In previous posts, I noted that there were a couple of detours that I didn’t take, and both sort of mid-west-ish…one in Canada, one in the US. So I want to see what it would look like if I did a separate trip to check out those locations.
Segment 1 would start in Wisconsin (50d). When I planned my route back from New Orleans, I pretty much went straight North to Chicago, Milwaukee, etc. I didn’t deviate much from that route. And there is a whole lot of midwest that I skipped over. I would probably start in Minneapolis. Then continue down through Des Moines, Omaha, Lincoln, and Kansas City. I would probably go to Witchita, just cuz I love the song from Cindy Church. Oklahoma City would be next on the list, and if I didn’t hit Dallas / Fort Worth earlier, I’d do them this time. I already did Albuquerque, but I’d probably do it again on the way to Denver. Then swing West, probably to Salt Lake City. I don’t know at that point if I would do Casper Wyoming or up into Yellowstone. It’s possible that before I went south to KC, I probably should have picked off part of North and South Dakota. But after SLC, I could mosey to Boise. So many options. I could try to finish off in Butte. Or some variation thereof. For the map, I went over to Montana and back to Iowa, but I could be flexible. It’s a whopping 98h, 10400km, so 25d just in driving at 400 km a day. I’m going to double that, which might be a bit high, but there are a lot of famous sights along that route, plus lots of places to do a bit of paddling and hiking.
Segment 2 would take me to Waterton Lakes / Glacial Lake National Park (16d). I have wanted to go to Waterton for a very long time to see the area. I tried multiple times while working to schedule a conference there, with no luck ever. Sigh. Coming from Columbia Falls, the best route is the Going-To-The-Sun Road that goes right through Glacial Lakes NP on the US side. The problem, of sorts, is that a) it is seasonal, you can only go in the summer, and b) you have to book it in advance. Except I’m not likely to know my route and timing well enough to get me there in time to book it. Unless I totally reverse my trip and go to the Park first. 🙂 At the moment, I would start in Columbia Falls, pass through Sprague Creek / Crystal Point / Siyeh Bend and end up at St. Mary on the other side of the US portion of the park. From there, the trip returns to normal limitations of time and desire, with a stop at Waterton Lake on the Canadian side. I plotted a route back through Lethbridge and Grasslands National Park, and then just a straight line back to Ottawa that takes me back through North Dakota and Minnesota.
Overall, the trip would be about 10d or so, but I would double that first part, 6d or so, making it 16d in total for 3800 km. The totals are all off though as it won’t let me officially take the right road at this time of year, so it keeps rerouting me the other way around. But I know the road has a bunch of other limitations including overall length of car and trailer combos (no longer than 21′, which might mean having to leave the trailer near one of the entrances and driving through or around to pick it up again later). I’d figure it out for the year I was going.
So that takes care of the “missed” mid-West. I could TRY to add it into my first “west of the Mississippi” grand trip, but these two segments are already large on their own:
Segment 1: 50d, 10400 km
Segment 2: 16d, 3600 km
Total: 66d, 14000 km
And with that done, it pretty much covers the entirety of Canada and the US except Nunavut, Hawaii and the Grand Canyon, all of which could be separate one-off trips at some point.
Do you have any place you want to go that I missed?
If I’ve already done a bunch of stuff West of the Mississippi, it only stands to reason that I want to do a trip to cover the area of the US that is East of the Mississippi. I plotted a route all the way down the coast, and back up to Ottawa. Here’s the way the segments work out.
Segment 1 takes me to the tip of Florida (32d). I’d start off slow, juking around in New York State. Over towards Lake Placid, back over to Syracuse, mostly covering the Western part of the state that I haven’t done before. I’m still skipping a bunch of stuff along Lake Erie, but I’ll get to it later. I’d swing by Cooperstown, over to Albany (with time to stop this time), then down past Woodstock, farther near West Point, and turning back West towards the steel mill world…Scranton, Allentown, etc. I’d pick up Trenton, NJ, and Philly, plus some of the coast before heading to Baltimore and Washington. I’d go back to the coast to pick up Richmond, Norfolk, and Kitty Hawk, and then zag back towards Charlotte, NC. I’d want to see Myrtle Beach, don’t really have a good concept of it. And then…it’s time to zag back over to Augusta, and then zip the other way to Savannah. After that, it’s straight down the coast…Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, slight detour to Orlando and Kissimmee, and straight on to morning in Boca Raton, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami. It is 4800 km, so somewhere around 12-14d, but it would easily take me twice that long with all the stops. I’d put it closer to 32 days as a rough estimate. There’s just so much to see and do along there. Plus the fact that I’ll want to go kayaking with gators (j/k).
Segment 2 would take me into the heart of the south (25d). Before turning tail, I would want to consider driving to Key West. I have no idea what that entails, if there are tolls, do you need special passes, or you can just drive drive drive. I’d like to drop the trailer in Miami (or West of Miami actually) and then drive down and back. It’s a 6h round trip, only 530km, but that would be a VERY long day. I doubt there’s anywhere I could sleep in my trailer, nor can I likely afford a hotel anywhere in that run. But I can’t NOT do it, right?
After that, I go up the West side of Florida, over to Tallahassee, and right on into Mobile, Alabama. I will have been to New Orleans, so I don’t know if I need to go much farther than Mobile, although Biloxi might call to me. I’d likely then go up to Montgomery and Birmingham, before doubling back for Auburn, Columbus, Atlanta and Athens. For Tennessee, I’d likely head to Knoxville and Nashville before tackling Kentucky — Louisville and Lexington. For Ohio, I would probably want to do Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Columbus. It would have been another 48h of driving, or about 4700 km. Call it 12d, add in some rest to make it 15, and add in stops to make it 25d.
