What does someone need to take a three month road trip? Well that really depends on the person..but I can tell you exactly what bare minimum I needed to hit the road.
First, I was coming off a contract in Antarctica. I did some travel after and had about a month to prepare before hitting the road. In that month however, two weeks of that was dedicated to downsizing and moving storage lockers. So one I wrapped that up, I really had only about 2 weeks to prep.
In those two weeks, I had to build out the actual shelves in my van that I have been dreaming for months. So yeah, my shelves weren’t built yet but I had a basic outline of what I wanted to get done. And this being my second van build, I felt confident in my timeline. Well, I worked up to the wire and was finishing up the last remaining details as I was heading out. Slightly stressful, but this is where I feel I work best: under a deadline and with a bit of stress!
I will give a full detailed van build post later on! But for now, here she is in all her beauty.
I also needed a rough outline on where I was going. I played around with a few ideas and settled on a route. I spent my nights leading up to the trip, planning out stops and fully planned out the first 3 weeks. The rest of the trip would be planned while I was on the road. Typically that’s not how I travel but I was low on time so it would have to do.
For me, this isn’t as stressful as it sounds. I’ve been planning an epic road trip for years. The way I do so can be explained if you take a look at my google maps. Which is filled to the brim with pins. This is because anytime I see something cool or something I would be interested in on the internet or through recommendation, I stop and make a google pin of it. Bonus: I separate by state and World’s Largest for quick reference.
This allowed me to quickly and easily find road trip stops along the way. So I highly recommend this method of madness to anyone who wants to start traveling!
Lastly, I needed to pack up (check out my packing list) and buy groceries! I brought along a cooler but I started my road trip with the mind set of maybe I didn’t want to be stopping for ice every other day and dealing with the water after. So I bought my initial groceries with this in mind. I spent a total of $266 on groceries, misc camping supplies, and a portable charger. I estimated that this haul would last me about 3 weeks or more.
And then just like that, I hit the road!
