Brad Ideas - Road Trip Lessons - Comments

All my drop fee tests

brad — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 16:16:02 -0700

All my drop fee tests revealed very large drop fees so I didn’t do it. I’ve done one-way RV rental though getting your gear home can be fun.

As for the old clothes, that can be a good approach but if the trip is long you are better to do some laundry than to pack 2-3 weeks of changes of clothes — if you can get a wash and fold to do the hard work. But yes, clothes are light and can be sent UPS or even the mail as an alternate, if you know where you will be. Having to stop by an office or aunt, if you are not already doing so, is a time consuming undertaking though. If you are sure of your first hotel, that can work.

The 50 pound limit many airlines have put on is a killer, since sturdy large bags can weigh from 12 to 20 pounds, I have found, if they have wheels. It’s starting to make more sense to not have wheels and rent the wheels, even at the ripoff $3 price each side. (You can often get them free when people don’t lock them up.)

Travel tips

David — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 16:02:44 -0700

1) My best is 6,500 miles in 8 days in a compact car I rented for $169. As you say, that doesn't begin to pay for the wear and depreciation on a car. I'm surprised they don't blacklist me, since I do it repeatedly.

2) Alaskans (and environmental engineers) always have lots of rigid coolers around. Yes, they make versatile shipping containers AND coolers. Do NOT put labels on that imply there is tasty salmon on the inside. Sometimes those get "lost" in handling.

3) Yes, you can use shipping boxes (they make you sign a waiver). Better yet, jsut UPS the box to your destination a week or two ahead of time. You'll board the plane knowing your clean undies and toothpaste is already in your office or at your aunt's house. And you'll have no baggage to check at the airport, allowing you greater flexibility if flights are cancelled.

5) Don't do laundry, just pack old clothes. When socks or pants or whatever gets the first hole in it or my wife dislikes the color of something, I put in a special box. When I have a field work trip, I take those clothes. Wear them for a day or two and then throw them away. So I come back with lighter bags than I left with.

7+8) check drop fees with several companies. Sometimes they aren't bad or even much at all (cheapest I found was about $12, maybe for paperwork?). I'm guessing they needed to relocate cars from one area to another.

7+8) if you are really cheap about one-way travel, look for drive-away cars (college ride boards or matching agencies). They charge the car owner a fee, you buy the gas. Or school buses and motor home manufacturers who need to deliver stuff too big to truck. They pay for fuel and fly you back home.

electric car coolers

brad — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 01:53:23 -0700

We were given one as a gift and never used it. Perhaps this one sucks worse than the others, but it can't cool food, it can only keep it cool, and it uses LOTs of power, far too much to leave running on the battery in the car overnight, for example. No, it turns out ice and a well insulated cooler is a much better system, at least compared to the small unit we got. They are not very efficient in any event.

Glad you enjoyed your trip

Paul — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 00:15:14 -0700

(2) Among solid coolers, I've come to appreciate the ones with adapters to plug into the car's power to keep contents cool, rather than just stuffing the thing with ice. I know Canadian Tire stocks 'em, I would assume they're generally available pretty much everywhere.
(5) This would be a nice addition to local.google, too.
(9) I thought this trigger pre-dated the terrorism screenings, presumably trying to catch drug-related activity which supposedly matches the profile.
(10) With the investments Google have made in their maps, I'm surprised there isn't more available from them (either maps.google or earth.google). Even typing GPS coords into the location box might be nice (automating, better). Have you dropped a suggestion into their inbox?

Road Trip Lessons

brad — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 12:00:05 -0700

Having completed a long fly-n-drive road trip, I have some lessons and observations.

If you will be driving a lot, use a rental car even if leaving your own city. We put 3000 miles on our rental car for $300 — far less than the depreciation cost would have been on my own car.
It’s great to have a cooler in the car, you can buy perishables and get cold drinks when you want them, but forget about those $5 styrofoam coolers for any long trip. Within a few days ours was leaking, we fixed it by putting a plastic bag inside and out, but they are not very sturdy. There are collapsible coolers and we have one but didn’t have luggage room. You can buy a cheap solid cooler for under $20 at wal-mart or Costco, but it seems wasteful to throw it away. If you have extra luggage, you can fill a cooler with stuff, duct tape it and check it as luggage, however.