At this time, I would then have a decision to make for Michigan and PA/NY or PA/NY and then Michigan. 🙂
Segment 3 would be a bit wonky (20d) and doesn’t have to be done on this trip, it could be a whole separate “mini-trip” on its own. At 45h, and 4100 km, I would start in Columbus and do an entire loop around Michigan. Back in Ohio, I’d head over to Cleveland before an “oops” of my first segment. Given all the stuff over to the coast, I kind of miss Pittsburgh in the first batch. So, I’d pick it up now and then come back to the shore of Lake Erie, all the way to Buffalo before re-entering Canada, albeit briefly. I would work my way down to Windsor, across into Detroit, up to Sarnia on the American side, and then all the way up the coast of Lake Huron to Tobermory. Why? Cuz it’s Tobermory and Georgian Bay, of course.
I’d pick up Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Barrie, Orillia, Gravenhurst (dark sky preserve), and eventually back to Ottawa. I suspect I’ll be a bit tired of everything and just want to head home once I get to Buffalo, so I don’t know if I’ll do all of Ontario. Let’s assume I do though, call it 10d of driving, and well, probably another 10d of stopping/resting. There are a LOT of places to go kayaking in that route.
Even though I’m pretty sure I messed up the route. I should probably go from Columbus to Buffalo, through Canada back to Detroit, then upper Michigan, and back into Canada. Huh. I just plotted that route, and while I would likely ditch a bit, the full reroute only saves about 50km. If I drop Toledo and South Bend, it would shave about 500km. Interesting. Not quite “Holy Toledo, Batman”, but well, I couldn’t resist the punny reference. Sigh. I’ll show myself out.
Okay, let’s see now:
Segment 1 — 4800 km, 32d
Segment 2 — 4700 km, 25d
Segment 3 — 4100 km, 20d
Grand total — 13,600 km, 72d
And yet, even with all of that, I haven’t completed all of the US or Canada. I would still have some stuff in the Southern Prairies of Canada and the Northern mid-west of the US. Plus bits and pieces dotted here and there. Like the Grand Canyon as a destination or a big state like the US or the amazing beach we saw in our New England trip or a big city like NYC.
This trip option turned out longer than I thought, even without the last 20d. I thought that 30-40d was more likely, but as I looked at the sheer number of “famous” cities that draw my attention, not to mention hundreds of parks that I didn’t even mention, it’s easy to see any of them taking longer.
Andrea and I have already travelled through the Atlantic provinces on three previous trips. The first big trip started in NY state, through Vermont and New Hampshire, and into Maine before going up into New Brunswick, all around Nova Scotia including Cape Breton, back to PEI, and over to New Brunswick and home. The second was Quebec City and the Saguenay, before hopping over and doing Gaspésie including Percy, and then all the way back home. Our third trip was to Newfoundland, and we started around Deer Lake, visited Gros Morne, and then worked our way all the way over to St. John’s before flying home.
And I confess, I would like to do parts of that trip again for things we didn’t have quite enough time to do, small diversions we didn’t have time for, and larger sections we just plain couldn’t do at the time. All of it. I’d even like to do it with the same trailer that I hope to use for the big 25K loop. Perhaps I could do it as a test for that trip. So, what would this “repeat / redux” trip look like?
Segment 1 would take me up to Labrador (16d). I’d do the Saguenay region again; cross over into Northern New Brunswick, slowly working my way towards Percé. and around Gaspésie; then up through Labrador City, and around all the way down to Labrador coast where I can cut over to Newfoundland. The new parts that I haven’t seen before would be central New Brunswick, Northern Quebec, and all of Labrador. Overall? It would take about 52 hours, for ~4200 km. If I stick to the previous range, call it about 400 km a day, that would be 10-11 days, plus another 5 days in there for stopping at various places for more than a day/night. Since I’ve seen it before, I think my real desire would be the chance to do a bit of kayaking along the way for some of the rivers, small lakes, etc. No real sea stuff though, that doesn’t interest me. At least, not in a kayak! I’d be open to some small boat cruises to see the coastline.
For Segment 2, it would basically be Newfoundland (26d). The tricky part is that I don’t know how much I want to repeat previous trips, and it is a LONG haul across the entire island. I did a complete workup to cover all of Newfoundland, which is insane. I’m not really going to do that, not in practice. The so-called plan would cover all of the upper peninsula above where the ferry from Labrador docks; take me all the way down through Gros Morne (there’s a fjord I would want to see this time); a couple of little jaunts up by Baie Verte, back over to Twillingate, and if I could, I’d spend a night on Fogo Island. I have no idea how transport works for there, where I’d leave my car, etc. I’d pass through Gander, head over to Bona Visa, a few more peninsulas, and then into St. John’s.
Then I’d hit the southern peninsulas. With a full trip out to where I could hop over to St. Pierre and Miquelon. Again, no clue what’s involved to do that, but I would want to make sure that made my list this time. A few more excursions off the main highway into the core of the island would be mostly about getting into the harder-to-reach parts of nature and hopefully kayaking a few quiet lakes and rivers. And then, heading back all the way to the south western tip, Port aux Basques to get me to the ferry off the island.
While I wouldn’t do all of that, I wanted to see what the maximum plan could look like over 57 hours and 4800 km. Almost 15d, just in Newfoundland, not including what I did in Labrador. Add in about another 10 days I think to allow for rests, trips to outer islands, kayaking, etc. for a total of up to 25 days. I’d also have to see if it would make more sense to go from Argentia in the end, rather than doubling back to Port aux Basques to depart. Although that sailing would be 15 hours to Sydney, rather than 8. Not that it matters, either way, it’s basically a day. Overall, the new parts would be the stuff north of Gros Morne, some kayaking, and Fogo Island plus St. Pierre and Miquelon. If it wasn’t for St. Pierre and Miquelon, I might be tempted to just go down the west coast of Newfoundland and take the ferry to Sydney, skipping almost the rest of the island that I’ve already done a fair portion of, on a previous trip.
Segment 3 would basically take care of Nova Scotia (10d). I’d start in Cape Breton, do the Cabot Trail loop, and then go all the way down to the southern tip of Nova Scotia passing through Halifax and then back up again until I cross into NB and make my way towards PEI. A simple 21 hours and 1700 km. There are a few places I’d like to go kayaking, maybe see a friend or two, maybe even climb a mountain. Plus spend some actual time in Halifax when I’m not sick. It looks initially like a mere 5 days, but call it 10 days in total with fun stops. I could decide to skip a bunch of Cape Breton, and even most of Nova Scotia, only going down to Halifax and then over towards Acadia University and up to PEI.
