Entries about planning

Taking a break from event-based blogging to offer some advice to would-be roadtroppers, and plug some items of clothing to which I feel indebted.

I wasn't sure what would be the ideal clothing on this trip beforehand. When we initially chose the dates we'd be away, I thought we'd mostly hit very summery weather, but after a little research, I soon realized we'd have to dress for all seasons, since places like Yellowstone (and as we discovered unexpectedly, parts of California!) would still be pretty wintry -- even snowy.

I knew I was overpacking slightly when I loaded up the car, but this was largely a function of not knowing for sure what would be best, and not wanting to have to go clothes shopping in the middle of the vacation. Particularly, I made sure to bring a variety of shoes, because as I've mentioned, I live a basically sedentary life, and you never know which shoes are going to rub until you start doing 16-mile hikes in them. Beforehand, I actually put all the clothes I wanted to take into a Polyvore collection, so I could survey my entire travel wardrobe at a glance, so you can see basically what I decided to take along there. Below are the clothes that were absolutely essential, and which I would bring again in a second if I went on another trip.

===My favorite scarf===

I couldn't do without this scarf ... until I left it at a coffee shop in Wyoming. Because I'm an idiot. I managed to get in contact with the store owner a few days later when we were in Chicago, and she said she would send it back to me in Philly, but it's been two and a half weeks, and I'm still waiting -- so I just went ahead and bought a couple more. They are expensive, but I love this scarf way too much. I also had a bunch of cheap bandanna-type scarves (they're actually table napkins, shhh) to wear as sun shields and sweat-moppers when it was too hot for this one.

===Leather jacket + hoodie===

Obviously, this was the combo for cold weather, with one or the other for temperate weather. The fact that the leather jacket was expensive was tempered by the fact that I bought a bunch of hoodies for $4 each from JC Penney, are you kidding me? Thank you, slave children in China.

===Totally stylin' cargo vest===

This vest makes me look like a tourist, a boy scout, or someone who may or may not be packing heat in one of those pockets, but despite the questionable sartorial elegance, it was invaluable for keeping my hands free, my gear close at hand and easily accessible, and my back from having to shoulder a pack most of the time. I wore a less robust version on our trip to Egypt a few years ago, but thought it was time for an upgrade from a children's fly fishing vest from Bass Pro that I Rit-dyed myself in a saucepan. The fact that the roadtrop vest was oilcloth had the added benefit of keeping me cooler when the heat was blazing, dry in the rain, and warm in the snow, although it also has a tendency to coat everything in the pockets in oil, especially paper goods. I bought one in x-small and still had to take it in about six inches, go figure. It's hard for little people to find tough outdoorsy clothes that fit, and they didn't make this vest in children's sizes.

===Long-sleeved shirts===

This is the only thing I wish I'd brought more of. I had two lightweight button-downs, and when using them alternately to keep the sun off my arms, even over tshirts, it was hard to keep them from getting gross and sweaty. I also could have used some long-sleeved tees, say, when we were in colder climates.

===BAGGY JEANS!===

Yes, with their dropped crotch, these are not the most arse-flattering pants in the world. But goddamn, they are awesome. The dropped crotch gives your nethers room to breath, even when sitting down for long periods of time on a leather seat. You can wear them multiple days in a row, like a skirt, without them ever smelling like dirty laundry. They are breezy enough for hot weather, especially with the legs rolled up, and sturdy enough for snow. They are the color of dirt. I got them on sale for $40, and I wish I'd picked up more than one pair, because then that's ALL I would have worn on this trip.

I read elsewhere that you shouldn't bring denim jeans on a trip like this because they take too long to dry, but I never had that problem with these pants, mostly because they needed washing so infrequently. I wish I hadn't brought along other pairs of pants which, although they were made of technical fabrics and were more flattering, weren't as comfortable. I also wish I hadn't brought along so many pairs of shorts and short dresses -- I forgot that sitting on carseat leather in short bottoms makes for sticky thighs, so I had to line the seat with a towel or something. The leggings I brought along ended up being mostly used as long underwear under these pants. My long skirt was OK, but not so rugged. Basically, these pants were the bomb.

