5 Things You Should Not Do While Traveling Across the Country

 Dean (the husband)
Shalane (the wife)

It’s so easy for all of us to pat ourselves on the back when we have done something right.  What is really hard for a lot of people is reflecting back on what we could have done better.  We feel it’s time to talk about some of the problems that we have found during our past month of travel.   After all, we haven’t yet blogged about some of the things that have not worked out while we have been roaming around the country.

Here is our top 5:

1)  Don't think it will be easy to eat healthy.  Sticking to a normal eating routine is much harder than we had anticipated.  It’s not harder than I anticipated!  I love to eat, and when I’m traveling, I purposely try to find fun, interesting and unique places and things to eat.  Don’t even think about talking to me about my fat intake!  Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, baby!  Great food is part of a great vacation!  :O)  When we are traveling down the road, it is so much easier to stop in at a diner or fast-food restaurant than it is to have a picnic in a park somewhere.  I really try my best to eat right and drink the right amount of water each day.  I am finding that it is so difficult to do.  Even when we are staying with family, it is hard to avoid going out to eat at their favorite spots.  In a small way, I can’t wait to get back to a more normal routine when we get back to Nevada next month.  ((Getting back to “normal” eating always does feel good, but tonight I’m going to enjoy a fried Twinkie!  :o)

2)  Diesel trucks do not like to run at high altitudes.  Once we climbed to  9000+ ft (3000+ m for our readers around the globe)  above sea level, the engine did not respond with the same amount of power.  I remember talking to a tow truck operator who worked near the main pass on Interstate 70 in the highest mountains of Colorado.  He said that everyday he tows diesel trucks up to the top of the pass.  He indicated that, for the most part, it’s how he makes his living.  Evidently, very few people who rent diesel powered moving vans are ever told that they will not have enough power to make it over the summit.  (( He didn’t tell you the reason he talked to the tow truck operator.  It was because he, and our son, age 9 at the time, were visiting with him in the cab of his truck while he was towing our moving van across the mountains.  Ah, memories.  :O)

3) Don't get too caught up in the details of the trip. Mapping out where you would like to stay is okay, but be ready to change your plans quickly if needed.  Before we got started, we sat down and mapped out a route for our trip.  We had a boondocking site set up for each night.  In fact, the first night out we had planned to stop at a recreation area just outside of Escanlante, Utah.  The only requirement was to stop in at the visitor’s center to pick up a free ‘pass’ to camp at various dispersed campsites.  We had so many wonderful photo opportunities that day as we traveled down the road that by the time, we had reached the visitor’s center it was 5:38 pm.   I think he just made fun of how many pictures I take again.  That’s okay.  I can take it.  He’ll thank me someday.  ;o)  The center closed at 5:30 pm.  Plan B was to drive to a state park and camp at a primitive campground.  It cost us $7.  That was the only camping fee that we had to pay from Nevada to Oklahoma.  Anyway, remember that unexpected things happen, so plan accordingly.   I loved that cheap little campground.  It was surrounded by mountains, had a clear water stream and nice, clean sites.

4)  Free Wifi is everywhere? Finding free wifi for internet access is not always as easy as we had hoped it might be in rural America.  We were able to find a place everyday, but it was not always easy.  It helped that I had an app that found  free wifi hotspots on my cell phone and a mini-satellite dish that plugs into the USB port of my laptop to extend the range of the device.   Dean’s a faithful blogger and, to say the least, doesn’t like to miss a single day.  :o)

5)  It will be nice there this time of year. Never assume average temperatures will be the actual temperature where you’re going to be visiting.  We have been in the Midwest for over a week now.  There has not been even one day that wasn’t at least 8 to 10 degrees above the normal temperatures.  Hence, the reason why we are scrambling to find a way to get A/C in our truck as I have been mentioning on the previous blogs.  Had the temperatures been a little closer to normal, I am not sure that I would be so concerned.   What he’s trying to say is, WE’RE MELTING!  How did we grow up out here?  People say Vegas is hot, but they got nothin’ on the hot, humid states of the Midwest and South.

I wonder why my wife kept asking me to take one more step back?

I sincerely hope that this will help someone ‘down the road’.   Don’t get me wrong, we are loving our adventure, but I hope that by sharing some of the bad with the good, we can make it easier for someone else.  We have included some of our better pictures that we have taken that have not made it to our blog yet.  We do this, simply to emphasize that there are way too many positives to let the few negatives get in the way of having a great time.  Only a health nut like my athletic husband would call vacation eating a bad thing.  Maybe he’s trying to hint at the fact that he’s starting to notice the couple of pounds I’ve put on the last couple weeks.  Don’t worry, Babe, it’s temporary.  By the way, if any of you know of a good BBQ place in Memphis, let me know so we can hit it up next week.   :O)  Happy Trails!