Second Planning Meeting
We started off this week’s meeting by reviewing the decisions we have made as a result of last week’s discussion.
1. Our travel dates are August 24, 2009 to September 14, 2009. This is a total of 21 days, three weeks. By being more expedient in our cross-country trek, we could reduce this to 17 days.
2. Andrew will have enough days off. Depending on when he recieves his third-year vacation increase, he may be barely squeaking by or he may have plenty of wiggle room. Either way, its doable.
3. It is very improbable that the boy’s principles are going to give thier blessing on missing the first three weeks of school. We will officially remove the boys from the public school system at the end of the 08-09 school year, and homeschool them for the first nine weeks of the 09-10 school year.
4. We will be driving, utilizing a truck/SUV and trailer combo.
5. We will plan the roadtrip portion of our journey first, then start making plans for the Burning Man week.
6. We need to make short road trips on a regular basis throughout the next year in order to test our ideas for feasability and just generally to get everybody used to traveling together.
After that we had a brainstorming session about the roadtrip planning, and came up with the followng issues that need to be considered:
1. I need to price rental and leasing options for the vehicle.
2. We need to explore scenic routes and sight-seeing opportunities.
3. We can’t afford to stay in hotels. We need to explore available hostels, roomshares, campgrounds, squats, and communes.
4. We can’t afford to eat out along the way, so we need to plan our food strategy. Non-perishable staples and portable cooking techniques are important aspects.
5. Everybody generally seems more comfortable with the idea of bringing a gun than making the journey without one. I need to research state gun laws along the route, and find a dealer near the festival that I can leave the gun with during Burning Man.
6. We need to look at the issues of clothes and laundry. What type of clothes should we pack, how much should we bring, where and when do we plan laundry stops, etc.
7. Everybody needs to plan activities to keep them occupied on the road.
8. If possible I would like to have a wireless internet card by then so that I can blog the trip. May have to settle for a travel journal and transcription when I get home.
We will mull over, research and explore these issues over the next week. This is a big chunk of planning, it may take us more than a week to process it.