===Ibex merino underwear===

I've tried a few different pairs of travel underpants, and I like Ibex best. They're 85% merino, which means they breathe well, don't retain the stench of human, and dry overnight if you wash them in a motel room sink before bed. I brought four pairs, and if anything, that might have been one too many. Oh, also, they have a John Muir quote inside the band: "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings." WHY THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I DID, MR. MUIR! AND IN A PARK YOU EXPLORED TOO! Thanks, underpants.

I also brought merino socks by Goodhew for the same reason. It's like my feet don't stink! Amazing.

===Zensah calf sleeves===

I plugged these before, but I'll do it again. Zensah compression leg sleeves saved my weakling legs. I will never go on a long walk without them ever again.

And now ... the two pairs of shoes that made the cut out of the too-many-pairs I brought with me:

===Keen Venice Sandals===

Yeah, my Keen hiking sandals aren't particularly cool looking. But they work. They protected my feet and let them breathe so I didn't need socks for 90% of the trip. They are more comfortable than flip-flops or the Earth sandals I brought along.

And the big surprise:
===All Saints Shearling Boots===

I bought these over the winter, and was really impressed with how comfortable they are. When it came time to think about what kind of boots I'd be hiking in, I kept wishing that I could find something that was just like these, but ... hikey. The shafts are leather lined with shearling (ugg boots, basically), so no breaking in was needed - and although shearling seems ideal for winter only, it actually performs quite well in the summer without overheating. I prefer shoes with a more flexible sole, like these, because they seem to be better for my feet and ankles. They're not heavy. They don't require much in the way of cleaning because of the style/color. One problem: leather soles. So I took them to a cobbler here in Philly and had lugs installed. Right up until the moment we left, I was wondering if taking these along as my hiking boots would be a mistake. After all, they're technically just fashion boots.

No mistake: they were perfect. I climbed Half Dome in these boots, and didn't get a single blister or have any problems with joint pain. The boots suffered no major damage either. And -- although this wasn't really a consideration -- I think they look great, even when filthy. Who needs "proper" hiking boots?

So, craziness. A couple of months ago, I reported that we were lucky enough to snag a campsite in Yosemite for Memorial Day weekend in the few short minutes before they sold out completely. Shortly afterward, we also entered the Half Dome lottery.

Half Dome is a great big rock. Maybe it's the most famous large rock in America? I come from a land often defined by a very large rock in the center that I've never actually seen in person and certainly never climbed, but for some reason I decided that perhaps we should try climbing Half Dome, despite the fact that it kills people. Like, holy shit, quite a few people. Enough people that I started to have second thoughts, and then figured I should let fortune decide; because Half Dome was becoming (even more) dangerously crowded, the park service recently implemented a lottery system for permits to climb it.

So, we put in an application and waited. And on Friday, we were told that our application was granted.

Oh, man.

Since I am a giant scaredycat whose mild vertigo seems to grow a little stronger the older I get (this happens to a lot of people, I've heard), I have ordered us some climbing harnesses and via ferrata sets, and damnit, we are going to use them. I don't care if we look ridiculous. I grew up wearing an oversized orange stackhat while riding my bicycle; I can take it.

I thought at first that we could invite friends along with us, but no, it turns out the permit is for just the two of us.

Wow, I listened to all the lyrics in this song for the first time, and damned if it isn't about this very roadtrop. Obviously, Bill Withers is (a fabulously wealthy) clairvoyant and is speaking directly to me.

Less than four weeks to go now until we leave for the big journey. The end of my semester is approaching, with its requisite deadlines and procrastinated workload, so this may be the last time we do a sleepover test run in the Magnum.

On Saturday, we were in Central PA for our friend Tony's birthday, and since there are far more state parks out that way than there are closer to Philly, we decided we wanted to stay overnight. Unfortunately, all of their campgrounds aren't open until the second weekend of April, so we had to seek other options. Was it finally time to try boondocking in a Walmart parking lot?

Also unfortunate: neither of the York Walmarts allow overnight parking. But we decided to try and see what happened. Worst case scenario, they would just kick us out, right?