Segment 4 would finish off PEI and the rest of New Brunswick (9d). It’s only 14h and 1200 km, so not the biggest haul by any stretch of the imagination. Three days of driving would complete the loop through PEI, and then cover off Moncton, St. John and Fredricton, but I suspect I’d want at least 1 day in each of those three plus Charlottetown. We didn’t spend enough time in PEI previously. So 3d of driving plus 4d of sightseeing, and perhaps 2 more days of rest to do nature stuff, call it 9 days in total. I didn’t see many of those previously, more like drivebys, so it would be nice to spend some time.
Now, I have to confess, even if I was to do all of this “again”, with the new pieces, one segment still remains — I still have to get home (6d). Andrea, Jacob and I just did New England a year ago, and oddly enough, where I finish off in New Brunswick is right near two of my favourite parts of the trip — Baxter National Park and Acadia National Park in Maine. There were a few things I didn’t get to do there, partly for time and partly for configuration, so maybe I could go back for some of it. It would still take me 13h to get home, plus the 1100 km, and I’d add likely 2d in Baxter and at least 1 full day in Acadia, so let’s call it 6d to get home.
Would I really want to do this long trip too?
There are two variables at play here. One, yes, I would love to travel in a trailer through all these areas and see them from that perspective. Two, I’ve seen some of it before. Would I still find it worthwhile? My thought, in part, is that the other things I would do like camping, boondocking and kayaking would be worth it. And most importantly, is it really the same trip as before if a) I’m by myself and b) I’m also not pressed for time? Oddly enough, Andrea might be interested in the Ottawa to Deer Lake portion of Quebec, Labrador, Gros Morne, and Newfoundland, so I might have someone with me for the most isolated portions.
Segment 1 – Labrador, 16d and 4200 km;
Segment 2 – Newfoundland, 26d and 4800 km;
Segment 3 – Nova Scotia, 10d and 1700 km;
Segment 4 – PEI and New Brunswick, 9d and 1200 km;
Segment 5 – Maine and the trip home, 6d and 1100 km.
Grand total: 67 days and 13,000 km.
Now, here’s the interesting part for me. Since most of the destinations are ones I’ve been to before, I have some familiarity and comfort with the area; most of it is in Canada, but I would still get some challenges in Labrador and Newfoundland when I’m not within cell service. I’ll need a Garmin if I’m kayaking or even looking for better than average navigation assistance. Maybe even a satellite phone, although that seems overkill except for certain segments. So, what if I started with this trip instead of the other one and let myself ease into the big trip? At 67 days, I could see that easily dropping to 45 days, for instance, with a lot of detours in Newfoundland and even Cape Breton not exactly being “required.”
Or, what if I rented a trailer for this trip? Or what if I only went to Labrador and back? I don’t NEED to do all of this one, but I would be willing to do it again, as it’s a nice way to give everything a shakedown trip OR to cap off the previous one with a shorter-duration haul.
What about you? Have you ever done a repeated trip with more time and less schedule to guide you? Was it worth the “return”? Or did you feel that other destinations were a higher priority?
I mentioned in my previous post that my dream is to drive from Ottawa to Anchorage, Anchorage to San Diego, and home again. With lots of detours on the way. I don’t know if any one read it, not many comments or views, but whatever, I blog into the abyss, at least for now.
Obviously, with a 124-day trip and 25K kilometres (or about 15.5K miles if you’re bent that way), I can’t afford to stay in hotels every night. Even if I could get the average cost down to $100-150 / night (Cdn), and some locations would make that a challenge these days, that would still cost me $12-18K before I even left the house. Plus, I would likely have to eat out for all meals, find bathrooms, etc. Plus, the headache of packing/unpacking everywhere. No thanks.
Plus, if I’m making reservations everywhere, I would need more formality/scheduling in my tour, allowing for little flexibility/independence in my choices of what to do or where to go. I do not want it to be a Canadian version of the movie and book, “If today is Tuesday, this must be Belgium.”
My choices are limited by bathroom options
I do want to drive, but when I get down to the nitty-gritty of a long road trip, I have no desire to write a review of all the great public places to poop across North America. In fact, it is my bowels that worry me the most about a long trip. While I don’t have IBS, I do have a system that is often distressed and inconsistent in operations. For some people, that’s no big deal. Hikers poop in the woods; backpackers find parks, trails, or truck stops. Maybe they find a downed tree to sit on with their butt out behind. Maybe they’re good squatters. And whether they are hiking or camping or whatever, there are a lot of people who can poop anywhere. They even take little shovels with them, dig a hole, poop and cover it up. Some do it IN PUBLIC CAMPGROUNDS, which is just, well, gross.
At no point in my life have I ever been a backwoods traveller. No way, no how. And that has not changed. I love the theoretical idea of a hike, doing the Appalachian or Pacific trails; I am somewhat envious of those who can do it, get back to nature, all that jazz. To find themselves, perhaps on a mountain top, with no one around for miles. But I know my limits. I am not a “hike, sleep on the ground, pack in my food, etc.” kind of guy. I don’t have the body for it, and I don’t have the mindset for it. No giant hikes, no backpacking, nada. no pooping in the woods. This Panda doesn’t shit in the woods.
There are tons of websites and discussion fora that provide suggestions of basic toiletry options, none of which work for me. I basically need a toilet. Soooooo, if I want to do a long driving trip; and I can’t afford to stay in hotels every night; and I won’t be relying on nature as my bathroom facility; and I’m not going to try and use only public restrooms wherever I go…there’s only one real solution.
A “mobile living quarter” has entered the chat
Because I’ve been interested in this type of trip for the last 20 years, I keep an eye out for various movable options. Nothing substantive in the way of research, just some bits here and there. Until about a month ago, when I started looking earnestly about “what kind of options are there?” that would allow me to travel with a bathroom.
