Looking Back: Our Best Ideas for the Road

Are few of our best ideas. Stuff that’s made the trip a little easier and we’d recommend to anyone thinking about getting gone.

Going Low Pro	Driving a vehicle that doesn’t get a lot of attention. We’ve been particularly happy not to have been given a second look by cops or anyone else as we’re driving around. It’s already easy to a feel a little “exposed” far away from home in a different country. It doesn’t take much to feel pretty darn flashy down here and sometimes it’s nice to just blend in.
Staying Flexible	There’s gonna be ups and downs on a trip this long. Keep the schedule and communication with your travel partner open. Everyone’s going to have different levels of comfort and your needs are going to change as the trip progresses. On one level, you’ll feel more comfortable everyday as you get used to the constant sight of guns and fireworks going off all around you. But there will be times when you just need to shut yourself in a decent hotel and watch reruns of Friends in Spanish.
Installing a Kill Switch	Go to your dealer or a junk yard and find a basic on/off switch, best if it’s for an accessory you don’t have in your model but a duplicate works. Think defogger or rear windshield wiper. Have someone (or do it yourself) wire it to the fuel pump relay. When off, the fuel pump won’t get power and it’ll seem like the car’s out of gas. We never worry if our truck will be there when we get back.
Bringing a long extension cord	At most campsites, even parking lots or hotels, you can run power to your truck. Particularly great with a fridge that will override DC when it has access to AC. Also nice for “Saved by the Bell” marathons on DVD.
Bringing a spare set of sheets	Whether its cleanliness or comfort, there are times when having your own sheets is well worth it.
Installing a window break sensor	Surprisingly few alarms have them these days, they can often be added. Get one with a calibration that allows you to control sensitivity. The alarm is pretty much useless without it.
Securing everything	It doesn’t have to be Fort Knox, just make sure everything you don’t want to walk off is behind at least two levels of security. If it’s on the roof, lock it on. If it’s inside the car, put it in an Action Packer with a padlock through a chain around the seat post. All it takes is a window to be smashed and your backpack’s gone. Add at least one more step for the bad guys and you’ll have a little more confidence when you have to leave your vehicle.

Strawberry Shake(down)

This is how future overlanders party. In our defense, our M.O. for the past 9 years or so of attending the Strawberry Music Festival has been “shanty-chic.” None of these Walmart expanding shelters or Burning Man geodesic domes for us. Just the biggest poly tarps we can find and a new method each year to get the ropes suspending them up as high in the trees as possible. Techniques used in the past include weighed tree-climber’s throw bags, sling shots, and 8’ diameter helium weather balloons though we often attribute their height to “trained monkeys” when questioned by passers-by. This year, the Thursday forecast called for snow so some actual attention was paid to weather protection in addition to the refugee-camp look we typically strive for.

The telescoping poles from Cabela’s worked great, particularly with a borrowed MEC Guides Tarp. Need to spend a little time figuring out the best awning set up then I’m planning on picking one of these up. It stood up to an accumulation of heavy slush on Thursday night. And sitting in the beach chair, you can see our 26 Watt Brunton foldable solar panel. Despite not getting much sun the first couple days, it kept up with the draw of the Engel fridge and the truck started right up after 4 days parked.  Propane heaters and cooler were great for a festival but won’t come on the trip.

Splotter? Twot? Spacebook? Spottus Updates?

Some new news on the GPS front. Apparently, DeLorme and SPOT have announced a partnership that will allow freeform 48 character text messages to be sent wirelessly from a new DeLorme GPS device, the PN-60w, to a new SPOT device called a Satellite Communicator and then relayed through the GlobalStar satellite network. Assuming these messages could be delivered as emails, it would be easy to use them to update social networking accounts like Twitter or Facebook or to make blog posts. The new devices are scheduled for release in May 2010.

Info from http://www.trailspace.com/articles/2010/01/07/send-text-messages-from-almost-anywhere-on-earth.html

Baja Shakedown

 

We’re just back from our 10 day Baja shakedown trip and have the trip report mostly updated (and more coming everyday). In addition to being a good time, the goal of the trip was to test out the various camping, cooking, and tech gear the UPS guy has been dropping off on a daily basis (He never knows if he’s gonna hafta deliver a featherlight envelope with a MagCharger wiring harness or a 200 lb Schrockworks bumper!).