They did. After about two hours, at one in the morning, we heard a sharp rap on the window, and a mall cop told us to clear out. ("There's a Holiday Inn around the corner." Uh, yeah, not really the point.) I suppose she was alerted to our unconscious presence, despite the sun shades we use to block the windows, by the rivers of condensation on the panes. We finally found a spot in another strip mall where a few other cars and at least one truck were also boondocking, and slept undisturbed until daybreak.

We spent most of Easter Sunday at Gifford Pinchot. It's quite pretty.

Other things we tested out:

The Cooking Rig

The MiFi wireless internet. Hooray, I can surf the web on my laptop in a forest.

Matt and I took another test run of our sleeping cabin on wheels this weekend, with a trip down to Delaware. Initially we were hoping to see NASA fire some rockets, but it became clear on the way down that thick mists had rapidly descended, and I began to worry there would be nothing to see at all even after we woke this morning.

Fear not. We always find something to see. True, visibility was so low that we couldn't see the ocean, but on the way back up the coast, "Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge" caught our eye, and we ventured in to take a look.

Wow.

Prime Hook scenery

Heron at Prime Hook

Every misty cloud has a silver lining.

I was idly browsing the National Park Service website this evening, as one does when one is obsessed with planning a giant roadtrop, when I stumbled over this page:

Ohhh, holy moly! How is it possible that I did not realize that, on the same trip during which we are visiting not one but two Space Centers, and for which I have purchased the first telescope I've had since I was a kid (an Orion SkyScanner I nabbed on eBay), there is a beautiful solar eclipse occurring? Imagine my ecstasy when I realized that we are going to be in *exactly* the right place at *exactly* the right time (if we pace ourselves)!

On May 20, we will be traveling through Arizona from New Mexico to Utah, and in the early evening, we will be somewhere around Canyon de Chelly National Monument. The annular eclipse begins at 6:30PM. Perfect.

I just picked up some Mylar to make my own solar filter. We already have a T-ring attachment for Matt's T2i, so expect lots of pictures.

The very day that we had completed installing the bed in the back of our car, I wanted to test it out. It felt a bit like having a tent, but only your backyard to camp in, and not having the childish luxury of an uncluttered, unbusy schedule. But sleeping in your car, in your driveway, in your neighborhood - that didn't have any appeal to me. It was winter, our street gets a fair amount of regular traffic day and night, although I bet at least one neighbor would get a funny story to tell friends and family that day. So we built our home away from home, and then we occupied ourselves with other things while we waited.

It's April now, and we have just about all the equipment we need for the trip. There were still a few things we needed though, things that we could probably find at an enormous sporting goods destination superstore. About an hour and a half's drive north of us, there is such a store - and they, being sporty and outdoorsy, have a massive parking lot and encourage spending the night in your RV in the driveway. It was last Friday evening when we had the idea to go to Cabela's. That idea formed within the same hour the store was closing for the day.

This turned into an excuse to break from our wait, to see just how well the bed we constructed in the back of our car would work. An added incentive: the forecast for the evening predicted that the temperature would drop to freezing - which is at least as cold as Yellowstone tends to be in May. So we set off a little before midnight, and after an uneventful trip up the northeast extension of the PA turnpike, we arrived at our destination around 1:30am. Snaking our way up the road to this absurdly huge superstore, we followed the signs pointing us toward the RV parking, cut the lights, and clambered into the back. We may have just been parked in an empty lot in Hamburg, PA, but turning around to the bed and seeing the rear windows as a panoramic viewport over where we slept gave me kind of a thrill. This morning-after photo doesn't really do it justice.

At first, it felt like the heat from the ride up would be sufficient, but the cold front that whipped wind at us the whole drive north had the cabin temperature equalizing with the ambient outdoor temperature within an hour or so. We had started off with just the light sheets that we had made the bed with months before, but it wasn't long before we pulled out the sleeping bag that was stowed under our bed frame. It was warm under the covers, but the air on my face and in my nose gave me a chill that reminded me of sleeping overnight in the White Desert in Egypt.

We awoke the next morning as sun poured around where we slept. It didn't look much like our neighbors for the night were up yet. Or, if they were, they had the advantage of much larger quarters to spend their morning in.