I started my initial scoping based on an option where Andrea, Jacob and I could be together at some point in the trip — the highest common denominator. That pushed me in very specific directions, adding a lot of cost and logistical challenges to my whole trip. Until I realized that the portion that would be all three of us doesn’t actually require the same solution. For the portion where Jacob and Andrea join me, we COULD just stay in hotels for some of that time. This means that my “overall need” is more minimalistic — I need a mobile option when it is just me travelling alone, and some other options (maybe the same, maybe different) for when there is more than just me.
In short, what are the options? In order of increasing space, complexity and cost, they are:
Car or van life — I could get some sort of simple SUV or something like a Subaru Outback where the back folds flat with room for a bed;
Camper van — This is an obvious choice, with varying sizes from basic VW vans up through larger minivans to full-on short camper vans, some with sleeping berths over the cab, and with or without access to the camper area from the front of the vehicle;
Large motorhome — Again, this is basically the same as the camper van, just moving up in size to the full RV mode with a longer wheelbase, more space, etc., but everything is still integrated into one vehicle;
Small trailer towed by SUV — There are various designs of small trailers, from soft top foldout camper trailers to very small “balls” that are the size of a bed only to smaller tear-drop vehicles to converted horse trailers. Almost all of these trailers have to weigh under 3500 lbs, or the average SUV won’t be able to pull it, which keeps the size under 20 feet, and likely closer to 14 or 15;
Fifth wheel pulled by a truck — Most fifth wheel trailers require at least 3/4-ton trucks to attach the trailer mount, and you’re probably looking at 20-30 feet in length.
Full trailer pulled by a full-size truck — Generally speaking, once you get past the 25-foot mark, you’re likely clearly into the full-size 1-ton trucks with larger towing capacity. You just need it for the weight, no question.
Which options appeal to me?
For me, the final choice comes down to 4 variables…
How many people can comfortably use it?
How easy is it to use?
How much does it cost?
What are my functional uses with it?
I might as well take the bull by the horns and start with the last one, as the first three are a lot more about narrowing choices once I find a functional solution.
I watched this video about a guy who was going to visit his son in Alaska, and he had flown there. For whatever reason, he wasn’t able to stay with the son, and he wanted to see a bit of the surrounding area, so he rented a U-Haul van and showed how he equipped it for $318 for the month. Obviously, it was way less than a hotel room for even a weekend. But what was really interesting to me was how he talked about using your mobile living quarters to replicate four functions that you have in your home — a place to sleep, a place to cook, a place to relax and hang out, and, of course, a place to poop.
For those who go with the simple car/SUV option, the choices for handling your waste are pretty limited. You simply don’t have much space. Almost all of them go with some combination of a 5-gallon pail to poop in (compost added manually) and a pee “bottle”. While I might be able to manage the pee container under normal circumstances, I have too many images of trying to use it and ending up peeing on my bed or knocking the bottle over, etc. No, thank you. And not only am I not pooping in the woods, there is no part of me that screams, “yeah, I could balance comfortably and enjoyably on the edge of a bucket for several months.” Now, if you are one of those people who likes this idea, keeping it simple, the fact that you can buy a toilet seat to go on the bucket is not enough to change my mind. Amazon has one here: https://www.amazon.ca/Camco-41549-Toilet-Bucket-Seat/dp/B075BZVVLD?th=1 This is about all you can fit in an SUV.
As I will not be trying such amenities in a car or SUV/small van, vehicle option “1” is clearly out.
Small camper vans (#2) are marginally better. Some people have taken a slightly taller, true van-style approach and put a small porta-potty in the van. This is a huge attraction for the simplicity of a single vehicle, etc., but the more significant challenge for me is that many of these solutions turn the entire van into a bathroom that you sleep in. The place you stand to get into bed, or you stand to cook your food, or to sit to watch a movie on your laptop? It’s also the same place where you sit to poop. With no walls around you. It seems, umm, unclean. Non-hygienic. Sometimes, it’s even gross.
Now, to be fair, it’s not a proper toilet situation where you’re flushing a water-based toilet, and things could splash. But, under the heading of TMI, I generally am a “stander” when I go to wipe my butt. I am not a “reacher,” as they say. I feel like there may be some sort of configuration where this could work, add in some sort of shower curtain around you when using it, but I’m not sold. I would quickly find myself looking for a potential DIY conversion option where I could build a small enclosed “space” for my toilet. If I could find a way to do it, I might investigate further. There’s a really good video of various options here:
But, an additional reality check starts to hit. Yes, the van option works if I’M BY MYSELF. But if there are three people travelling in the vehicle at any time in the journey, not only do I not have room to sleep for all three, I don’t even have room for them to ride safely — all of the solutions that I have seen have just the two front bucket seats with the rest of the van used for the camper part. Jacob wouldn’t have a seat, unless we do the full bench seat in the first row (no, thank you). If you’ve seen some of the higher-end camper vans, the ones that are bordering almost on RV status, you’ll know that they DO make camper vans with more seating separate from the camper area. Yet almost all of those raise the price quite a bit. Ultimately, unless I find the perfect camper van with three seats, I think this option is out. I’ll still look, but I’m not hopeful. And it likely fails when compared to other options.
When I move on to a larger motorhome, the cost is likely prohibitive right out of the gate. But there is another aspect that starts to grate. Let’s say I’ve pulled into a campsite, I’m getting ready for dinner, and I suddenly realize that I forgot to get bread. Hard to have grilled cheese without bread. Oh, no worries, there’s a store less than 5 minutes away. Except I have to take the WHOLE RV with me. Some RVs have awnings and sections that pull out to give more space; maybe I’m connected to utilities. And now I have to unhook everything to go run an errand. It’s one of the reasons some people tow a small car or an ebike or bicycles with the RV, so they have a way to run an errand without moving the whole “trailer”. It is a shame that the cost and separate functionality are in conflict, but it’s partly because the fifth “function” (mobility) is conflicting with the other four (sleep, rest, cook, poop).
