Post-Trip Tips and Tricks

And man, what a tongue twister!

So, you've seen some of my packing tips (as are linked below) but now that our trip is over, what was the outcome? What came in handy? What could we have left at home?

Well, let's see.

Toiletries: The apron organizer I made to carry my toiletries was a bust. It was kind of bulky, and stuff fell out when it was wrapped up. I ended up just using a draw-string backpack bag to carry all my toiletry stuff.

Using a Crystal Lite canister to hold the smaller stuff was brilliant. I had no problems wrangling my makeup and bobby pins, that's for sure. The Coke bottles holding shampoo and conditioner worked great, too, even in freezing temperatures and changing elevations. No leaks. I used lots of lotion and chap stick with the dry air and cold weather.

Clothing: I used everything I brought. Using simple clothes worked great- I didn't have to worry about ironing, and I could dress an outfit up or down depending on the plan for the day. I also wore all three pairs of shoes... and the fact that my clogs float came in very very handy... HH and I almost lost them when a big wave came up when we were playing at the beach! Thank goodness HH is fast and the shoes were floating! It was also very helpful to put smaller clothing items (panties and socks) into big bags- they were so much easier to find, especially in the dark.

Cleaning Supplies: We brought along laundry detergent, but we only used it at the yurt (which had free laundry facilities!) because we did laundry when we stopped to see friends and family. I would bring it again, because most campsites do have coin laundry (with terribly expensive detergents), and in a bind, you could always do some wash in a sink or tub. We did use our laundry line- it was great to dry out swim suits at campsites and small hotel rooms. And of course, we used our dish soap to wash the mess kit we brought along and cooked with. The larger container also came in handy for carting firewood around!

Camping Supplies: The only thing we didn't really use in this list was our space heater. I think that if we did this trip again, we'd still pack it, though- it was nice to have the option to camp even when it was colder, despite the fact that we stayed at hotels when it got really cold.



Other stuff:

We took along our Zeke's folks' GPS, which was incredibly helpful along the way. I think the trip would have been a lot more stressful, and probably a lot longer, without it. When we got spontaneous and stopped at random towns along the way, the GPS could get us back on the highway. When we decided on a whim to go to Arkansas, the GPS saved us lots of time that would have otherwise been spent plotting on a map.

It's really expensive to eat out while on the road. We brought along lots of granola bars and snack food, as well as some sandwich meat, cheese, mayo... and tortillas. Using tortillas instead of sandwich bread on the road worked great. Tortillas are flatter, so you don't have to worry about crushing it like bread, they have less crumbs than bread, and it was easy for me to prepare a wrap for Zeke while he kept driving. Wraps are also really easy to eat with just one hand, so it was a safer choice, too.

Dried beef and cheese wrap- HH' favorite

Before we left, I loaded four audiobooks onto my iPod (Louis La'mour, a mystery/adventure novel, and two murder mysteries). In certain remote parts of the US, there wasn't much for radio signal, and the books definitely came in handy. In our second vehicle, we did have Sirius radio (bonus!), but I don't know about you, but I get kind of tired of listening to music after a couple hours. The books were great to break up the long stretches, and they also sparked some great conversation between Zeke and I.

So there you have it! A recap of our packing lists!

If you'd like to read about our super-amazing road trip, I'd suggest starting here!