Plans and Preparations

Well, I’ve put it off long enough. I’ve been so distracted by my other summer activities - traveling, hanging out with friends, being depressed by the news, working on my book, hosting craft parties, worrying about democracy collapsing, playing my banjo, etc. - that I have not spent the time needed to plan out my trip or complete the Lewis and Clark research I wanted to have finished before I left. But in about a week I will be on the road whether I’ve done all that or not. So I’m pushing most other things aside this week and focusing on getting ready. That includes posting this article and one more before I leave (my former self would have crammed everything I want to talk about into one long post, but I decided to break it up into two smaller ones - you can thank me later).

I thought I would use this space to let you all in on what it takes to get ready for a trip like this. I plan to be out on the road for two months, maybe a little more, home by the end of October. I will travel to parts of the U.S. and Canada that I’ve never driven or visited before. The trip west during the first month will follow as closely as I can the Lewis and Clark Voyage of Discovery (as they called it). I am only going to follow their trail on the westward portion of my trip, which means that most of the time I will be on their westward route as well. But occasionally I will travelling their return route (in reverse) when it includes something I particularly want to see.

Once I hit the Pacific Ocean at the end of September, which is where Lewis and Clark ended their westward trip, I will head north into Canada to Vancouver. From there I will spend October heading east across Canada to Sault Ste. Marie, where I will head south back into Michigan and home. Ambitious, but should be very doable as long as Nely Bly holds up and grizzlies don’t get me. Sadie will be my traveling companion and I will be packing bear spray. With the help of those two security measures (which I’m hoping I won’t need to employ), I should be ok.

How to prepare for this kind of road trip? So glad you asked!

I am not the novice roadtripper I was back in 2023 when I took my epic journey across the country following the trip my Larson ancestors took in 1938. While still no expert, I now have a better sense of what I need to do ahead of time and what I need to take with me (and also what I can leave behind) on a long road trip in my camper.

These planning tips are in no particular order. They are all important.

Planning for Weather

Weather is one of the most unpredictable forces I need to think about. I will be leaving in late summer and returning in early fall. The fact that I will be traversing the northern United States in the early part of the trip and coming back even further north through Canada later in the year means that there is a high likelihood that I will encounter cold and snow somewhere along the way. I will be crossing major mountain ranges both coming and going. The weather research I’ve been able to do so far tells me that temperatures should be getting cooler but remain mostly mild through October. That sounds wonderful to me, but of course that could change at the higher elevations. I need to be prepared for heat, cold, snow, mud, rain, wind and (hopefully not) fires. Winter jackets, thermal underwear, wool socks, heavy boots, scarves, thick gloves - they take up a lot of precious space but I will need them if the temperatures dip below freezing for any length of time.

I don’t want NelyBly to find herself slipping and sliding in snow, ice or mud, so I have two ways of creating extra traction if I need it. One is a pair of riveted thick plastic traction boards that I can slip under the tires if I’m stuck in mud or sand. The second is a set of tire chains that are easy to put on and will help me in snowy, icy weather. Of course, the first line of defense is not to drive in bad weather at all, but sometimes it is unavoidable. I will be trying to minimize the risk but ready to face it if something unexpected happens.

To keep track of what is happening weather-wise, I have an app on my phone called Drive Weather. It allows me to put in my route along with the dates I will be traveling (the paid version lets you plan 7 days ahead, which I thought was worth the $17.95 annual fee), and voila! I get a full rundown of all the predicted weather along the route. And there is a nifty “slider” function that let’s me move the day and time around to see if one day is better than another for driving. I’ve used it a little to practice with and hope that it will spare me the experience I had last year when I drove right into a harrowing thunderstorm/tornado situation and had to pull over to the side of the highway until it blew past, crossing my fingers that the 80mph winds wouldn’t topple my van.

This is what riding out a tornado looks like.

You can’t really tell from the photo, but the wind is blowing the rain sideways across the front of my van.

Planning for Communication

This is an important consideration given where I’ll be going. Uncharted territory for me, and the information I have collected so far tells me that there will be times when I will have no access to cell service. This is typically what I do to stay safe and connected when I’m traveling alone to unknown and potentially remote parts of the country:

Activate my Garmin InReach account. It is set up to work through an app on my phone, but when the phone has no signal I can send short “check-in” messages using a satellite signal. It also has an emergency button that will summon help to my location if something catastrophic happens.
Share my itinerary with my siblings and son Conrad. They can see day by day where my intended route goes and where I expect to spend each night.
Share my actual location with my siblings and Conrad. They can see in real time where I am at any given moment, assuming there is a cell tower somewhere nearby.
Nightly check-ins with my peeps letting them know specifically where I am and that I’m ok.

If my planned itinerary or schedule changes, these methods of staying in touch and checking in will help everyone know where I am and how I’m doing. There are a few nights when I’m not sure yet where I’ll be, so the location tracker and my nightly message will keep them updated.

