--- title: "86: Twenty Six Day Road Trip" id: "5510" type: "post" slug: "twenty-six-day-road-trip-86" published_at: "2020-01-26T03:45:41+00:00" modified_at: "2022-07-03T21:59:11+00:00" url: "https://johnpoelstra.com/twenty-six-day-road-trip-86/" markdown_url: "https://johnpoelstra.com/twenty-six-day-road-trip-86.md" excerpt: "Here's what happened and what I learned from our cross-country road trip in August of 2019" taxonomy_category: - "Podcast" --- [Skip to the content](#site-content) [John Poelstra](https://johnpoelstra.com) ### Bringing order to chaos and clarity to confusion - [One Conversation](https://johnpoelstra.com/) - [Podcast](https://johnpoelstra.com/category/podcast/) - [About](https://johnpoelstra.com/about/) Toggle search field - [One Conversation](https://johnpoelstra.com/) - [Podcast](https://johnpoelstra.com/category/podcast/) - [About](https://johnpoelstra.com/about/) # [86: Twenty Six Day Road Trip](https://johnpoelstra.com/twenty-six-day-road-trip-86/) Here’s what happened and what I learned from our cross-country road trip in August of 2019 [https://media.blubrry.com/johnpoelstra/content.blubrry.com/johnpoelstra/JPS086-Twenty-Six-Day-Road-Trip.mp3](https://media.blubrry.com/johnpoelstra/content.blubrry.com/johnpoelstra/JPS086-Twenty-Six-Day-Road-Trip.mp3) Podcast: [Download](https://media.blubrry.com/johnpoelstra/content.blubrry.com/johnpoelstra/JPS086-Twenty-Six-Day-Road-Trip.mp3) Subscribe: [Apple Podcasts](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-john-poelstra-show/id1130635146?mt=2&ls=1#episodeGuid=http%3A%2F%2Fjohnpoelstra.com%2F%3Fp%3D5510) | [Android](https://subscribeonandroid.com/johnpoelstra.com/feed/podcast/) ## Highlights - 6,800 miles in 26 days - Enough time to form some new habits and perspectives in new places which was interesting - Off for the month of August 2019 - Ending “unnecessary suffering” - Trip was inspired by a conversation with my [ACS](https://www.stevechandler.com/advanced_client_systems_program.html) classmate [Karen Ahlquist](http://www.horsepowercoach.com/AboutKaren.html) combined with several upcoming trips - Knowing how much it costs us to live and knowing exactly how much we have at any time made it much easier to decide to do this - [YNAB](https://www.youneedabudget.com/) (You Need A Budget) software to manage our finances has been a game-changer - Having *just enough of a* plan - The tension between planning or not planning - We made a big loop and drove through the following states (see maps below) - Oregon - Idaho - Wyoming - Nebraska - Missouri - Tennessee - North Carolina - Kentucky - Ohio - Michigan - Illinois - Wisconsin - Minnesota - South Dakota - The result of simply being for the first week or so–reading and listening to very little - Things that went well or paid off - Prepared a month in advance - Physical/paper maps - Got our van serviced a few weeks before - Long driving days and days of no driving - If there was nothing to do or see that interested us after arriving at a location - we moved on - got us a few days ahead of schedule to do things we wanted to - Stop before it’s too late in the day so there is time to wind down before going to sleep - Making decisions on a full stomach - Seeing a place in person - Stopping at all the information places to find good camping - Leaving early in the day makes it easier to wrack up the miles and cover more distance - Stand-alone GPS unit (always had coverage) highly recommended - Costco - Thule box on the roof to hold camping gear and free up a ton of space in our van - Living in the present vs. the tension of knowing what we would do the next day - Sometimes choosing in advance - Sometimes making it up the next day - Next time - Write a few bullets each day after dinner to capture what you seen and where you’ve been - A better way to pool and manage all of our pictures - Taking a few pictures every day ## Outbound Route ## Return Route ## Credits - [Hallon](http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Christian_Bjoerklund/Skapmat/christian_bjoerklund_-_skpmat_ep_-_01_-_hallon) by Christian Bjoerklund - [Cold Funk](http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100499) by Kevin MacLeod - Photo credit: My odometer All songs licensed under [Creative Commons](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) #### John Poelstra [Author archive](https://johnpoelstra.com/author/john-poelstra/) January 25, 2020 [Podcast](https://johnpoelstra.com/category/podcast/) [Previous post](https://johnpoelstra.com/book-reading-fast-85/) [Next post](https://johnpoelstra.com/getting-a-coaching-session-back-on-track-87/) ### Leave a Reply [Cancel reply](/twenty-six-day-road-trip-86/#respond) ### John Poelstra [https://johnpoelstra.com/?attachment_id=3756](https://johnpoelstra.com/?attachment_id=3756) ### Subscribe to Podcast [Apple Podcasts](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-john-poelstra-show/id1130635146?mt=2&ls=1) [Android](https://subscribeonandroid.com/johnpoelstra.com/feed/podcast/) [by Email](https://subscribebyemail.com/johnpoelstra.com/feed/podcast/) [RSS](https://johnpoelstra.com/feed/podcast/) ### Links - [About](https://johnpoelstra.com/about/) - [Blog](https://johnpoelstra.com/blog/) - [Podcast Production](https://johnpoelstra.com/podcast-production/) - [Better Meetings](https://johnpoelstra.com/meetings) ### Subscribe to Podcast [Apple Podcasts](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-john-poelstra-show/id1130635146?mt=2&ls=1) [Android](https://subscribeonandroid.com/johnpoelstra.com/feed/podcast/) [by Email](https://subscribebyemail.com/johnpoelstra.com/feed/podcast/) [RSS](https://johnpoelstra.com/feed/podcast/) © 2026 [John Poelstra](https://johnpoelstra.com/) — Powered by [WordPress](http://www.wordpress.org) Theme by [Anders Noren](https://andersnoren.se) — [Up ↑](#)