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.

Ramblewriter – Great source for borders, shipping and stories

Every time I get on the ExPo or search for something related to this trip I find a new blog filled with valuable trip info and inspiring stories. This time I found Ramblewriter, a 20-something couple just back from a drive to Argentina in a Toyota 4Runner. Along the way, they’ve compiled very detailed descriptions of each border crossing (complete with step-by-step instructions) and great info on the ins and outs of shipping across the Darien Gap which should be extremely helpful to us. All of their info is well tagged and I found that scanning the categories on the right side was a great way to dig into something interesting.

I also really like their use of video in their blog. Using short clips with a narration of where they are and what they’re experiencing, compiled videos covering a segment of the trip (funny how jerky video can look so good with the right music) and a neat feature, interviews with other travelers, I thought they really gave a good feeling for their life on the road.

Their most recent post has them eloping to Vegas to get married. Congrats to them and I encourage you to check out their blog at http://ramblewriter.com/.

Hip hip, Hep A!

Ann’s been in charge of vaccinations and made us an appointment at the Adult Immunization and Travel Clinic near the Civic Center in downtown SF. Yelp reviews were great and our visit lived up to expectations. For $35 a piece, we sat down with an incredibly knowledgeable RN who talked us through what we’d need for each country. She had up to date maps of risk areas throughout the world and a great handout detailing the pros and cons of each possible vaccine.

In light of the fact that I hadn’t seen a doctor in 12 years and even then couldn’t remember any names other than my pediatrician (yes, I’ll be 38 in two weeks), we discussed various options for bringing everything up to date. Now, it’s up to us to figure out what we want to get and bring them a laundry list. Hep A is the only one that requires a six month lead time.

After the consultation, we’ll likely end up with:

• combined Hep A/B vaccine called Twinrix
• boost our Tetanus
• carry Chloroquine for Malaria areas in Central America and Doxycycline for South America and Africa
• bring a few courses of Cipro for bacterial infections
• try Diamox to lessen the effects of altitude
• likely get our first two rabies shots (harder to come by abroad and less needed if we’re exposed)
• Viagra (see upcoming birthday note above) – just making sure you’re still reading…

Jeff Munn’s the MAN: Mexico and Central America Ride Planning and Road Wisdom

Just came across a great post on ADV and linked from Expedition Portal with tons of details information and recommendations on border crossings, police checkpoints, personal and vehicle documents, etc. The author, Jeff Munn, also made the post available as a PDF and says he barely managed to thin it down to 20 pages. I read through the whole thing and have already reserved it a place in our glove compartment on the trip.

I will not stop for directions in Timbuktu

No, that’s not true, local info is always gonna be the best for road conditions and I’m sure will provide some of our more “colorful” interactions, but I took some time the other day to look into GPS maps. We have a Garmin Zumo 660 that I bought for our Colorado Transamerica Trail trip in the summer of 2009 and figure it’ll be a great device for navigating us and tracking our progress on this adventure.

First stop to look for maps was Garmin where I found that they can only really take us one step south of the border with a detailed map of Mexico. After that, we would need to rely on their World Map which I imagine would get us between major cities, but is likely not more detailed than that.