Planning for Lodging

My camper is a self-contained living unit, but that doesn’t mean I will be sleeping in it every single night while I’m gone. A space that small tends to get cluttered, dirty, and confining over time, so I have found that it’s important to build in respite stops along the way. My overnights when on a long trip like this typically include a combination of the following:

Designated campgrounds. My favorites are state parks and national forest sites, but I also stay at privately owned campgrounds when I need to. Those tend to be more crowded and tightly spaced with less privacy, but they do nicely in a pinch. I might stay for one night or two or three. It all depends on where I am on the route and what I want to see or do. Part of the fun of these road trips is lingering in different places and soaking up the natural beauty while getting a flavor of the history and culture of the area I’m in.
Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome. I’ve talked about this app before, but for those who are unfamiliar, this is an app that lets me know about privately owned businesses and properties that are willing to let RVs come and squat for a night. They only ask that you spend a little money at their establishment or make a contribution to their organization before you leave, which I’m happy to do. I’ve stayed at a variety of interesting places over the last couple of years, and have lined some up for this trip.
Hotel parking lots. This is useful for a quick in and out when you have no interest in scenery or view or special experience. Most hotels don’t care and the ones that do have signs posted. I try to pick the more upscale hotels with big well-lit parking lots and have never felt unsafe. I can block out any light and blend right in with the other vehicles. It will be a bit more complicated with Sadie traveling along, but I’m pretty confident I can make it work. I’ve had her with me before so I’m not worried.
Hotel rooms. Occasionally I just want a bigger bed and a hot shower. Plenty of hotels allow pets so that’s not usually a problem.
Airbnb. Similar to hotel rooms, but the bonus is that I not only get more privacy, but I also get a washer and dryer, which gives me a chance to fully clean out my van and do a full laundry load including all my linens, towels, clothes, etc. When I book an Airbnb I usually stay for at least two nights. Gives both Sadie and me a break from our cramped quarters.

When squatting on someone else’s property, you never know who will be there to greet you when you open your door in the morning.

These guys are apparently very friendly to people. Other dogs, not so much, so good thing Sadie was not along on that trip.

Planning for Driving

People who know me know that I like to be highly organized and strategic. I don’t do well with too much ambiguity in my life, although that’s something I’ve been working on since around 1998, when I stopped being an attorney (who tried to plan for every single little contingency of a client’s case) and became a social worker (which might as well have “loves ambiguity” written into every job description). While I consider myself to be a constant work in progress in this regard, my inner planner did not want to simply strike off into the unknown wilderness for two months in the off season without any plan for how or when I was going to arrive in one destination or leave another. So here is what I think about and do when putting together my itinerary:

Perhaps the most important consideration under this heading is the camper itself. I need NelyBly to remain healthy and roadworthy for the entire trip. She has been declared ready to embark on this journey (engine, tires, brakes, fluids, etc), but I will definitely have her checked out again when I get to the west coast to make sure she will get me back home.
Among roadtrippers there is something called the 3/3/3 rule (some follow a 4/4/4 or 2/2/2). Basically it works like this: you don’t drive more than 300 miles in a day, you arrive at your destination by 3pm, and you stay at each place for 3 nights. I do not strictly adhere to this rule, but it does give me a good benchmark for planning. I generally avoid driving more than 300 miles in a day, but sometimes do so depending on where I am trying to get. I also work in days when I have less than 200 miles to go. I always try to arrive at my overnight spot well before dark, and prefer getting there between 3 and 4 so that I can set up and settle in.
Having Sadie with me changes the driving dynamic. She gets bored and restless during the day so I need to make more frequent stops when she’s with me. When I drive through small towns or on byways rather than highways I’m always on the lookout for parks or open spaces where we can go. Bonus points for finding places where I can let her off leash with no danger to herself or anyone else. She can run off some energy and stretch her legs and then she’s good for another chunk of time. Extra bonus if it’s a hot day and I find a lake or river.
For this trip I have several helpful guides that I’m working with to plan the route. Traveling the Lewis and Clark Trail has been an invaluable book, full of very specific information about roads, L&C sights to see along the way, as well as non-L&C sights to check out. It also includes a fair amount of the history surrounding each suggested stop, which helps put my driving route into the historical context I am seeking. The book is almost twenty years old, but still does a great job of describing the different parts of the country I will be in and what to look for while there.
The Lewis and Clark Trail Experience website also has a wealth of information about how to traverse the trail and what to see along the way.
But to put the itinerary all together in one convenient place I need a special site designed to do that. Roadtrippers has been my go-to website and app that allows me to plot out each day of travel and include all the stops I might want to make in between destinations. It tells me approximate mileage and driving time between every stop so that I can build the trip day by day and see how far I am going and how long it will take to get there. It’s easy to make changes and add and subtract and move destinations around. It has both a list and map feature so I can see the big picture but also zero in on the finer details. I can also add in specifics about where I’m staying each night - confirmation numbers, campgrounds, etc. One stop planning.
For the return trip across Canada, I will not be tied to a specific route so I have more flexibility and choices. There are several people who have travelled across the provinces and have specific recommendations on where to go and what to see. I am comparing notes from those blog sites and then making my own path. One thing I’ve had to take into account as I think about where I’m going to camp is that I will be in Canada during the off-season. Even in the U.S. some state parks and national campgrounds begin closing down after Labor Day, and the same is true in Canada. That means that I need to know what’s available for me in the different areas I’ll be driving through. I purposely chose to travel after the summer season is over because I didn’t want to be competing for campsites with lots of families and summer vacationers, but there is a price to be paid for that in more limited choices of where I can camp. I’m still working on this part of the trip, so we’ll see how it unfolds.