Although we woke up just in time for the store to open, we wanted some breakfast first. Whenever I need food in a strange town - particularly breakfast, it's hard to go wrong a local diner. Having that in mind, we made our way to downtown Hamburg and before we could even look for it, we stumbled across the Hamburg Diner. This little eatery was situated in between houses on State street, and was just what I was hoping for. We walked in (and were very clearly the only non-locals there), seated ourselves in a booth, and ordered scrambled eggs, home fries, & toast. We had the younger server, the older lady was busying herself with regular patrons.

Breakfast at the Hamburg Diner

We did a lot of wandering - there was a 'gun library' (read: the used gun gallery), a side-gallery with a bunch of trophy deer heads and an animatronic bow hunter who regales you with tales about deer, a huge clearance section, and the 'bargain cave' - a section of Cabela's that resembles Gabriel Brothers, where all the open-box items are sold off at cut rates. Eventually, hunger tore us away from the consumerist trance, so we grabbed lunch at - where else - Cabela's restaurant. Mel grabbed a Bison Bratwurst, I went with a sandwich called "The Legend" -- a buffalo burger, topped with bbq brisket and cheddar cheese. We both sucked down Pennsylvania Dutch White Birch Beer, and spent another two hours in a daze before we finally picked up some bear spray, knives, and other outdoorsy things. We were on the road by 2:30, and back home by four.

I'm really looking forward to doing that kind of thing over and over again, with different destinations and 'homes', for a whole month. Of course, I'm also glad we've got a few couches to crash on along the way. Oh hey, by the way, this is Matt. With Melissa driving for half of each day, I'll see if I can catch up with her post count before the trip is through. We've got a lot of fun stuff to document our travels (look for the semi-cliche 'time lapse video of the entire trip from the dashboard' video when we're through), and I'm really glad we're able to share that.

Lists are fun. For example, I have a packing list that I've been working on obsessively for literally months now.

Today I felt curious about how many states we'll be driving through on the roadtrop. So I compiled a list.

1. Pennsylvania
2. Delaware
3. Maryland
4. Virginia
5. North Carolina
6. Tennessee
7. Georgia
8. Florida
9. Alabama
10. Mississippi
11. Louisiana
12. Texas
13. New Mexico
14. Arizona (twice)
15. Utah
16. Nevada (twice)
17. California
18. Idaho
19. Wyoming
20. South Dakota
21. Minnesota
22. Wisconsin
23. Illinois
24. Indiana
25. Ohio

Only 25 states! For a five-week tour I was expecting the number to be higher. Then again, that's an average of only 1.4 days in each state. Damn, I guess I moved to a big country.

T minus ten weeks today! Preparation is going very well. I have now ascertained that we'll be able to take the roof rack off the Magnum, since all our luggage will fit easily under the bed; this will probably save us a couple hundred bucks in gas thanks to reduced drag, believe it or not.

I am experimenting with having a pixie cut so that I won't have to brush my hair on the road, but it turns out, no, my hair needs brushing no matter what. It's very fine, and there's a lot of it. Too much of it; it always takes twice as long as the typical customer for me to have it cut. I kind of adore having super short hair, though. I might just settle for wearing spiffy hats in the morning to tame the bedhead.

One of my developing concerns about this roadtrop is bears. Stephen Colbert knows what he's talking about. Bear in mind (bears on mind) I grew up in Australia, where there are no large predators out in the bush, unless you are a baby and count dingoes (I'm going to hell, by the way). It's astounding to me that Americans become hysterical about our spiders and snakes when in this country, there are BLOODY GREAT BIG THINGS WITH TEETH AND CLAWS THAT EAT YOU. Hello. Also, you have plants that cause people to break out in hives just by touching them, and they're everywhere, what's up with that?

Anyway, back to bears. My own hysteria was awakened after I bought and read Yellowstone Trails: A Hiking Guide.

