The Epic Road Trip (Not *that* kind of Epic, Toby!) - Preparation

Tonight, I'm in the preparation stage for my very first Spring Break road trip!!!

One of my biggest features (read: flaws) is being a planner. I tend to over-plan. I'm not going to do that with this trip. What I will do, however, is make sure I'm prepared, then go where the wind and Dalby take me.


Intentions:

In case you don't follow my blog religiously, I'll let you know that I spent a week in Beijing during the month of October. While I was there, I went geocaching and took a picture of myself at N 39° 59.515, E 116° 18.322 with the intention of someday getting a picture at the Western equivalent of those coordinates - which happens to be in a barren and desolate part of Nevada. Well, the opportunity presented itself to get away over Spring Break, so I texted Dalby (who was with me at the cache find in Beijing) and asked if he was in. He responded "Dude, I don't even see myself as having a choice. Let's do this!" With that, we started working on a route.

Preparations:

Neither of us particularly *like* spending hours on our asses, but when you go on a road trip some driving time is inevitable. We tried to break it up into small enough chunks that we'll have time to get to our daily destinations and still have time to play. We've agreed on a route and now we're working on the whole 'accommodations' thing. I've got a tent (and a car) but when it comes to camping in strange and unpopulated places, that prolly won't cut it.

Summoning my good sense, I stopped at the Outdoor Center at the U of O and checked out a set of 2-way radios as well as some road flares and a locator beacon (in case we get stuck someplace where cell phones won't get reception.) With the 'communication' thing covered, I turned my attention to preparing the caches that we're going to place along our journey. Actually, preparing might be a stretch. I gathered all the pieces, but I'm gonna try to talk Dalby into putting them together while I drive. It will give him something to do ;)

Supplies:

* Tent
* Tarp
* Sleeping bags
* Blankets
* First aid kit
* 2-way radios
* Flares
* Locator beacon
* Food
* Water
* Shovel (Thanks RetroRambler!)
* Caches
* Flashlights
* Camera
* Music!


Route:

Just in case you want to follow along! The flag marked "D" is the destination of the western coordinates.