This is the “big picture” for the trip west. 137 total stops, if I end up doing them all.

Planning for Sightseeing

The guidebook I’m using to plan the route west also includes information about what to see along the way. These “must-dos” get factored into how much time I spend on the road driving vs. how much time I spend in any one location. For example, Bismarck, North Dakota, is significant in several ways to my trip. Not only was it a pivotal stop for Lewis and Clark, but it was also near there that the expedition picked up their Indian guide, Sacagawea. In addition to that, Jay’s parents lived there for 10 years or so back in the 1970’s and 80’s, and Jay spent time there between his graduation from the University of Minnesota and when he began graduate school at Northern Arizona University. So I plan to stay 3 nights in Bismarck in order to explore and take in everything that I want to see and check out.

I am also planning to divert from the Lewis and Clark history to include a detour through the history of Custer and Little Big Horn, which of course represents a totally different historical timeline marked by displacement of people and decimation of tribal lands. There is a lot of history I will be driving through and I can’t experience all of it, but I got interested in this event when I discovered I will be very close to where that happened. Other historical opportunities will present themselves and I’ll have to make choices about how and when I veer off the Lewis and Clark trail. I’ll be making notes to myself so that I can come back to explore other aspects of history that I don’t have time for this trip.

Planning for Relaxing

When planning the route and driving days, I try to pay attention to how many days in a row I am on the road with just one overnight. I try to build in stops in scenic places where I can stay for two or three nights, with no particular agenda. It gives me a break as well as Sadie. We can stay near the campsite, relax, hike, read, write, or just chill. I will be bringing some art supplies and my writing materials so I can update the blog, draw or paint some pictures, write postcards, etc.

I’ve noticed that when I’m on a big road trip I start getting restless if I spend too many days/nights at one location. Three nights at a campsite is usually my limit, and then I’m ready to move on. If I stay longer than that there is usually a reason for it, such as scheduling time to do some serious writing, visiting people in the area, or attending a specific event.

On this trip I am planning to spend a few days with my cousin Mike and his wife Carolyn. They live in Hood River, Oregon, which is exactly on my route. Fun! When I realized this I got in touch and, luckily for me, they will be home during the month of September when I will be coming through. They have lived there for many years and I have never visited them, so this will be a treat.

Planning for Miscellaneous Eventualities

These are one-offs, loose ends that I don’t want to forget about or neglect or worry about while I’m on the road. They include:

Passport and National Park Pass - not easily replaced if I leave them at home, and essential to my ability to go where I’m planning to go. Especially crossing international borders or getting into the U.S. national parks for free.
Sadie’s up to date vaccination papers. She has an appointment this week to update her rabies and other essential vaccinations and I will take the printed report with me in the camper. I always try to have both an online and paper version of important documents like these.
List of mailing addresses and essential phone numbers. I’m planning to send cards and postcards while I’m out, so if I already have your address you may be one of the lucky ones to get a snail mail from the road! (and if you don’t, please don’t take it personally - I may or may not follow through on my intentions…)
My updated vaccinations. Today I went to get my annual flu shot, along with a Covid vaccine. I don’t plan to get sick if I can help it.
A folder with essential information - health insurance, auto insurance, roadside assistance, etc.
Lining up cat care - I’m grateful that my sister Carol will be house-sitting for me and taking care of Casper the cat while I’m gone. When she is away I have my catsitter Joan to check on him daily. Casper is always happy to see her.

Still lots to do before I’m ready to leave next week.

Next Steps

Now that you know what I have to do, I need to get back to it! Packing my clothes, organizing the camper small spaces for maximum efficiency, sorting through everything to make sure I have what I need, removing the things I don’t. Deciding what food staples or condiments to pack on the front end, knowing that I will be able to pick up things along the way. Car snacks and beverages, of course. Banjo and music CDs (I must keep practicing!!!). A couple of good novels in case I need a reading break from my immersion in all things Lewis and Clark. Etc. etc.

My next article, which I hope to get out in the next few days, will set the historical stage for the Lewis and Clark expedition and my modern day path to follow it. How much do any of you actually know or remember about this trip of theirs? I remembered exactly zero, so it has been great fun over the summer learning about this fascinating journey. I’ll set a baseline for the trip before I leave, then supplement the story as I drive along, infusing my own present-day reflections on the historical record.

Stay tuned!

P.S. Bonus for anyone who made it this far: Conrad and Maria’s Wedding Song