FIRST REQUIREMENT: One Patient Road Warrior

Keep in mind, you must like driving or have a partner who does and not just for scenic, laid-back roadways, but hardcore, highway traffic. To make your travel savings a reality, you have to be willing to rough it a little, and be alert and healthy each step of the way. In this day and age, your own well maintained vehicle is the first key to your travel power.

GETTING YOUR VEHICLE IN SHAPE TO RUN

Needless to say, you can't put the cart before the horse. Meaning if your vehicle is not healthy and ready to run at full pitch, better think about the plane, train or bus. In our case, the Plymouth Voyager van had a few items of delayed maintenance which we took care of at the beginning of our planning. Since it is also a work vehicle for our cleaning and maintenance service, this work was due anyway.

Our list of repairs and tune ups included: new alignment and two new tires, oil change, check of our shocks, AC, engine , transmission. All systems were checked and certified okay by a qualified shop, that had many stores nationwide and could guarantee the work. We did not add the cost of these repairs to our trip since it was our time of year to accommodate them anyway in our general business budget. Now we had confidence to create our destination.

CUSTOMIZING THE MAP

Since our budget wasn't extravagant, we devised a destination plan that would save money right from the start without compromising our fun and sense of adventure. We also wanted to make the trip more purposeful: we were going to scout a possible new place to relocate ourselves in the near future. With all this in mind, we went to work making our lists .

a) Calling Friends:
If you have good friends in an area, who have been there awhile, you can potentially be house guests and learn very much about an area you can't always get from newspapers. We had two good friends in New York State in an area that was scenically loaded with waterfalls, parks, mountains and a historic downtown district. When they both extended the offer that we could stay, we circled the town on our AAA map and set the departure and tentative arrivals dates based on MAP QUEST. Having two possible stay locations is good, in case one is a wash-out.

b) Get On The Internet
Since we were going in our work vehicle, we thought maybe we could do a little work at the time we were on vacation. We went on-line to a site that advertised work and apartments in the area and found a temporary position with a property owner who need work on a few apartments. He was advertising for help the very week we planned to be in that city. An Internet contact brought us together, and we set a tentative date to meet when we got there. Depending on your type of work or skill, if you are service based and have business cards and the ability to free lance, a trip to the Internet may surprise you with an opportunity to make back some of your expenses, at your travel destination. Later in the this article , I describe how much that process made for us.

c) List of All Travel Carry-ons
Now that our destination, time table and vehicle were set, and the nature of our purpose highly defined; we compiled a list of everything we needed to carry with us. The list became: clean clothing, personal toiletries, two pillows, sheets and one blanket, two towels ,dry, healthy food stuffs for energy boosting, vitamins, stocked cooler for drinks and fresh fruit and only a few perishables, camera, car care package of oil, fluids, tire changing gear, clean rags, small satchel of tools that could be used on the job at out destination, resume and business cards. In addition, I had just published a book of poetry on-line and had supplied myself with bookmark and postcard promotional tools, so I would take a handful of each on the road. We made a separate file for the paperwork, and an easy to reach open box for the maps, trip tiks and critical information which sat between the front two seats. Now we would set about making our van comfortable for the long haul.

PREPARING VEHICLE COMFORT

To spend more than one day in your van or car means, you need to maximize interior comfort. Although, this can be done in a car, an SUV or van is more conducive to the task.

When you clean your van, your natural human instinct is to fill it up all over again in your gung-ho vacationing mind set. The fact of reality however means that to save money, you'll probably need to sleep inside a few times at least, so it needs to be neat and easy for that. It can be very comfortable if you apply a few tricks.

Use soft cloth and not hard cloth clothing carriers -they're easier to manage and can fit in smaller areas or around the areas you need to stay relatively clear. We placed our big, stocked cooler in the holding area behind the second back seat, and were able to put all our clothing there too. Our small tool satchel stayed behind the front seat, and our pillows and bed sheets were neatly folded at one end of the back seat. Our bag of dried food stuff was behind the front passenger seat, and a box containing a camera, and any literature we would acquire was to the side by the sliding door on the passenger side. This left room for resting or sleeping: one person on the back seat , and one person either reclining in a front seat, or on the floor of the van between the two seats. We made sure the windshield guard was handy under one of the front seats. We will talk about setting up for sleeping in rest areas a little further on, but first a few notes about breaking up the ride.

