Beautiful January in Oregon! 

In case you thought we are just a bunch of crusty, old aging baby boomers, here is a picture of us with some neighbors – with our golfing snowman that we built on the golf course behind our house.  It’s hard to golf when there is snow on the course – so this is the best we could do.  You might also notice that he has his martini ready by his side – the evening cocktail hour comes earlier in winter!

We hope you are all enjoying your winter and are looking forward to your next adventure.  Now is a great time to start making your plans for your next road trip or other adventure.

 Phil  and  Carol  White

Travel Podcast

We're really getting "high tech'! This month, I had the good fortune to be Beth Harpaz’s guest on her weekly Podcast for the Associated Press.  Beth is their travel editor and has been a good friend of our book.  Beth and I talk about summer vacations and road tripping in general.  You can listen to our conversation here.
 

Here's a nice letter - with a really good question about packing for a long trip.  I've included my response to Barbara. For those of you with smaller RVs, this is a real consideration.

Dear Carol and Phil,

I love your book!  I'm almost finished with it and my husband Jerry had read it, too.  We have a Roadtrek Chevy 210 Popular that we bought last June.

Sincerely, Barbara Lake

Hi Barbara!

Packing clothes is really a challenge, I agree.  We did carry one "dress" outfit each, so don't count that out depending upon your itinerary on your way to Alaska ...

We put all our small things (underwear, sox, belts, etc.) in the drawers.  The closet in our Pleasure-Way had a good sized shelf above the clothes rack and we were able to put all our t-shirts there - one stack each!  We had one each of those multi-hanger pants racks that we put pants, jeans and shorts on.  That still left room in the closet for things like sweaters & sweatshirts.

We had several of the large plastic clothing bags that you can remove the air from (try AAA or other travel stores) - you know, the one-way value deal to remove the air.  We kept our off-season bulky clothing in those and just put it under the bed - which we left set-up all the time.  (Our front two seats swiveled around and had a little round table - that is where we ate when we couldn't eat outdoors.)

Shoes went in a duffel bag in the bottom of the closet - or sometimes under the bed.  Unless you are going to spend every night in your rig, you'll need a duffel bag or two to haul your overnight stuff into a motel/hotel/friends house, etc.

Don't try to take too many clothes - yes, you'll hate them all by the time you get back, but nobody will remember what you wore two days ago (except the two of you!).  Make sure things mix and match to make it feel like you have more than you do, and make sure everything is washable and easy care - no ironing!  The list in the back of the book is truly what we took - nothing more.  This isn't the time for fashion statements.  Phil is a real "peacock" having been in the clothing business all his life.  He started with way too many "nice" clothes, but quickly degenerated into draw string shorts, t-shirts and Tevas!

Most of all – have fun!

Satellite Internet

For all of you who are RVers or campers, The Good Sam Club’s monthly newsletter provides a treasure trove of good ideas.  I co-write a bi-monthly article about technology on the road.  It is usually the “most often opened article” in their newsletter.  But this month was crazy!  We wrote about satellite internet – which, of course, you don’t have to an RVer to have, but the mobile aspect is a relatively new feature.  Over 18,000 people read that article, so I thought maybe you’d enjoy reading it too.  Just follow this link – we’re the first story.

One way to learn about places that you might want to visit is by reading the experiences of others.  There are lots of places on the web to read about other people’s experiences – or add your own.

Two of my favorites are at Road Trip America and My Trip Journal

www.roadtripamerica.com

www.mytripjournal.com

These are two totally different types of sites, but are the best of the best.  In fact, My Trip Journal was voted by Forbes magazine as one of the best travel websites last year.

Road Trip America has not only a user forum for asking questions and getting ideas, it has literally thousands of pages of information about places and sites that people have submitted.  One could spend hours reviewing their comprehensive information.

My Trip Journal has recently reorganized their content so that you can quickly look at some of their best travel logs easily.  Here’s a couple of journals that have been recently featured on their site.

Earliest Adopters

As far as we know, Californians Keiren and Doug Hale were the first members to start up a Good Sam Club Trip Journal.  Most RVers will identify with their motto: “Do it, don't wait! Get out on the road immediately because you don't know what lies ahead, around the next corner!”.  The Hales now have 3 “Best-of” Trip Journals: Where the Hale Are We?, Hale Mail From the Trail  and
Travel Tales from the Hales . (Cute names, huh?)

Most Prolific Journal-keepers

Martha and Ken Wiseman of Illinois take this honor.  Their cover homepage links to eight different Trip Journal homepages covering the length and breadth of America as well as Mexico and sneak peaks at three other continents.

Where have your dreams taken you?

Please send us your travel pictures taken on your road trip dream.  We want to share stories of trips that were inspired by reading Live Your Road Trip Dream – Travel for a year for the cost of staying home.

Until next time.. Keep Dreaming...