The best spatula is the one your using. But Paul I do have a question and that is how often are you planning for showers at a campground or motel?
You bring up a couple of very good points - thank-you! I was just thinking along these lines... and I may have a couple of spatulas strategically placed in my Jeep for just-in-case.
But a question first: Are there any ladies coming on this trip? I don't think anyone's mentioned bring a spouse or gf.
Anyways....
1. Everyone ordered a paper copy of the IDBDR Map? Good. I hope you've been going over it and reading it. Not required you have one, but IMHO I think you're missing out if you don't have one.
2. If you look at the paper map (and on line) it shows the IDBDR broken down into eight segments.
My hope and goal and plan is to do one segment a day. The paper map (worth the price) breaks down each segment, and tells you a bit of what to expect during and at the end of each segment (fuel, food, hotel/motel/camping, highlights, etc.). And I figure the folks who are just doing the IDBDR are kinda planning their trip around the one-segment-a-day thing. I want to be respectful of people's time.
3.
Unfortunately, there are no guarantees we'll finish one segment each day. We'll be getting an early start each day, and I'll do my best to keep us moving forward at a decent/comfortable pace, and keep stops to a reasonable time limit. But "
stuff happens sometimes" that may delay us (think of it as part of the adventure). Snow, mud, fires, detours, breakdowns, etc. happen. And we might intentionally decide to detour off the IDBDR for a bit (for whatever reason) and then jump back on (same with the TAT later on). Or if we finish a segment early in the day and folks want to keep going, we might just do that.
4. So I try not to plan too far in advance when going on a trip like this (and believe me; as a type A person it doesn't come naturally) when it comes to stops at the end of the day. While my
plan is to do one segment a day, I don't have campsites or motels reserved all along the way for every night - all it takes is one day to be off, and there's a domino effect if I had tried to micro-plan every stop. I try to keep flexible - keeps the stress down vs. trying to make a deadline every day. Usually there's someone in the group ("navigator" mentioned in an earlier post) who’s looking ahead
that day at what's ahead on their computer/tablet/phone as far as stopping for the evening. There are a couple of good apps for that.
5. So back to the question about showers - it depends on where we end up every night if there are showers available.
6.
But fear not! I'll be bringing one of these propane Zodi Camp Showers on the trip:
Link:
Extreme Self-Contained Portable Hot Shower | A complete System with convenient Stove | Zodi.com
So if you want to, you can take a shower every day. It is already packed in the trailer (arrow's pointing to it). Along with the shower I've got a portable shower tent (the green thing pictured below) already packed in the trailer too. You can kinda see it on the far left in the picture above - the green thing.