At the very start of the book, the authors launch into what seems to me a huge section dealing with the threat of bears, which contains such sage advice as "Bears are unpredictable. Avoid meeting one in the backcountry." I understand that there are crazy people in the world who might actually seek out a bear instead of avoiding them (see: my favorite documentary, Grizzly Man), but to me this is kind of like getting a horoscope that says "Avoid making mistakes today." Here's where things get really interesting, though:

PLAYING DEAD
Leave your pack on. Lie on your stomach. Interlock your fingers over the back of you neck and bring your elbows up to cover your face. You pack offers protection for you back, leaving only your buttocks and legs exposed. The bear may bite and scratch you, but you must remain still and silent. This sounds incredibly difficult, but many "ordinary" people have done it. People who have played dead and been bitten and scratched by grizzlies have told me that they weren't aware of any pain during the attack. Once the bear leaves you, don't move, as the bear may be watching you from a short ways off, looking for signs of life. Continue listening, and only move when you are sure the bear has left the area.

So, apparently if you are being eaten by a bear, you should do everything you can to squash your survival instincts. Let the bear have a bit of a nibble. Whatever, you didn't need that buttock anyway. Oh yeah, if the bear is eating the person you love most in the world next to you, just, you know, just lie still and don't say anything. Easy. His body will be in such an extreme state of shock that he's not feeling anything anyway, so just let it be. Bleeding to death? Wait until the bear leaves. That might be a while. Oops, you're dead. Easy.

But before you think that maybe bears aren't so bad - they are just enforcing the rules in some bizarre Mother Nature-adjudicated game of Sleeping Lions - read on:

If the bear enters the camping area while you are asleep and pulls you or one of your party out of the tent, this is the time to fight back. Do not play dead in this situation. This is one of those extremely rare situations that have occurred periodically in Yellowstone and other areas in bear country. The person being attacked usually isn't capable of resisting the bear, so it is up to the rest of the group to distract or deter the bear. I would definitely use my pepper spray. This is a volatile stituation and everyone is in danger of being injured, bit without help, the person being dragged off will almost certainly be killed.

Well, shit. I am not sleeping in the woods. Nope. And I may need to take a Valium before hiking anywhere. And I'm buying some bear spray and an airhorn and a little bell, and maybe some tactical weapons and full plate armor. And maybe I should take up bear blasting.

See, I'm sure some Americans work themselves up into similar froths about our spiders and snakes. The thing is, I can kill a spider with my foot or a quick squirt of fly spray. Snakes bite once, usually out of fear, and then they generally fuck off into the undergrowth so you can immediately tourniquet your wound and head off to a hospital. They certainly don't sit around a couple dozen yards off waiting for you to try to move so they can attack you again.

BEARS.

This is still not dampening my enthusiasm for this trip. I'm just taking into account the fact that I might be eaten by a bear, that's all.

I bought a new four-inch foam mattress for $80 on eBay. I was thinking about sourcing one secondhand on Craigslist, but then recalled a very unfortunate incident involving bedbugs that occurred when we went to Egypt in 2010. Just thinking about it still makes me crazy. With the help of a cheap electric carving knife, we cut the foam down to size (39"x71").

Remains of the foam mattress

Foam is kind of gross to sleep on by itself, so I pulled out some upholstery material I have lying around that I can't even remember buying (it must have been an awesome deal, because it's horribly seventies-licious and I have a LOT of it; I think we used it as a drop cloth in Downingtown at some point) and whipped up a cover today. I wanted to be able to take the cover off to wash, but I didn't have a giganto zipper, so I made do with some of my corsetry supplies.

I was pretty excited to install the finished product in the Magnum, especially since it's a gorgeous day which doesn't even warrant the use of a sweater, let alone a coat.

Here it is with just the sheets:

And here with the double-sized beach towel I found at a bargain price, multi-purposed as a blanket. I love terry cloth blankets -- they're mostly a Chinese thing, and I grew up with them -- but they're next to impossible to find in America, so I have to make do with gaudy branded creations marked down on sale.

Magnum bed by Lacoste (not really)

Following a suggestion in the comments of the below blog entry, I submitted our bed-in-a-Magnum to IKEAhackers, and they just published it:

ikeahacker

In April 2002, Matt and I roadtripped to New Orleans together, after two years of ICQ conversation, and a week after meeting in person for the first time. And we fell in love.