LEARNING HOW TO BREAK UP THE TRIP

Once we had secured our house for our absence, we had great energy and excitement to begin our trip. Although your energy can seem boundless at mile one, the human body was made to move and after two hours of cement pounding. Roads are wearing on any driver. On any major road you have rest stops and using them wisely can save you a fortune in money and stress.

Ten days before our trip, I had obtained many free travel guides from triple A along with our outbound and inbound trip tiks. I noted on the trip tiks where all the free rest areas along the routes were.

Since I did not drive, I took the role of rest stop tour guide and traffic director. As rest stop guide, I was constantly scanning the trip tik map for the symbols ahead that could offer my husband a break. Sometimes I would ask if he was tired, and he responded "not really". Let's put it this way, men don't like to ask for directions either, even if they're really lost. When I saw signs that his eyes where heavy, he was restless behind the wheel, I just ignored the "not really", and told him that in two miles we were pulling off into the rest area. Or if no rest areas were yet in sight, I'd have him pull off into an exit with a lot of services, where we could park in the corner of a lot for a moment or two, get a cold drink or coffee, and recharge him a little. I tried to make sure there were exits with the services within .02 miles of the ramp- so there wasn't extra driving to get there. On route 95. this was not a problem.

Rest areas not only provide bathrooms, vending machines of snacks and drinks and guide maps, but offer you the chance of the cheapest motels around: your van laid out for sleeping. We spent a total of 5 rest times inside the van and learned how to make it more sleep friendly in a lot where noise and action is all around.

PREPARING TO SLEEP IN YOUR VEHICLE

1. Try to pull in where there is shade if it's a hot summer day.
2. Try to pull near to the center of the rest area but not right next to a vehicle on either side (although this changes)
3. Rest in rest areas that have security, and bright lights at night.
4. Check for where the security is located, before nodding off
5. Secure your sun guard to the front windshield to cut sun rays or neon /day light.
6. To block light from side windows, close the window glass over a draped piece of clothing, or towel. We did this for both front side windows and used the clothing hooks on the inside of the passenger windows to drape materials.

When you are tired enough you can sleep anywhere. Make sure you have bottled water or a snack that can be had in the middle of the night or before you fall asleep, so that you don't have to leave the vehicle, if you have a craving.

We spent about three over nights like that in our van. It saved us an average of $44.00 per sleep session. When we awoke, our bathrooms were right there; for usual morning wake up activities. And a cup of coffee was at the machine waiting. What we saved by using our van in place of a motel room: about $140.00. Of course there is no replacement for a real honest to god, hot shower in a clean motel room, but if you plan to bring some towels, use clean wet ones over your body followed by a fresh change of clothing and you get a decent substitute for the typical shower. We actually stopped only once to rent a motel room for one night.

BE WILLING TO CHANGE THE MAP

You can plan for a year before taking road trip and still find unexpected detours that crop up along the way. If you think of your vacation as a challenge, then don't get nervous making changes that make your trip safer or more pleasurable. This is a lot more easy from a personal vehicle than from a tour bus or by airplane. At one Virginia welcome center, an information specialist showed us how to take another route, not mapped out by triple A, that would save us nearly 200 miles and aggravation. We stopped 12 miles from this detour and followed her instructions when we got back on the road. The way was more scenic, although there were less rest stops, we saw more little towns and better scenery.

On our way up to New York State, we took about three days. The last leg of our journey took us into Central New York after 11:00pm. We followed all the directions our friend had given us but the road was winding and after 1/2 hour, the small college town was still not in sight. My husband was dead tired, and fast cars and bright head lights were blazing in our rear mirror. I saw a small rest area ahead, and had him pull off. I was tired too. But it was deserted and dark with no services and we got slowly back on the road. As luck would have it, a cable TV technician in a company truck was pulling into a service terminal right ahead. My husband flagged him down and since our cell phones were dead by this point, he let us use a station phone to call our hosts. My host told me, we had six more miles until town. I realized, after stopping how tired we were. Six miles was a long way. I told him, we would try and make it it to him, but it was very late, the directions to their place were sounding complex to us. If I wasn't able to think clearly, at this late hour, I didn't expect a second wind. I realized that I had over estimated our capacity to make it to our friends at a decent hour, and said we would pull over and rest, and call them in the morning. Back on the road, I took the wheel, and my husband half closed his eyes and half watched me. I remember pulling into the center of the town and not knowing which way to go, went right and right into an apartment parking lot. The lot was bright, and there was a quiet dark corner and we parked. Our practice at making the van sleep friendly paid off handsomely that night. We prepared fast for sleep and crashed.

