drive, and normally I’d choose to do this in one fell swoop. I tend to hog the wheel on road trips though - in other words: Unless I’m tired to the point of passing out, I drive. We’ve also not had a decent road trip in years, so we decided we should take a little more time and enjoy ourselves on this one. So we’ve chosen to do hops through instead of a straight drive.
We’ll be stopping in Tucson, AZ for sleep after the first leg, since it’s about halfway and we have family there. We’re only going to spend the night though, then leave by noon the next day. We’ll get into San Diego in the evening of the 29th and should have plenty of time for a good night’s sleep.
Both Thursday and Friday of that week will be spent at the MCRD base primarily, but we may have time to find a beach Thursday evening. Thursday is family day and Friday is graduation at the base. We’re hoping to actually leave San Diego by early afternoon Friday so we can get back into Tucson by Friday evening. That way we can spend most of the weekend with family and enjoying some of the places we like to visit. Tucson is “home” in our hearts and we haven’t been to visit in 5 or 6 years, so we plan to make the most of it.
Getting ready for this trip has been something of an experience in and of itself. In previous years, our family took road trips on a whim. We’d pack a couple of days worth of clothes, grab money and car snacks, then leave. A few times we didn’t even do that… we just started the trip on a spur of the moment and picked up things in route.
This time though, we have a lot of other obligations to deal with. Our daughter just started school again and we’ll have to get her excused plus gather school work for the days she’ll miss. We also had to make preparations for the dog, get general maintenance done on the Jeep, and various other things. So here’s what things look like right now:
Pre Trip Preparation - About 2-4 weeks before leaving:
- Take Jeep to mechanic with list of maintenance needs
- Take dog to vet for checkup and booster shots
- Make arrangements for kennel stay
- Make hotel reservations for three different time blocks
The week before we leave:
- Talk to high school about daughter’s leave
- Gather books/assignments for her
- Since I’ll be semi-working on the road: Gather all files/programs/data onto tablet PC
- Stop mail delivery
- Make arrangements for house sitter/watcher
The day before we leave:
- Charge all electronics that will go with us on the trip
- Pack and double check camera equipment
- Pack anything my son may want straight out of bootcamp
- Pack non perishable food, clothing, extras
- Pack dogs toys, blankets, food, treats, etc. for kennel
- Get emergency cash
- Fill truck with gas
- Check oil, water, tranny fluid, etc.
- Pack emergency fluids, tools, etc. into truck
I may be forgetting something at the moment, but so far things look very good. I’m excited to finally be off on a trip again soon and I plan to get plenty of pictures along the way. I might even post some here while the trip is still in progress, and I’ll definitely have tons to put up once we’re back!
August 25th, 2007 at 10:00 am
“Unfinished” Photo Friday Entry. I think it’s more than appropriate, both because of the topic of the post: Our trip is unfinished, and because of the location the photo was taken at: Between two points