Some of those RVs are nicer than some apartments or hotel rooms I’ve been in. Some are even LARGER. But I think the RV is an unlikely option for cost and functionality (of course, a small camper van has the same issue, generally, but they often don’t have all the adjustments to larger pull-out sections, utility hookups, awnings, etc.). But you should look at one of the high-end options here, which are mind-blowing. Obviously, they are way more than I need, but still, you can do everything up to that level; yet I don’t want to take this to the store to get bread. If I was going to keep the vehicle afterwards or take more people with me, it might be more practical.
If I skip to the last two, the fifth wheel or full trailer, just as with the motorhome, the space and functionality are off the charts. I can have room for 10 people if I need it. The only limitation is the cost. I saw some beautiful trailers under 30 feet long (still towable, but that’s pushing it) with all the functionality of a whole house. They’re not specifically designed for a long haul with frequent stops; they’re more for a haul to somewhere you park for a decent duration, maybe even a whole summer. I could almost justify the cost, considering an option at the end of the trip to just sell it used and recoup some of the investment or perhaps find some land to park it on somewhere, connected perhaps to a septic system. But you need a decently sized truck to haul it, either 3/4 ton or the whole ton. And that puts me in the $60-$100K range for a new vehicle I only need for towing. I just can’t see how that works financially or even logistically.
I talked to my brother about some options, back when I thought I needed room for all three of us for the whole trip, and he suggested the best option was a fifth wheel, with 3/4 ton truck, and 23′ to 28′ length. It’s a good solution with solid analysis. But that is massive to me. I’ve never even pulled a camping trailer. Yet before I’ve even left my driveway, I’d be in the $100K range for anything new, maybe even $125K. It would be a good option if I needed a “highest-common-denominator” solution, but I don’t, after all.
If Andrea and I were selling our home, say moving to BC (like her aunt and uncle did) and living in the vehicle for six months to a year in different places, then a larger trailer or motorhome would be something to try, and I would likely move the option from viable to even feasible. Until then, I think the larger ones are too much, and the smaller ones are not enough.
So, Goldilocks, where does that leave me?
The most likely scenario is some form of a small towable trailer, perhaps a teardrop style, hopefully under 3500 lbs when loaded. Returning to the functionality test, they all have room to sleep for 1-2 people. Most layouts have a full-sized double or queen bed across the back end that converts to a table area. In front of the bed on the driver side is some form of dresser/cabinet/storage option; then the door. On the other side, in front of the bed (and across from the door) is some form of wet or dry bath (wet baths are where you close a door and the whole “room” becomes a shower); and to the right across the front is some form of sink and cooking area. It’s a functional yet cozy layout and most of the teardrops use some variation of it, or a mirror flip where the bed is at the front. Here is one of the better ones, a Bushwhacker Plus (the plus means it comes with a bathroom). In this one, I would need to add some sort of pop-up table if I wanted to leave the bed set up all the time (which I probably would).
Others have layouts that are more for one person, with more of a bench/bunk along the back wall and a galley along the passenger side. Some of them don’t have the kitchen IN the trailer but instead have a “hatch” on the back of the trailer so your kitchen is external, often under an awning.
I’ve looked through basic options for layouts, power options (some with solar built in, others as add on portability), and almost all with some form of fridge and cooking facility. But I suspect almost all of the options will succeed or fail with me solely based on the bathroom options.
I can sleep on a single bed, double bed, queen bed, it doesn’t matter. I can upgrade the mattress to better quality; for power, the only options that work in general are going to run laptops and my CPAP machine, charge my phones, etc. I can lie on the bed or sit in a chair to watch something on the laptop (I’ll need a good setup to type for longer periods of time as I blog or just write in general). So, sleep/relaxation will be covered somehow, and I’ll likely do some combo of a microwave and small hot plate to cover cooking options. If I had more space, I’d love to throw in a toaster oven, but well, that’s likely NOT in the list of space requirements.
I love some of the power options that come with external cooking, including a built-in / pull-out “grill” for BBQing and a small fully-charged/rechargeable freezer, although I want to talk to someone who has used the external-only option and see what they think of it…do they find it a pain in mosquito season? Food and cooking will be covered, there are lots of options, and variations. In other words, I’ll have some preferences but I can be flexible with multiple variations and combos, Which just leaves me needing the bathroom to work out.
I am willing to sacrifice a bit on the bathroom. If I have a good toilet option, and I would LOVE to find a solution with a dump tank rather than carrying a porta potty to a station, I can find another solution for showering. I am less worried about showering at a campground where I can wear water shoes if the bathroom is grody than I am about having the option to poop well. I always worry when travelling…what happens if 2 hours into the drive segment, I suddenly have to poo? Where am I going to do that? I regularly take Imodium on long car trips to keep things controlled if I am in any doubt. For a trip like this, I love the idea that I would have a toilet with me. It moves my “idea” from theory into potentially viable. I don’t know if 25K km is feasible, but at least the idea isn’t out the door yet.
As I said, I know there will be options for showering. Some people use an external shower area (basically a shower curtain around the back of your van); some people just use the campgrounds if they’re not too bad and you can wear good water shoes (your feet are the only part likely to touch anything); there are going to be some nights where I stay in a motel; and far more likely, I have no qualms about using a day pass at a Y or fitness facility to work out for an hour and then shower to my heart’s (and nose’s) content. If I have a shower that works, great; if not, fine.
But I need the toilet config to work. And while there are some really creative solutions, I’m a big guy. Some of them won’t work for me. I can’t wedge myself into a thin closet. In the video above, it seems doable. And if I sacrificed the shower, I could save some weight (no need for the same size water tanks), AND I could have space for a table. Or I could swap out the fold-down bed/table with a permanent single bed and a fold-down/fold-up desk of some sort.
