We started planning this trip sometime in January of 2023, after deciding the dates for our cruise to Alaska. As we planned to be living in Arizona at the time of the cruise, the trip itself broadened to a pretty big deal including annual physicals & dentist appointments, a mammogram, trip with the grandkids to a kangaroo farm, lots of catching up with friends, church, a historical presentation, and a weekend anniversary celebration for a kids camp in Carnation.
That’s a lot to cram into one trip, and as the dates started to come together, we realized we would be packing for nearly a month of travel. Weather and temperatures leaving Mesa and traveling into California would be similar, but moving north to Oregon, Washington, then to Alaska for the cruise, would require packing clothing for 3 separate climates. Our ‘winter’ clothing was in storage in Washington State, and we only brought 3 suitcases with us when we moved. We also needed to pack things like vitamins, shoes, some dressier wear, as well as electronics, charging cables, and other ‘necessities’ for traveling. We purchased an additional large suitcase (thank you thrift stores!) and some other things to make the trip more organized and successful.
Road trip suitcase packing is different than for an airline trip; although we also needed to be mindful of the size of our cruise stateroom and living in a hotel. Regardless, we left Mesa packed with two large and two small suitcases, two laptop bags, a garment bag, a plastic tub, a case of drinking and one of distilled water (for the CPAP), a cooler with ice and snacks, and several boxes of things we wanted to put into storage in Washington.
So, for the vitamins, I made the decision to day pack them instead of carrying the individual bottles along with us (Hubby took his bottles). The benefit of this for me was I could throw the pack in my purse along with my collagen and probiotics and take them with breakfast. I bought these little plastic zip pill pouches from Amazon and labeled them for daily use. I stuck them inside these cute little bags I bought from the dollar store. They packed beautifully and I didn’t have to listen to the rattling every time I moved my suitcase.
We also took a cooler with us to keep snacks and water cool. This was handy as most days of the road trip we ate breakfast at the hotel, then grabbed a food bar and water during the midday and ate dinner about 3 or 4 PM.
Being gone for 26 days meant we’d need to do laundry along the way. Fortunately, most of the hotels had a laundry room and sold rolls of quarters and detergent. I found it cheaper to buy a small detergent at the dollar or grocery store and carry it with us.
Trip hacks I’d recommend:
Map your route out using Google Maps or similar, then print the maps. It was helpful to see a broader picture of where we were going instead of just looking at the map on the car’s GPS. I printed one for the entire trip from Mesa, AZ to Redmond, WA, one for each day of the trip, and one for Redmond, WA to Boise, ID, and back to Mesa.
We purchased the “Route 66” app for that portion of the trip; it works with CarPlay and kept us on Route 66 from Flagstaff AZ to Santa Monica, CA. The GPS voice is a bit grating (there are other selections, but they’re kind of goofy). If you’re going to use this app for Route 66 travel, be aware that not all of Route 66 still exists, so you’ll be on other major freeways at times. There were also a couple of times when Route 66 was closed due to flooding or construction, but the app didn’t alert us and we had to back-track to I40 again. I would also recommend if you’re using this app that you select the “A” route, and select Points of Interest instead of city destinations. I found we missed some of the POIs by just selecting “Williams”, “Kingman”, etc.
Purchase an altimeter app, or have one in your car. Yes, elevations are posted on the highways, but there were times we wanted to know the elevation in between those signs. The one we purchased also had coordinates, wind speed, water boiling temperature, and weather. It did not work with CarPlay but was easy enough to keep running in the background and switch back and forth between map and altimeter.
Check online to see if you’ll have to drive across toll roads. Some states have a pay-as-you-go function, or you can purchase a pass prior to your trip. California has a toll system you can pay online or by phone app after you’ve traveled through. You can also set your phone GPS to ‘avoid toll roads’ although this may make your trip longer (you should plan that out ahead of time).
Don’t be afraid to stop frequently for photos, snacks, or to just walk around. Yes, it adds to the length of the day, but it also makes the trip more enjoyable. Thankfully we took lots of potty breaks and photo stops, so it broke the day up into smaller chunks.
Russ is very spontaneous; I’m very much a planner. I booked hotels along the way based on how long I thought we’d want to drive, which made me less anxious that we would have a hotel of some quality to spend the night. He would have preferred we stop when we were done for the day. I promised we’d try that on the next trip (and we did on the trip to Albuquerque, NM a few weeks later). There are usually a lot of hotel/motel/inns available and unless you have to be somewhere at a certain time, it’s more comfortable and fun to stop driving when you’re tired of driving.
Try to eat at diners, cafés, or local eateries, not just fast food and chain restaurants. The small businesses will appreciate it, and some of the best meals we had were local places. Ask the hotel you stay at if they have a place that discounts meals for guests, and ask your social media contacts for their recommendations too!
Check that the points of interest are open on the days you plan on being there. Yes, Ms. Planner forgot to check the open days for museums in Barstow and Victorville, CA. Turns out they’re both closed on Tuesdays. Oh well, we’ll get there next road trip!
TAKE CASH WITH YOU! We live in a country with ATM machines everywhere, tap credit and debit cards, and even ways to pay with your phone. I was thankful we had cash with us when our credit card was shut down for fraud on the 2nd day of the trip (Thanks BECU!). Using the Debit card worked for holds at the hotels (we’d already pre-paid most of them), but paying with cash at gas stations earned us some discounts and it was nice to have the cash cushion so we didn’t have to use our checking account until we got the new card. I split the cash up into several places in my suitcases, camera, and laptop bags so I wasn’t carrying around a wad of cash in one place.
If you’re road-tripping, don’t be stingy on the clothing and shoes you take. I should have taken a 2nd pair of walking shoes with me for some of the trails we took. It’s easy enough to toss extra shoes and socks in a bag in the back of the car. We needed ponchos in Ketchikan because the rain was so hard it beat through our coats (in retrospect I SHOULD have taken my coat AND my raincoat). I could have taken another dress or two for the cruise.
Buy a case (or more) of water and take it with you. Water on road trips is EXPENSIVE and there were a lot of times we could pull over to the side of the road, take a short walk (and of course some photos), and drink water that we had in the cooler. We bought ice along the way to refresh the cooler.
Find your favorite snacks and pack them with you. We did buy a snack bar or two if we stopped at a gas station to use the restroom, but otherwise, we ate our own snacks from the cooler. Fruit, jerky, nuts, etc. are all great driving snacks. We did try to stay away from stuff that was too salty (oh jerky, why are you so good?), too sugary (candy bars, so tempting), or too spicy (Spicy Nacho Doritos require LOTS OF WATER).
Grab a container of baby/diaper wipes and throw them in the car. They’re great for wiping the Doritos off your fingers, or your hands after being out in the wind and fine sand.
Most hotels sell small packs of pain relievers at a pretty high charge. It’s cheaper to buy a small bottle at your local drugstore and throw it in the car. Bandaids/First Aid kit is a good idea too (you should already have one in there anyway). Hand sanitizer isn’t a bad idea, and lots of paper towels/fast food napkins/shop towels are useful.
Binoculars. Yes, I have a zoom lens on my camera, but it was nice to have the binoculars to look at things without bringing out the camera.
Safe Travels and God’s blessings!
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