It has been ten years since then. TEN YEARS! Or at least, it will have been, by the time we start our latest roadtrip.

In case you can't tell, this is UTTERLY ASTOUNDING to me.

I just sent an e-mail to the reservations dude at the very hostel where we stayed in 2002:

Hi Steve,

Yes, I would love to reserve a private room for May 14 – one thing, though – would you mind taking a look at the attached photos? If it is possible for you to identify the private room at Marquette House in which they was taken, and if it happens to be available, we would love to book that particular room. (Long story short: ten years ago, my husband and I fell in love in that very room and we’re coming back for our anniversary!) If it’s not available or you can’t tell which room it is, not to worry, we’re still happy to reserve another room, but we thought it was worth a try for nostalgia’s sake!

Marquette House, April 15, 2002

Marquette House, April 17, 2002

Crossing my fingers ... so many memories! Best roadtrip ever. (Except for the upcoming one.)

A couple of days ago, I made a fairly major change to our trip plans, deciding we should leave Yellowstone a day early to make our way to Thermopolis. Initially, I was attracted by the idea of swimming in hot springs, but then I realized Thermopolis has a bigger draw. A much bigger draw.

Wyoming Dinosaur Center's Dig for a Day program allows Matt and I to go on an actual dinosaur dig. And dig. For dinosaurs. It is kind of expensive, but my god, this is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

From the brochure we were sent when we booked:

Dig For Dinosaurs!
Join us for a Real Jurassic Adventure

High in the ancient rolling mountains above the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming, at the northern end of the Wind River Canyon, the bones of dinosaurs have lain buried in layers of rock for millions of years. It was not until 1993 that fossil hunters discovered that the bones weathering out of the mountainsides were actually fossilized dinosaur bones. Since that first discovery, over 40 sites have been found in a thick mudstone layer known as the Morrison Formation, dating from the Jurassic period (208-145 million years ago). This area, now named the Warm Springs Ranch dig sites, is actively worked by The Wyoming Dinosaur Center.

Dig with us!

If you’re looking for a “real-life adventure,” join us on the dig site hunting for dinosaur bones. Our Dig-for-a-Day program appeals to all ages, from young children to active senior citizens. Participants dig in the bone bed, where leg bones, tailbones, ribs and claws have been found. Individuals (ages 18 and over) and families are welcome. A parent or legal guardian must accompany small children and young people under age 18.

You should be in good physical health. The hill can be strenuous. Our climate is dry; the dig sites are about 4,500 feet above sea level; and it is easy to feel the effects of the sun at that altitude. Not to worry though – your are not alone. Our staff will be on-hand to answer questions and to help at all times.

What we have unearthed so far

Wyoming Dinosaur Center workers have removed more than 10,000 bones from the excavation sites. Most fossils are from long-necked sauropods (camarasaur, diplodocus, camptosaur, apatosaur). The ranch dig sites include a ‘bone bed,’ formed by an ancient stream that washed bones together in the channel of the river and then buried them in the silt. Another site, currently being expanded, appears to be a feeding site for the meat-eating Allosaur.

If you find a dinosaur bone…

If you find fossils, they will remain at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. They are your contribution to science. Your name, the bone and location will be recorded in our bone registry for all to see! The information and fossils you gather will be used to help our scientific studies. Of course we cannot guarantee you will find a fossil, but even if you do not, you have helped scientists learn more about the site itself.

What to expect

A brief orientation begins at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center at 8 am on the day of the dig. We will introduce you to local geology and paleontology as well as digging techniques and data collection procedures. Transportation to the site leaves about 8:30 a.m. A sack lunch is provided at the dig site.

If you find a dinosaur fossil, technicians will show you how to preserve it while you are working and how to document your find.

Equipment is checked in about 4:20 p.m. The van leaves the dig sites for the Center at 4:30 p.m. You will be back at the museum before 5 p.m. (However, the van leaves the dig site every hour, so you may leave any time during the day if you wish.)

If you arrive the evening before your dig, stop by the museum. We’ll be glad to visit with you about the dig, and you can tour the museum and see technicians at work on bones from the dig sites.

