Thanks. I guess it’s just an old SAC thing from Grandpa, “plan the flight then fly the plan down the thin blue line” - dealing with my mother’s life issues and refusal to plan ahead making me a compulsive over-planner… maybe some nerves. I mean, I did this stuff with my frat brothers in college regularly but the farthest we went from Seattle was Tillamook for cheese or McMinnville to see the Spruce Goose.
I suspect the hard part is gonna be getting over the jitters and getting used to being behind the wheel.. and the part we all struggle with, dealing with Stupid People on the road. Maybe a ‘fear of the unknown’ thing?
Been awhile, but I’ve seen a few people fill gallon milk jugs with gas and stick them in the floor board and have to assume they lit a cigarette up on the ride home.
Sounds about right… the mental illness levels go way down and the common-sense levels way up as soon as you get over the Cascade crest.
With how SUV’s are built… well, the Equinox is a soccer-mom-mobile not a real off-roader or adventure rig, so a jerrycan would have to be in the trailer. Nowhere external to mount it.
A couple of other things that have proven valuable to me.
As Averageman mentioned, an empty wide mouth resealable bottle. For obvious reasons. Even in a populated environment restrooms are sometimes unavailable. Tucking into the door jamb without the tell-tale splashing on the ground can be invaluable sometimes.
Load uo you audible (or whatever audio book app you use)account with interesting selections.
A vehicle mounted cell signal booster. I use a Wilson weboost. YMMV, but it has been invaluable to me. If you are primarily on intrastate highways coverage is pretty good. But there are some awfully big black holes along 2 lane blacktops. Especially in the Intermountain west. When you are a hundred miles from anywhere and haven’t seen another car in hours that signal bar graph is like a security blanket.
This. Get you plenty of time behind the wheel before making a long trip. Get used to driving with the mental cases on the road and learn to anticipate what they will do. Remember this line from Spaceballs and it will serve you well: “I’m surrounded by Assholes!”.
Good points. Car has SiriusXM, and I have a music playlist on my laptop that goes over 24 hours without repeats and that’s just a “curated selection” - when I like a movie’s music I go find the biggest Expanded Edition CD of its score I can; Jurassic Park and The Lost World alone are four discs and I have ALL the 007 scores up to the end of the Brosnan era.
“Surrounded By Assholes”? Already the story of my life… my immediate neighborhood is cool, it’s once I’m outside our little loop of a lane that the suck starts.
A podcast that interests you or an audio book are far superior to music on a long drive. Music is great but eventually the mental stimulation stops and fatigue sets in.
I’m also a fan of listening to standup comedy on long drives.
That’s a catch… podcasts seldom interest me and the authors I used to read… they’re all dead and the audiobooks cut out a lot of content. Tuning in the traffic-and-weather channel on the radio might give the same effect… can’t even do talk on SiriusXM, it hasn’t been the same since Rush.
Can’t believe I forgot this! Trveling interstate while armed - printout folder of states’ reciprocity agreements with WA and keep registration and insurance in that folder in case of pullover.