Now, with this configuration, I still need a vehicle to pull the trailer. The same problem that I had with the fifth wheel, where I needed a 3/4-ton truck. Except, if I take a tear-drop style trailer, I can probably keep it under 3500 lbs, which then means that I can pull it with a standard SUV. Like the Toyota Highlander. I love the general Highlander-sized SUVs, and I’ve thought about upgrading to one often. More space for my astronomy gear, for example, easier to go to the cottage, great for car trips, great for everything, as long as I am okay with the larger vehicle. If I get a trailer that the Highlander (for example) could pull, then a new cost element emerges.
In about 2028, it will be time to upgrade my main vehicle. What if I take the cost I would spend to get a regular cross-over SUV and incrementally upgrade to the slightly larger Highlander for an extra $15-20K? That’s a far cry from paying $60-100K for a separate truck that I don’t really need for anything else (nor, honestly, do I want to drive one as my main vehicle). Teardrop trailers can hopefully be had used for under $20K. So, now I’m in the realm of adding maybe $30-40K initially yet having the option to recoup 10K+ of the cost when I get back by selling the trailer and still justifying the extra $20K for the SUV as my primary vehicle. So my incremental cost, estimated grossly, would drop to $10K perhaps. But that has huge implications for my overall gas, food, accommodations, even schedule.
All this “analysis” doesn’t quite bring the dream to the realm of feasible yet, maybe just viable. I’ll come back to that at the end.
Application of said trailer to said trip
If I assume I’m driving an SUV with small trailer, what does that look like for the trip? If I have reliable solar power, I’d try to boondock (stay at non-camp locations for free) 2 nights out of 3, maybe do full hookups every third night with a waste dumping option and full charging capabilities. So, let’s look at the various segments and see if my option presents any issues.
For Ottawa to Calgary, the only issue is if I get to Winnipeg and want to go to Churchill. I’d have to leave the car and trailer somewhere while I flew or took the train.
For Calgary through the Territories and back to Vancouver, it all depends on where and for how long Andrea and Jacob might join me. In a pinch, we could make the trailer work for a rough night or two, but we’re more likely to be in hotels/motels. And I’m a little nervous about driving some of the Northern logging roads when I’m not experienced at hauling a trailer (I’ll still be in month 1).
For Vancouver Island, I would hope to stay almost the whole time in the trailer everywhere I go, but am not sure I’ll have much flexibility for hook-up sites and timing. Or if I detour to drive towards Mount Baker, do I just leave my trailer behind somewhere?
For the Pacific coast, I worry most about taking the trailer through large American cities. I don’t want to do a lot of stop-and-go anywhere near L.A. Will I be able to bypass the traffic? Or do I bypass the whole city?
For the part over to New Orleans, I have silly concerns about camping anywhere near rattlesnakes or scorpions. Alligators tend not to come up to your door so I am not too worried about them. I have some concerns about personal safety, travelling on my own into more gun-friendly states. I shouldn’t, but I’m aware of it. I don’t want to get hassled because I’m driving with Ontario/Canadian plates.
And then there’s the trip back home. It’s relatively straight-forward, but I do want to spend some time perhaps in some of the cities, likely without the trailer in tow. This likely means driving through, dropping it, and then driving back into town (so you don’t have to drive through town again the next morning on your way to the next destination).
Summing it all up
Let’s see, more than 120 days and more than 25 thousand km. Plus, I have to tow a trailer, when I’ve never towed anything in my life, just so I have a reliable place to poop.
And I’ll have to figure out all the stuff for food, showering, too. That’s not solved.
I’ll have the loneliness factor to contend with.
It’s big and scary and challenging, and likely a 1000 things will go wrong (and right) along the way. I suck at mechanical problems. Digital, wiring, I feel more confident with, but mechanical? I just feel helpless. I’ll need to try and take some training before I go on maintenance, repairs, etc. But still. It’s a lot to undertake.
And honestly? Would my health let me do it when the time comes? I have plans, sure, to improve my health. But what if it isn’t enough?
Some days, the daunting challenge scares me; other days, it inspires me. Today? It depresses me. Sigh.
I don’t know if I can do this one, but I’m not giving up on it until I work through all the possibilities so I can see the best possible option if I were to try. It’s a lot of work for an option, I know. But dreams do that to you, I guess.
What’s your dream? Do you have one you want to do but are not quite able to believe that you can actually do it?
Okay, deep breath. This is the big one. The dream I have had for 20 years. Maybe longer. The one that has been invading my thoughts in the last month, the one that scares me, the one that excites me, the one that I don’t know if I’ll be able to do. A full-on walkabout.
What the heck is a walkabout?
There are probably three meanings of walkabout in the general zeitgeist of society. The first is a British term, with LIKELY racist leanings, of someone who has just wandered off and can’t be found. Someone silly or unreliable in general. The second is a DEFINITELY racist term from Australia suggesting that (mainly) Aboriginal people are unreliable and shiftless and just wander off to do whatever they want.
However, the third version is the important one, and the origin perhaps of the other two. It is indeed Australian in origin, from the Indigenous communities, and seems generally to reflect a search for one’s identity, a voyage of discovery. To intentionally go on a long journey to find yourself, to figure out what is important to you and who you are in relation to others, the land, etc. Not surprisingly, for Indigenous communities, it usually has a spiritual component to it and a strong flavour of self-discovery through the journey, rather than travelling to achieve a destination, and often involves a close commune with nature. Many Indigenous communities have an equivalent of a vision quest (of the mind and spirit), while a walkabout seems more physical in its intent.
This third one is the one that interests me, both as an idea, and as a branding of my intended experience.
I have to confess, embarrassingly so, that I probably first heard of it in the movie Crocodile Dundee. If you remember, early on in the movie, there’s a scene where Mick is telling Sue (the female journalist) about how he used to date this other woman. He went on a “walkabout” around Australia to see what was out there, and when he returned, the woman was ticked at him for going without telling her. Mick didn’t understand why it would bother her; Sue sarcastically agreed, thus mocking clueless males. Of course, the point of the joke is to make you remember what a walkabout is because, at the end of the movie, he’s leaving NYC to do a “walkabout” in America, just as Sue realizes she’s in love with him and has to chase him down into the Subway on a crowded platform before he disappears from her life for months, years, or forever (it was the 80s, no cell phones or emails).
