Day 2472 – Cross Country Travel Advice Updated

Posted on April 17, 2016 by 365 days of marriage

A friend recently asked for advice on driving across the country. Since we’ve done this a few times and are planning a trip this summer, I was excited to share. As I wrote most of the following (edited slightly to make it direct to y’all), I realized I have a passion for this. I love talking about certain things and inexpensive travel is one of them.

An old blog post about the drive.

Tips on saving money using a Southwest credit card.

To my wonderful readers! If you’re interested in getting the Southwest credit card, let me know your email address and I can send you some info. There’s a promotion right now where I get 5,000 miles for everyone who signs up and hits a minimum. If you spend $2000 in 3 months, you get 50,000 miles, which is enough for 2 round trip tickets. We’re big fans of Southwest. We’ve gotten to fly almost all the way to Cali to visit Bret’s family 3 times because of the cards. (We have two accounts with them). We’ve used the card for a while now, I’m able to pay it off online immediately (I’ve seen credit cards where you have to wait until it posts to the account before you can pay). lol, how else can I say I’m not trying to sell you something, we really do love Southwest and their credit card.

I will write a post tomorrow with some tips on how to rack up the Southwest miles! Some are without having to spend money!

Information about getting cheap RV rentals. There are great deals, but they’re locked in by location and dates.

I would recommend getting an America the Beautiful pass. It’s $80 for a year and gets you in to pretty much all of the national parks. From what I’ve read, it’s good for you and another person AND everyone in your car. So, I could put down my name and Bret’s and we’d both be on the pass. Then we can take people in if they’re in the car. I don’t know much more than that, so check out the website. Since we’re looking into driving the northern route this summer, we want to see Rushmore and Yellowstone, just the two parks almost pay for the pass itself. Since we live in Maryland, we’re so close to SO many National Parks that would count (Fort McHenry, Gettysburg [I believe], etc.), so it makes sense.

Choice hotels tend to have good deals, last time I looked into them, especially if are a choice hotels member (it’s free) and you can book them at least 10 days (though, I don’t recommend booking hotels that far in advance on a road trip, you have NO idea what will happen on the road). OR, if you have a southwest card, you can use Rocketmiles to book your hotel. You pretty much always get 1000 miles on top of the points you earn for the hotel itself. They tend to range about $20-30 more than most hotels, but 1000 miles is like spending $1000, so it works out well! The first stay gets you 5000 miles.

I just found some great deals on Amtrack. You can take a train from San Francisco to Baltimore for about $300. We’ve thought about renting a car and then taking the train back….or maybe getting a flight close to where we want to go and then driving the rest. Maybe Chicago and then drive from there to the other places.

Some tips – If you’re driving, ALWAYS stop when you’re tired. Even if it’s just for a little bit. Having a cooler and food with you is GREAT. There are more tips on that first link. Though, I will say, we’re NOT going to sleep in the back seat this time. We’re going to sleep in the passenger seat….don’t think it’s too safe, really.

Oh! Little known fact, the states in the south are really bad at taking care of snow! So if you’re driving in the winter, know what the weather is. We were stuck in Texas for 10 hours because of ice. My internet wasn’t working well, but I was able to call my mom and she finally figured out what was going on by calling the highway patrol. So I would get the highway patrol numbers for all of the states you’re driving through.

If you camp, look into parks versus big name campgrounds. We regularly camp at a state park and it’s only about $20 a night. Or there are mini cabins, at our state park, for about $55. So that’s something to consider too.

If you sleep in the car, Walmart parking lots are good as are big name gas stations like Pilot and Loves. DO NOT go to the bathroom in a small dinky gas station. lol, there was one place we stopped at in Tennessee or Kentucky and I swear, it was like I was walking through someone’s house. Ha ha, I don’t think we stopped at a no name place after that!

I would also say, figure out the places you HAVE to stop, then the places you’d like to stop and then the, it’s ok if it doesn’t happen. So, know what’s absolutely important and build the trip around that.