STAY ADVENTUROUS

We awoke at 4:00am, restless and little hungry. Since we were unsure where our friends place was and it was too early to call them, we set out on foot to find a place to eat and wash a little.

Luckily this was a college town and we found a friendly local who told us there was a big open grocery-cafe about nine blocks away. We were a little tired but highly motivated. The store was big, clean and bright. It offered us bathrooms, and something fresh to eat. We were able to charge our dead cell phones as well. By the time we returned to the downtown area, we had the chance to locate our friend's apartment and re-park the van in a municipal lot nearby.

We were rough around the edges, but very happy to see our friends at 7:15am. We caught up rather briefly with them but they acknowledged our need for rest, and had prepared two comfortable couches for us.

BE EASY TO HANDLE

One big advantage to staying with friends is the opportunity to save on lodging and food and learn the secrets of the place they live. You can boost this opportunity if you follow some simple rules that make your visit easy for your hosts to handle.

1. Bring any special foods or drinks you may want to have. Depending on the hosts available frig space , put enough of your own goods within sight and reach. This keeps the hosts from thinking they are obligated to keep you fed for every meal.
2. Bring some kind of gift. They're gift to you is their home. Even something thoughtful you give back and small will enhance your reception; flowers, some wine, a book, even sharing your photos, depending on their tastes.
3. Clean up after yourself: From you bedding situation to your bathroom activities, always leave the space as clean as you find it. Bring the minimum of clothes needed for the time you will be staying. A whole clothing bag is not necessary for an over night or two. You can bring in just small neat bag.
4. Making meals or helping cook. Nothing is more beneficial that your willingness to assist in food making, serving or cleaning up. You have to sense from the host what is needed and always ask first.
5. Be a Great Listener, Laugher and joke tellers. Conversation is a vastly underestimated in a day and age of cell phones, DVDs and a host of Cable TV distractions and on-line books. But some of the best conversation with friends involves your enthusiastic listening capacity, your ability to laugh at a joke or to tell a good one. This goes a long way over dinner, to endear you to them.
6. Go With The flow. Remember, although you are on your vacation, they may not be on theirs. Prepare to ask about nearby attractions you can get to on your own, and let them know you don't need any special attention, they are free to live their life and maintain their schedules the way it was before you arrived. Be open to their idea of time together, and make the most of it.

Our following of the rules as above got us two of the best memories of our trip : a visit to a local organic farmers and craft market and a walking tour to all of the best. most affordable downtown cafes. The time we spent chatting over home prepared meals topped everything else. They were going away on a trip after our second night, so we prepared lodging with our other friend and it was time to call a man about a job.

WORK AS IF PLAYING

Our contact with our temporary boss, took place at the top of a steep hill in town. We walked, sweating the whole way, and appreciated reaching his building. We met with him and took an assignment 4 miles out of town which involved cleaning and painting two rental apartments. Once we agreed on the price, we drew another map for ourselves, and prepared to install ourselves with the second friend.

Getting prepared for the work involved making a sight tour of place the last day of our weekend: Sunday. Our second friend was solo and knew the area, so decided to go with us and take us on a small country tour after our survey. The work was listed, tools needed listed, we would be ready for the drive.

The rolling green hills , lakes and breezes was a stark contrast to Florida and we loved every second of it. Our second friend was very happy to lead us to a waterfall park with spectacular views, where we exhausted our camera.

Two days passed with work during the day, and nights sharing dinner, music and conversation with a friend. We learned even more about this wonderful area, and the work and the people.

When the work contract was at the end, we tallied all we had spent since our departure from Florida and what we had earned from working to give us this result: For gas, food, one motel stay and other incidentals, we had spent $312.00 . From work we had made $400.00. We were into our seventh day of vacation.

BALANCE AND PREPARATION MAKES IT HAPPEN

To sum up one leg of a road trip was very important for us. Since it is the first major trip we took together it spoke well for our needed travels in the future. The key to saving money on the road is like saving money in other phases of life:

1. think ahead, plan head
2. collect all the information you can
3. travel efficiently and light , be clean
4. be adaptable on all levels
5. go where you know good friends
6. go where there is opportunity for fun, adventure, beauty and/or work
7. learn to make your vehicle ready for sleep
8. provide for yourself in every way possible
9. accept all good gifts and give good company

We hope we have removed your hesitations to take road trips and you are now willing to draft your first map for a new, promising, life adventure.