Despite the cheesy origin of MY introduction to the concept, it stuck with me.
Initially, I desired a long trip to see “what’s out there”. Then, it became a little bit more about seeing the land from the ground instead of just flying over it. I’ve been to the Caribbean and the top of South America; I’ve been to Asia; I’ve been to Hawaii; I’ve been to Europe. But I never get much of a sense of travelling to those places while on a plane. It’s more like a really long subway ride…I got on a tube in Ottawa, I got off a tube in Mexico, and there were some pretty pics on the way. It never seemed real.
So, just as I said in my post about cruises, I often don’t feel like I am getting a true sense of the planet. Or, dun dun dun (foreshadowing), of the continent I live on.
Where do I want to go?
I want to go on a driving trip from Ottawa to Alaska, Alaska to San Diego, San Diego to New Orleans, and home again. Broken into six segments, driven back-to-back…for a total of ~25,000 km. Yep, I’m nuts.
1. Ottawa to Calgary (20d). I would start by passing through Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon, en route to Calgary. According to the CAA/AAA Triptik, the route would take a little over 38h to go 3650 km. If I limit myself to about 400 km a day, the app suggests I stop just before Sudbury, at Sault Ste. Marie, at Marathon, just after Thunder Bay, about two-thirds of the way to Winnipeg, halfway between Winnipeg and Regina, at Regina, after Saskatoon, and then at Calgary. It’s a great plan, if I was doing nothing but driving 400km a day. Not for nothing, but I expect I’m more likely to do Sudbury for the first night and then take the second day in Sudbury; same for day 3 and 4 for SSM; day 5 and 6 for Thunder Bay; day 7, 8 and 9 for Winnipeg. My real scheduling problem is what else I might want to do in Manitoba.
For example, maybe go to Churchill. Gulp. That’s a 2-day train ride, call it 5-6 days to go up and back. That one would depend I think on Andrea later…if she doesn’t have a burning desire to go to Churchill sometime in the future, I might go now; if she’s willing to go later, I’d wait for a future opportunity. Alternatively, I could go about 1 day north to Grand Rapids and then over to Saskatoon before doubling back a bit to Regina. That would be day 10-11 to get to Saskatoon, day 12 in Sask, 13-14 for Regina, and 15-16 to get to Calgary.
I could go faster in there; I could go slower in there. Some days might be a full day in each major stopping area, but it might be raining or I might just visit a museum in the morning and head out in the afternoon. I would likely give myself 20 days or so to get to Calgary, and if I’m there earlier, I’m there early.
2. Calgary to NWT, Yukon and Alaska and then to Vancouver (45d). The timing for this one is a bit more restricted as Andrea and Jacob are likely to join me for some of it. The real challenge of including them is the simple distance and resulting time; I have all the time in the world, but they do not. The app estimates 112h to do 9500 km. At four hours a day, that would take 28 days. Not including sightseeing times. If I was by myself, I’d probably estimate 45 days or so to do that whole stretch which would be pretty much 2d on, 1d off, and not necessarily many hard days.
Andrea and Jacob will likely have to figure out which portion of that they might be interested in doing. They may prefer separate trips to NWT, the Yukon or Alaska, for example. And I’ll have to make some resulting decisions about routing. I could pick them up in Calgary and take them BACK to Calgary instead of Vancouver. But neither of them are going to want to drive the whole 9500 km either. 🙂 They COULD meet me in Yellowknife and fly back from Whitehorse or Anchorage instead, knocking it down to about a third of that distance (3000). Or even travel Whitehorse to Anchorage which is only a 1000km. Or, or, or…lots of options.
I like the idea that they could maybe start in Anchorage and travel through Whitehorse to Vancouver, about 3500 km, and only 10 days or so. Both really want to see the Territories (which they would) and Jacob really wants the interior of BC with the mountains (which he would also get). That’s a long way away, though, although it really doesn’t change much for me. I’d still go to Yellowknife from Calgary. The timing challenge, other than meeting them, would be how I get to Yellowknife…some of the roads are impassable and ferries on Great Slave Lake stop running when the snow hits. I assume I’d still be fine in September (my goal is to leave Anchorage by the end of September to avoid any big issues on interior BC roads and, of course, spend most of September in the region to take advantage of the Northern Lights opportunities).
3. Around Vancouver Island, back to Vancouver, into Washington (20d). This one is surprisingly “short” in comparison, a mere 26 hours to go 1800 km. There’s a lot of backtracking, some overlap, not much to do about that unless I go sideways and do a long ferry from Alaska to the top of Vancouver Island. At the moment, I have no idea what that would cost or how feasible that would be. And if Jacob wants to see the interior of BC, it wouldn’t be my likely route anyway. For now, I’m assuming everything is under my control, no major boat trips to shave off distances. In theory, with only 26 hours and 4h a day, I could try to do this in 6 days, but that’s no way to sightsee.
I’d probably spend at least 2 days in Victoria, another couple as I went along to Tofino, another couple up in the Northern part of the island. By contrast, a couple of sections in there could easily be longer-haul days, particularly when backtracking. I could see a full 6- or 8-hour day packed in there. Let’s call it somewhere around 14 days in total, although that is a bit generous. Particularly given the fact that I’ve done the southern part of the island several times before. Except I forgot 3 or 4 days at the start in Vancouver. Call it a full 18 days, including Vancouver. I could maybe divert myself at the end to see Mount Washington, but that’s just a single-day blip. I also accidentally skipped Seattle during my route to Tacoma. Add another 2 days, 20 in total.
4. Tacoma to San Diego (14d). This segment would let me go down the coast, and I’d have some deciding to do — do I stay out by the coast and see the ocean all the way down OR do I go inland, hop over to Nevada at some point for Reno and Vegas, back out to the coast for Sacramento, San Francisco, LA, and San Diego. I don’t have a burning desire to do L.A., nor gamble in Las Vegas, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see them. The trip with a slightly inland routing would be 29 hours and 3000 km. So, about another 7 days-ish. Add a day for Reno and Vegas each, another 2d for ‘Frisco, 1d for L.A. (I just want to go to the Santa Monica pier and the giant beach) and perhaps 2 days in San Diego (I could spend both at the zoo looking at pandas!). That’s another 7 days, for 14 in total. Yes, I’d love to pop over the border to go to Tijuana just to say I did it, but no, I’m not crazy. Baja California calls, but I’ll stick to the U.S.
