It's a long drive to California
I made it to California with the travel trailer, truck and dogs intact. I have a few dings myself, but everything else got here just fine. When I think of my earlier optimism about how I would take care of myself on the trip, it seems charmingly naive. For the first few days I'm not even sure I ate any meals! The cognitive overload of learning to drive the trailer was overwhelming at first, so I left my plans of healthy meals and regular workouts by the wayside.
Still, my overall trip plan worked, and I learned some things that should prove useful to me in the future and maybe to others as well. So what worked well?
Route design using RV Life Trip Wizard. It's over 2,000 miles from Atlanta to San Diego. It's January so I am limited to routes that stay as far south as possible. Although I could have taken I-20 to I-10 and covered the distance in 8 or 9 days, I was rightly worried that interstate driving would be so boring I'd have trouble staying awake. I used the trip planning software from RV Life to find stops that kept me moving west but let me get off the interstate. The campground reviews included in the subscription proved reliable, and I was really happy with the places I stayed. (I did end up substituting in 4 nights of Harvest Host stays once I had the overall route designed.) In the end I took 10 days and only 2 were primarily interstate. Those days were so tedious I did have trouble staying awake, too.
Checking the weather with Drive Weather Pro. Did I mention I took this trip in January? Avoiding snow and ice was crucial since I'm from Atlanta, but I also needed to avoid high winds since I was towing a trailer. I thought I was going to have to extend my stay in Carlsbad, NM because of a wind storm, but the app let me explore different routes as well as setting different departure times. I decided that the winds would be weakening sufficiently along one route by the late afternoon. Knowing what to expect also helped prepare me mentally for driving very slowly (like 35-40 mph on a 70 mph road) until the winds let up. I never did get above 55 mph that day, but I made my 180 mile drive safely.
Finding all pull-through sites or Harvest Hosts with ample space for turning around. I am new to driving a trailer so I did not want to back-in to any campsites. Because I never think about this when Randy is driving, I was amazed at how much easier it made the trip. (Sorry, honey.) My first couple of nights were so easy with perfectly level, paved sites I could just pull right in!
Stopping at dog parks. I am not a big fan of dog parks generally, but they were essential for this trip to work. Most days I gave the dogs a moderate walk (1-2 miles) and then let the younger two run around in a dog park for 30-45 minutes. We found some really great parks. Most were empty except for us, so I could even let Hank (my senior fellow) off leash too.
