Okay, so I'm going to get real about some costs. Keep in mind that spending is part of my borderline obsessive need to feel prepared, and your level of prepared may, and probably will, look much different.
My travel prep included travel supplies, music equipment, car repairs, cooking gear, and cat set up.
So far, excluding food, I've spent about $1,200 on supplies for the road.
Whoa, I know. It makes more sense when you break it down.
The largest expense was definitely CAR at $850. This included rear brake replacement, power steering flush, DIY oil change, a personal fan (to mitigate the lack of AC), new wiper blades, car USB charger, gel seat cushion, and a CAA membership (Canadian Automotive Association).
The remaining $210 was spent on travel supplies like a phone tripod and notebook, and camping supplies such as a cooler, measuring cups and spoons, a blanket, a headlamp, and window screens for the car.
Here a my most exciting road trip purchases that I will review at the end of the trip:
Woods Expedition 36-Can Soft Cooler - $60 (org. $90)
This cooler will be well tested with a ~9 day road trip. My friend Brontë had the genius idea to refill wide mouthed bottles/jugs with ice along the way, so I'll be testing that technique as well.
TFY Sunscreen Mesh $20
This is a cool item I found when looking for a way to have a breeze in my car while sleeping. (Oh yeah, did I mention that I'm sleeping in my car with my cat on this trip? I'll post about that eventually.) A) Sleeping in the car with the windows open, but no bugs. B) A way to keep the windows open when I need to leave Herschel (the cat) in the car, but he has shade and a breeze, and can't escape. This will definitely be an item to review.
Phone tripod - $20
To take pictures of myself in the hopefully spectacular scenery, and to hold my phone if I wanna watch something at night. Inspired by Interesting Ted's youtube videos!
Dog Booster Seat- $30
This will either work, or be a huge flop, but for the safety of my amazing cat, I wanted to get somewhere he could sit and be safely hooked up to the chair. Most of the information I read online said to keep your pet in a carrier and strapped in incase of an accident, but keeping a cat in a carrier for 9 days seemed cruel to me, so I'm going to try out this pet seat. He can wear his (dog) harness and be hooked up to the seat. I let you know how this goes...
BCAA Premium Membership - $145 annually
I went all out on my first auto club membership. Premium. I don't think I've ever had Premium anything except that one time Premium Economy on Air Canada was the cheapest flight home for Christmas. This will help me out with any break downs, towing, car locksmith, or accidental empty gas tanks. I'll let you know if I end up using it.
International Vet Papers - TBD
Herschel is going to the vet in the morning to have a check up and get international vet papers to cross the American/Canadian border. I'm glad I thought of this one before I left the country. I've been told that most boarder guards do not ask for pet papers, but if they do you want to make sure you have them! I'm playing it safe on this one.
I'll keep y'all posted on which items were huge successes, and which were failures.
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, share away!
Monday, July 30, 2018
Monday, July 23, 2018
Welcome - Less than Two Weeks to Go!
Well, long story short, I'm not actually hitting the road for 25 days. I just have 12 days to prepare for the trip before I leave for Europe, and get back the day before starting the road trip. Yikes, only 12 more days!? It's much more scary when you put it that way.
In my road trip research, I've had quite a hard time piecing together information and tips for my trip, so I thought I would share what I learned (and will learn!) so that maybe other folks embarking on a first-time road trip, cross-country road trip, solo multi-day road trip, and/or a road trip with their cat would find something useful here that either took a lot of research for me to find, or possibly, but hopefully not too many, things I learned the hard way on the road.
On this site, I will cover some of the research I found, and link to other people's experiences and advice that I found useful, talk about planning and purchasing decisions I made, and share the journey as it takes place! Then I will debrief the 5,800km+ journey with a post in which I will discuss travel high points and low points, things I wish I new before going, the things that worked well, and things I would change next time or avoid all together!
Anyways, I hope someone finds this site useful, and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Welcome to Co-Pilot Cat!
In my road trip research, I've had quite a hard time piecing together information and tips for my trip, so I thought I would share what I learned (and will learn!) so that maybe other folks embarking on a first-time road trip, cross-country road trip, solo multi-day road trip, and/or a road trip with their cat would find something useful here that either took a lot of research for me to find, or possibly, but hopefully not too many, things I learned the hard way on the road.
On this site, I will cover some of the research I found, and link to other people's experiences and advice that I found useful, talk about planning and purchasing decisions I made, and share the journey as it takes place! Then I will debrief the 5,800km+ journey with a post in which I will discuss travel high points and low points, things I wish I new before going, the things that worked well, and things I would change next time or avoid all together!
Anyways, I hope someone finds this site useful, and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Welcome to Co-Pilot Cat!
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