So you’re part of the tech shakedown aspect. Have a look at the trip report and let us know what you like and don’t like about how the info is displayed. A couple cool tricks: 1) click on any image to load it bigger then use your keyboard “arrow” keys to flip to the next or previous pic 2) Use the “Next Post” and “Previous Post” links at the bottom of each entry to well, view the next and previous posts.

Check out the first post and go from there or read below for some takeaways…

El Viento y Los Vientos

Well, the wind (el viento) that sent us all scattering back to our camps last night did not let up even when the sun rose. It was a weird warm wind that seemed to be whipping over the mountains from the Pacific and rattled and shook the roof tent all night. At one point, I got up and reparked the truck with the hard shell of the tent facing the onslaught but we were still shaken like dice in a cup.

La Bufadora to Catavina

The early morning departures from camp to allow for afternoon hikes and siestas haven’t quite come off as planned. It’s easy to convince each other (this is through non-verbal communication) to spend another hour under the downy warmth of the two 35 degree sleeping bags encased in our comforter cover.

Now we’re cookin’

We’ve been curious as to how a griddle would work bridged across our two Coleman multi-fuel stoves, so this past week we’ve been cooking every meal on the deck.  So far it’s been tilapia fish tacos, turkey burgers (with Gruyere and mustard mixed in), roasted rosemary potatoes, quesadillas, eggs and bacon, and yes, Mickey Mouse pancakes. It takes time to prepare for a trip like this properly , and we’re willing to put in the effort…

The Coleman Exponent 440’s have been running great on some old unleaded I found in the tool tube of the motorcycle.  The main trick I’ve discovered is to light ‘em and leave ‘em on high for 15-20 seconds or so before trying to simmer. When I shut down, I’m also flipping the gas knob from low to high rapidly as suggested in the manual to clean the jets and avoid what seems to be a common problem of gunking the generator. I’ve also heard that some carb cleaner can keep them clear. Still, I found myself on the Coleman web site ordering four (can’t be too careful for $11 a pop) extra generators.

Red (Eye) Meat

There’s a movement within the expedition team to make Perky Jerky an “unofficial sponsor” of ADVODNA. I don’t want to get into specifics, but let’s just say someone on the team feels strongly that caffeinated beef jerky could be a lifesaving (and delicious) addition to the provision list.  And I’m not backing down.

Picked up the roof top tent

This Saturday, Ann and I drove “the expedition vehicle” (as we’ve tongue-in-cheek started to call it – “Should we take the expedition vehicle to Walgreens?”) to pick up the roof top tent I’d ordered a couple weeks ago. Though it was just a weekend errand, I think we both couldn’t help but start to feel like we were already on the trip. We mounted the GPS, queued up some podcasts and discussed the various options for organizing our cockpit as we made the hour or so drive north to the warehouse in Sonoma.

We arrived to find a gentleman who seemed to expect us but was neither of the two guys from AutoHomeUS I’ve talked to on the phone. He jumped right into action tearing into a HUGE box that contained our new tent. Ann and I could see it in each other’s eyes as the doubt set in. How big was this thing going to be?

 

Gettin' down

Ann thinks it's embarassing that we slept in our new down 35 degree sleeping bags on top of our bed last night. They were comfy.

Bought the roof tent today

I’d read about good interactions with Mike from AutoHome on Expedition Portal and mine was no exception. We talked through some comparisons between the Maggiolina and Columbus Variant tents. In the end, I went with the Columbus Variant because Mike said it vented a little better than the Maggiolina and because it had a rear door which would allow access from the ladder mounted on the hatch of the Xterra (the thinking is to leave the included ladder at home). Also, despite Mike’s assurances to the contrary, Ann and I both thought the 38” inches of head room in the Magg didn’t seem like enough to sit up and play cards or something. I think the high center of the Columbus Variant will be nice when changing too.

Mike arranged to save us some crating and shipping charges by scheduling us to pick the tent and some Thule crossbars up in Sonoma in a couple weeks. Can’t wait to get it on the X.