When planning a road trip there are several steps that must be followed:
1. Decide where you want to go
2. Decide when you want to go
3. Plan your route
4. Gather what research material you will need from computer and books etc to plan your trip.
5. Plan on what you want to see along the way and make an itinerary. Deciding your stops – where and how long you want to stop
6. Estimate the cost for everything such as fuel, food, lodgings and attractions along the way
7. Create a packing list
8. Then put it all together and wait for the big day
Our trip to Alaska is scheduled for late May of 2011. We want to be in Fairbanks Alaska on June 21 to witness the midnight sun. Only once have I ever seen this. We were on a cruise in the Baltic Sea. Lee was in bed. I had stayed late in the casino and stepped out to see the moon. Oddly enough at 12:30 am what I saw was the sun setting. I thought I would share this with Lee the next night but we had sailed further south and by midnight the sun has set. So off to Alaska we will go to seek the “midnight sun.” So we have decided where, when, and have roughly put together a route. We have gathered most of the research materials with the exception of Mile Post magazine (I am waiting for the 2011 issue) and current issues of the AAA tour books for all the states and provinces we will be traveling through. That takes care of phases 1 through 4 basically. http://www.outwestnewspaper.com/akhwy.html
Now the fun, phase 5. The tools we use on our road trips are a Microsoft program called “Streets &Trips”, our trusty GPS, Sally, and AAA tour books. We also depend on research from the internet. Sadly Sally will have to retire this year. Sally being a homebody doesn’t want to travel through Canada or Alaska so we will be buying a new GPS. Over the upcoming months I will be researching the tour books in conjunction with the Streets & Trip program then will put together an Excel spreadsheet with our itinerary and the cost estimate of the trip. The packing list is pretty much already put together and will be updated for climates we will be traveling through.
So until the next post I will be doing massive research.