My obsession with this trip has affected my television watching habits. I am one of those strange people who likes to have a TV on constantly in the background whenever I'm doing what might be classified as menial work, like grading assignments or answering e-mails or cleaning the house. Or writing blog entries. Usually I subsist on a diet almost completely made up of police procedurals, but recently travel documentaries have been on the menu, particularly programs about places we'll be visiting on the trop.

So far, my favorite has been BBC Earth's Yellowstone: Battle for Life, narrated by the velvety voiced Peter Firth of MI-5/Spooks. Unbeknownst to me, I had actually watched clips from this documentary before, when they showed up on poeTV. This one makes my heart ache indescribably:

As Matt reported on the LX forums:

For a few years, my wife and I have been talking about doing a big road trip across the US. Last October, to help move this along, I drove down to Antwerpen MD where I picked up a 2007 Magnum SXT with 50,000 miles and a comfort package. In the year leading up to that, we had narrowed down our road trip vehicles to either a Honda Element or a Dodge Magnum - the Magnum won out because I can fully lay down in the back of a Magnum.

For the last year, we've been driving it as our main car while we finished renovating our house, but the house is done, and now our focus is shifting to the road trip.

I'll probably go into the details about where we're going (it's a five week drive starting & ending in Philadelphia), but the main reason I'm starting a thread here is because we're modifying the crap out of the car for the trip. So yesterday, we removed the rear seats, and today, we discovered that a cheap Ikea bed frame I had fits nearly perfectly into the back of the car. We had to cut a few inches off the length, and repurposed the headboard into support struts.

So, enough jibba-jabba, here are some pics of day 1 of the process.

After we made sure it fit, we cut up the bed frame and added a hinge, for battery & tire access.

I am so happy about how well those Ikea slats fit in the back, with only a little modification to the frame. I was originally planning on something a little less comfortable, but this is a *real bed*, which will certainly make for sweeter dreams on all those Walmart parking lot overnight stops I have planned. And while it's a small space for two, Matt and I have slept on a twin before many times (aw, it reminds me of our early years) - and wedged in a car thus, it's impossible for one of us to accidentally push the other off the edge of the bed.

Plus, while it cuts down on headroom, the higher elevation of the bed gives us more storage room underneath. I think my plan to forego the cartop carrier (and remove the roof rack) might be successful, which would probably save us about $200 in gas thanks to increased streamlining.

Later this week, a 4" foam mattress I picked up for $80 new on eBay should be arriving. I'll cover it in upholstery fabric, throw on some fitted jersey sheets, and it'll be perfect. I'm so excited, I want to start sleeping in it NOW.

I need a vacation.

I really need one.

You can tell because despite the fact I have way too much to do, I am spending the majority of my time meticulously researching and planning stops on our Great American Roadtrop. Which is not until May.

But as it turns out, it is fortuitous that I've been dreaming about the trip early. We would like to camp in Yosemite, for example, which apparently takes reservations five months in advance. The dates we want open for reservations on January 15, and according to the interwebs, they sell out in ten minutes. Yow. Worse, the reservations are actually scalped on Craigslist afterward, by utter bastards who no doubt are responsible for the insane early demand. Thank god I am aware that I need to prepare to be on the web/phone that morning in order to curtail scalpers' profits. At least I'll have practice from all those years of trying to score rock show tickets. If only there were somewhere to camp out for camp reservations.

Meanwhile, I am drooling at the thought of packing, and of modifying our car for use as sleeping quarters. I have so many ideas. I actually bought an electric knife to cut a foam mattress to size to fit in the back of the Magnum, and I plan to construct some sort of storage system in there for important items. If I manage to organize it well enough, maybe we won't even need the car-top carrier, especially if we remove the back seats completely. Also researching making my own privacy panels out of Reflectix for the windows.

But it's too cold for long-term work in the driveway.

Mind you, I just found out yesterday that Yellowstone will likely be as cold as it is in Philly now when we're there at the end of May. Neither of us had any idea. We'll need crazy cold weather clothing, which probably means the car-top carrier is coming after all...