5. San Diego to New Orleans (15d). This would not be a direct route, but it would allow me to see Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas along the way. I wouldn’t go into the Grand Canyon, as that’s on a future list. Nor am I likely to do Colorado at this point either, as I might be getting into snow season in some places, depending on when the trip starts. Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Abilene, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans would be the major cities, although a few are more just pass-bys than a huge desire to spend any extended time there. A half-day in most would perhaps cover it for me. The driving would be about 37 hours and 4000 km. Whew. That’s a solid segment, for what looks like a short haul. Driving is 9d approximately…call it another 5d of stopping plus a day of rest; let’s say 15d in total.
6. The trip back home (10d). From this point on, it’s about making my way home. A direct route would take me 22h and likely cross at Prescott of all places, going south of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. That doesn’t seem like an exciting option, but it would take me through Kentucky and Alabama. I hate to spoil the surprise, but I have other plans for those states. 🙂 Instead, I will likely start with a straight shot north to Memphis, St. Louis and Chicago before crossing back at Sault Ste Marie. That adds 9h and 3100 km to the trip, call it 31h of driving or about 8d. I’m not really sure that is accurate; some of those days might be a bit faster. Memphis and Chicago might add an extra day each, so 10d in total. But as I go through Wisconsin, I am REALLY conscious of the potential weather in December.
Summing it all up
Overall, that would be 20d to Calgary, 45d to the Territories and back to Vancouver, 20d around Vancouver Island, 14d to San Diego, 15d to New Orleans, and 10d to get home = 124 days. If I were to leave the day I retire (August 27), I wouldn’t return until December 29th. I could shave some days off or add in days for car issues, fatigue, or loving an area and wanting to spend more time there, etc. However, I think it’s likely to be a four-month trip.
Wow, I initially thought six months as a huge outlier, but more like 2 in reality. While I’m right in the middle, I thought I would be closer to 2 than to 6!
Now comes the reality check.
First and foremost, I have to figure out the whole logistics (some of which will come in the next post).
Secondly, what does this mean for day-to-day costs? Where will I sleep, what will I eat, etc.
Thirdly, I don’t know if I can even do this from a social perspective. A 4-month trip by myself? Sure, it’s not 1950. I will almost always have full internet access wherever I am and can do FaceTime with Jacob and Andrea, except perhaps in the extreme North, and if I go Starlink, maybe still then.
Fourth, not quite the most important, but close…will I chicken out? This is a HUGE undertaking by myself. If I was travelling with Andrea, separate from the companionship and all of that, it would just be nice to have someone to brainstorm with if something seems daunting. Do I go left or right up here? What does the computer say is the distance to the next campground? Which someone could tell me without me having to pull over to look it up, if there was someone with me. And if travelling together, we could say, “Hey, let’s take a break for a day, no need to stick to the schedule, an extra day here, an extra day there, what would it matter?”.
The trip is enormous and daunting and scares the bejesus out of me, particularly going it alone.
This makes me want to do it even more before I get too old to consider it. I try not to have regrets in my life; I make my choices and move forward, but if I chicken out on this one, I think it’ll top the list.
What else would stop me?
Finally, I come to the most important consideration. My health.
In my current physical condition, there is no way I could undertake it. I just don’t have the agility, stamina, mental fortitude, or general “back” health to do this right now. My heart is fine, blah blah blah, not worried about keeling over anywhere. At least, not any more than sitting home in my easy chair.
But just as I am not some long trek hiker, this trip will still test me physically. And I am not currently up to that test.
Of course, this is the whole point of pre-retirement planning. I need to figure out what I need to have in place financially and physically for me to do this trip, not wait until I retire and go, “oh no, I can’t afford it”. Just as I invest in the financial side of retirement, I need to catch up / buy back some parts of my health and agility with extra investment in the next three years. Starting with my back, general mobility, and then moving on to my weight and ongoing exercise habits. That’s a future month of planning. But this trip IS my most significant practical “need” for my health planning.
In terms of routing and planning, I’m still really concerned with the Territorial / BC portion of the trip as a timing constraint. It is WAY longer than I expected. I really didn’t understand the distances, and we might have to compromise on some of the joint portions to make them work financially and time-wise for Andrea and Jacob. And if I look at a map, my routing skips Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. I might do some of those later, and it isn’t like I’m collecting Pokemon where I have to get them all…it is more the idea that if I’m already IN the area, should I be doing a bit more zigging and zagging on my way home? Arkansas is a stone’s throw from Memphis, for example. But that thinking might lead to the madness of adding another 30d to my trip home. I’m not COMPLETELY against that idea, true, but well, it seems unlikely. Heck, I might even get to Sudbury and call the whole thing off. Plus, I might have to move some of the trip forward 6w if it means I can guarantee I avoid snow.
Obviously, an ideal scenario in my planning would include some sort of pre-test of this mad-cap scheme. But that’s a question for another post, perhaps. Stay tuned.
Okay, now go ahead, tell me this is ridiculous
That’s my big trip-of-a-lifetime, a white man’s walkabout, err, driveabout in North America. I don’t know whether I’ll find myself, or even if I need to anymore. Maybe I’ll just feel more lost than ever. Or maybe realize that it was all silly self-reflection….Maybe all I really need is a motorcycle and the open road for a couple of days with my brother.
But this trip calls to me. To get a true sense of the continent. A bookend to go with an ocean-crossing cruise, perhaps.
Now, tell me I’m ridiculous. Talk me out of this.
Or tell me about any giant trips that call to you. Not about trips that you would do if you had unlimited funds; tell me about ones you could actually do if you committed to it. Whether you should or not.
