Preparing for a Road Trip
There are a lot of things that go into planning a road trip, especially when parts of your trip will be more desolate and it’s summertime.
The first thing I would recommend is doing your vehicle prep. Checking your tires and fluids before hitting the desert stretches is always a solid move. The heat and long gaps between major service stations in eastern New Mexico can be brutal on a car. I drive a Honda CRV so I know it’s reliable, but it also has 160,000+ miles on it. It had been a while since I had done any maintenance so I took it in about a month before my trip to have all the things done to it.
Have multiple modes of entertainment ready - playlists, podcasts, and audiobooks.
A long road trip is a great way to get caught up on your podcasts or try new ones. I asked for recommendations on Facebook and found a couple of new ones to listen to, Love Trapped and Counter Clock (season 8). But I also interspersed them with single episodes of Good Hang and Crime Junkie. I really like the variety.
I have a ton of Audible credits so I listened to a couple of books as well. I wanted to listen to fun reads on this drive as I knew it would keep me engaged and awake when I get tired. I enjoyed Off the Record by Sara Goodman Confino and The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club by Gloria Chao. I tend to increase the speed on my audiobooks, usually to around 1.35. This means I can listen to more books!
It’s also important to have your playlists ready to roll. I asked ChatGPT to help me curate a Route 66 playlist and I have to say it was pretty on point. I took advantage of Spotify’s free 3 month trial so I didn’t have to listen to commercials and could have a bit more control over my listening.
Another trial I signed up for was Sirius XM. Not knowing what reception would be like, I thought it would be important to have satellite radio as a form of entertainment. I was also using my phone for GPS and even though I have a car charger, I didn’t always want to be using my phone for all the things.
That being said, I never really had any issues with connectivity or dead zones, even when I was on the older, bypassed alignments of Route 66 or more desolate parts of New Mexico. My travel guide did give turn by turn directions, but it was hard to refer to it while I was driving. The guide I used is xxxx. A lot of people also recommend the Route 66 EZ66 Guide. You can also download offline Google Maps areas ahead of time.
Snacks
Of course, snacks are one of the most important parts of any road trip. Here’s what I packed my cooler with:
Red seedless grapes and cherries - delicious, cold, and filling. I knew a big bag of each would last a few days for me.
Puppy Chow Mix - Even though I knew it would make a mess, there’s just something so yummy about this concoction. I used this recipe from two twenty one.
Summer BBQ Chex Mix - Easy to make and store, plus a nice savory balance to the Puppy Chow Mix. Check out the recipe from Half Baked Harvest here.
Primal Snack Mates Turkey Sticks and Mini Babybel Snack Cheese
I also packed a case of water along with Propel and Salud. Going west in the summer heat I knew it was important to stay hydrated, so I rotated water with electrolytes, plain water, and Coke Zero.
I ended up buying two different coolers. The first one was not big enough so I used it for my drinks and kept it behind the passenger seat for easy access. When I realized I might need a second cooler, I got an Igloo one for my snacks. It has wheels AND baskets which made it perfect.
Keeping Things Cool
This is what I used for my waters and sodas. It really is the perfect fit to put behind the passenger seat. I used the netting in the lid for my Primal Snack Mates Turkey Sticks and Mini Babybel Snack Cheese. If you are going to visit a winery on your trip, be sure to get the wine bottle holders so you can transport your wine and keep it cold.
This is cooler #2. I wanted to keep my snacks cool, especially my grapes and cherries. There are a couple of things that made me fall in love with this cooler (other than the color of course). The first thing I loved was the stacked baskets. My fruit went into the deeper basket. In the more shallow tray, I stored my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
I did have one cooler casualty. I had put my shareable M&M bag in one of the coolers and as ice melted, water somehow infiltrated the M&M bag so they were a loss. Next time I’ll make sure they get in that aforementioned basket I was so excited about.
Be sure to visit my Travel Resources page. I’ve included some other things I purchased for my road trip.
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