Hey everyone! Thanks for asking about me.
Sorry I couldn't check in again after my last update. We moved from the hotel to my mom's friend's mom's house for a couple of days and barely had dialup there, then drove home Tues (no trouble) and haven't hooked my computer back up yet. I slept pretty much all day yesterday.
We did take back roads at some point, but in a lot of areas they weren't *allowing* you to be on the back roads. Ugh.
I'm planning to do a trip report type thing on this with what I've learned, but short of it:
ALWAYS travel with a map.
If you're going very far, especially in this kind of situation, take at least one gallon of water per person and a few cans of food that you can eat out of the can.
Never pass up the opportunity to top off in this situation.
Once you've gone about 20 hours on the road, make sure you have munchies and eat something, even if it's just a few crackers or a cereal bar, to keep your energy up until you *can* stop.
If you're traveling in groups, walkie talkies are MUCH more reliable than phones.
Don't forget the pets! Even though you put water down for them, make sure they're drinking! Ours didn't, and we had to force water down them with a straw.
We put a harness and leash on every cat for safety sake -- and we needed them several times. Not to *stop* the cat from running away, but usually to get the cat back *out* of the carrier when it was time for a drink or we arrived.
No kidding.