Highlights in our travels:
San Antonio, Texas
Monterey, California
Grand Canyon, Arizona
Russells Truck & Travel Center, 1583 Frontage Road 4132, Glenrio, NM 88434 (lol, YES, a rest stop!)

Do you have any questions about cross country travel? Let me know in the comments!

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Day 2458 – The First Camping Trip Of The Year – or – The Gaitans Versus Nature

Posted on April 3, 2016 by 365 days of marriage

A month ago, we booked a camping trip for opening weekend at our favorite campground down the street from our home. It was also the last weekend of Bret’s spring break. It was a perfect plan! We got a little nervous as the day approached when we looked at the weather, but knew if we could just get the tent set up before the rain, we’d be fine. It was spotty rain. No worries. As we packed up the car, we started to sweat…it was pretty warm on Friday! “This is great! What great weather!” When we drove over, only 30 minutes after check-in, the weather was absolutely beautiful. We got the tent up, bought our firewood and settled in for reading, chatting and fire watching. It was magical.

A few hours later, the storm started rolling in. Would the storm foil all our plans???

Thankfully, it wasn’t much rain, and it was just beautiful. We had a thunderstorm looking one way, a rainbow another and a beautiful sunset the other way.

We put our dinner on the fire and then….the rain….

We huddled in the tent and checked our dinner periodically. Our favorite camping meal are these amazing apple chicken sausages roasted on tin foil over the fire. Mmmmm, SO good. Sadly, nature won this round. Our sausages while somewhat tasty, were missing the crispy, roasted taste.

We slept well in our little home. The soft, morning rain was a delightful way to wake up. Thank you nature!

But what if nature tries to foil our plans again?

Nahhhh, this is going to be a great day!

As the day winded down, we cooked our dinner. These sausages cooked completely. Take that nature!

Here is where I will say, don’t mess with nature. The forecast was calling for cold temperatures (there was a freeze warning) and wind (there was a wind warning). It called for about mid 30’s and a 24 mph wind. We thought, hey, let’s try it! But we’ll pack up everything but the tent in case we need to make a quick getaway. We were in the habit of packing up everything because of the rain anyways. We had just put out the fire, packed up and locked the car, about to settle into reading and going to sleep in the tent. It was pretty much one of those things straight from the movies where you zip the tent closed and the wind starts to howl. We look at each other with trepidation….”well?”….I decided to put some of the extra books in the car and get a feel for the situation. I stood outside looking at the branches swaying, listening for things falling and weighing options. Bret joined me and after a big gust, we decided to call it. In about 15 minutes we had quickly cleaned up our tent. Shoving things anywhere. We had an armful of wood left (you have to purchase wood there, you can’t bring in your own) and decided to drive around and see if anyone was up who wanted it. We found a group and they were very appreciative…even offered us sodas and hot dogs….if we weren’t fearing for our lives, we may have made new friends. We shouted off a “nah, we’re right down the road!” thank you and continued our escape.

Nature was not in the mood to let us go. As we turned a corner, we saw that our path was completely blocked! I put the car in park as Bret charged in to do battle. He hefted the branch (the width of his arm no less) to the side of the road, protecting fellow humans in the fight. He gave it a further toss for good measure. We slowly continued our journey through the minefield that the road was becoming. Branches fallen, sticks, rocks, thorns (not cool Robert Frost!) As we neared the exit and main road, we breathed a little easier. We merged on to the main road and started the long commute home…

*5 minutes later*

We safely park at home and start to carry things inside. In a last ditch effort, nature threw all the wind and rain it could as we unloaded. Not wanting to feel as though we wasted our money, we continued our camping trip.

We even had a fire all night, right next to our tent.

It sure was nice waking up in the ~~great outdoors~~ warm living room and having a cup of coffee by the ~~fire~~ laptop.

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Day 2457 – Guess Where We Are!

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Day 2453 – Summer Road Trip?

Posted on March 29, 2016 by 365 days of marriage

Since we’ve gotten more stable jobs (and income), we’ve been able to visit Bret’s family in the summer. We’re currently weighing the merits of driving versus flying.

Here’s how each of us feel about this…