Questions We Got Asked About Our Road Trip!

For those of you who don’t know, my husband and I were supposed to backpack Europe last year after our wedding! Obviously that did not happen but we did decide to do a road trip of the lower 48 states instead.

We were both working from home so it was the perfect way to stay safe & enjoy the outdoors during the second half of 2020. Now some of these questions will have strange answers because we were originally planning for a backpacking trip and had to change directions so just keep that in mind!

Now that being said, we got asked so many questions about how we were able to do this road trip! I’ve tried to pick the questions we got asked the most but feel free too comment or email me with any other questions you may have!

How did you afford it?

To be honest, you’re not going to like this answer. We started out thinking we were going to Europe for at least 6 months if not a year. So, we sacrificed EVERYTHING. After helping my dad open up a new restaurant in Boise, ID we ended up moving back to our home town of Twin Falls, ID.

Prior to that we were living in Salt Lake City, UT in our own apartment. We ended up moving back into my dad’s house so that we were not spending any money on rent. We of course helped out around the house and worked for my dad at his restaurant in order to earn our keep. But, we were not paying rent or utilities.

Then, we set a budget. We each got to spend $500 per month on food & entertainment. And if we wanted to go on a trip or spend a weekend indulging we would cut down that $500 a month and set more aside for small adventures.

Everything else we made at our jobs, went into savings. I was also doing side jobs like delivering for Uber Eats and Copy Writing. During 4 years at home, planning for our original Europe trip we saved approximately 2 years salary so that we would have enough to travel and live off of once we returned home.

What products did you buy?

Okay, we got asked a lot about the backpacking products we got for our original trip! They ended up working great for our road trip as well though. And we love camping and hiking so honestly these products will be used a lot in our lives!

Also, these are not affiliate links! They are just awesome products that we recommend 🙂

MSR Hubba Hubba Backpacking Tent

Okay, I absolutely LOVE this tent and I am so glad we finally invested in a nice tent. We love camping anyways but having a backpacking tent is so nice. It is light weight, easy to set up, and durable! It has a pretty decent waterproof coating and the rain fly definitely kept us dry in the rain we did encounter.

This tent is expensive but it is worth it. It also comes with a lifetime warranty from MSR! It is also comes with a few quick patch strips incase it were to tear during a trip.

Osprey Travel Backpack

If you ever plan on backpacking, I love our Osprey backpacks! We have now used them on multiple vacations outside of our road trip and they are perfect for traveling. They fit on airplanes as a carryon and they are super comfortable to wear.

These will honestly be our new carryons no matter where we go and I love traveling with them! Also, for backpacking they did not hurt my back which was amazing.

Sleeping Bags

These sleeping bags kept us so warm and were so comfortable! They are also easy to clean and overall just super comfy! They are designed to be used down to 20 degrees and I feel like that is pretty accurate. We also always use sleeping bag sheets to keep the inside clean and add a slightly extra bit of warmth!

Sleeping Pads

It blows my mind that a couple inches of air can make all the difference when I am sleeping on the ground! I honestly slept better in our tent with these pads than I do at home most nights lol. It may be because I was tired from hiking but these pads were so comfortable!

We did get a hole in one of them that we had to patch but it was suer easy and then we got right back to enjoying them!

Micro Fiber Towels

If you ever plan on backpacking or doing multi-day hikes you need microfiber towels. They don’t take up much space, they dry quickly, and are lightweight! These ones did a great job and we continue to use them at the gym & hiking!

Thule Cargo Box

Our Thule honestly saved our butts on this road trip. We overpacked on the first part of our trip but were able to fit it all comfortably because this thing holds so much! We honestly just can’t believe we lived without this for so many years. We will not use it on any road trip, camping, or hiking weekend!

Hiking Poles

We had been debating on if we needed these for backpacking and honestly almost didn’t get them. I am so glad we did y’all! These were a lifesaver. They made long days of walking/hiking so much easier and I believe they were so good for our bodies. I already have a bad knee from cheerleading and this relieved a lot of the pressure.

Car Power Inverter

This was so nice to have so that we could plug in appliances into our car! I honestly don’t know why we didn’t buy it sooner for camping but, here we are. This is just something ice to have and I recommend everyone buy it lol.

SUV Air Mattress

Okay, we didn’t actually end up using this because of the way we organized our car but I do love this product! If you are just taking a quick weekend trip, BUY THIS! It is so nice to have and it fits perfectly in any large SUV.

How did you plan your route?

We bought paper maps!! Yes, you heard me lol. We went to Barnes & Nobel and we purchased old school maps and we circled places we wanted to go and we drew lines. OLD SCHOOL. But it worked!

I also highly suggest learning more about map planning on Google and my friend Jojo does a great series on Instagram explaining this! But, we did not know much about this before our trip so we paper mapped it.

We also were not on a strict timeline so we did make our plans flexible and we did change plans a couple of times! I don’t necessarily recommend this because we didn’t take the most logical route but it was nice having that freedom.

Where did you sleep?

We slept either in a tent or our car! We only rented about 7 hotels in 5 months but we also stayed with friends a few times. The longest time we spent in a hotel was the three weeks we were visiting my dad in Florida but that was a special circumstance.

We also stayed in our first hostel on this trip! I’ll be sharing about that experience in a couple of weeks. But we honestly could not afford hotels and hostels all the time so we chose to sleep wherever it was free lol.

I’m going to do a post about apps we used on our road trip as well but one app I want to mention now is Campendium! That is how we found all of our camp spots and even parking lots to sleep in. We also only camped at FREE boondocking sites!

When sleeping in our car we slept at Cracker Barrel, Walmart, Cabellas, and Bass Pro Shops! You learn pretty quickly which parking lots will allow you to sleep there and always pay attention to signs as to whether or not campers are allowed.

Also, you will not be the only one sleeping there! We VERY RARELY were the only people sleeping in a lot. There were some parking lots that were full of other boondockers! Like, I’d say one time we were at a Walmart with over 50 other trucks, campers, and cars.

Where did you shower?

We mostly showered at Planet Fitnesses! We have the Black Card Membership so we have access to all Planet Fitness locations across the world for only $22.95 per month.

While we almost always had a Planet Fitness available to us on our road trip, there were some towns that did not have the showers open. Due to COVID some cities had the locker rooms closed and we could not shower.

If we found that we had not been able to find a shower in a few days and were in an area with strict lockdown rules that is usually when we would get a hotel to be able to shower in.

Also, I’d be lying if I said we never just jumped into a creek and washed off with camping shampoo lol.

What did you eat?

Let me be clear, this is not a health post lol. We ate what was easy and wouldn’t go bad in the car! We ate road trip food… and I’m not proud of it but it worked for us lol.

We had 2 coolers and a camp grill to work with but that was about it. We ate a lot of sandwiches, hotdogs, burgers, and Lunchables. Yes, we ate Lunchables like 12 year olds lol. They are super easy to eat while on the road so don’t judge us!

For snacks we always had chips, cheez its, string cheese, fruit snacks, and fruit! We ate a lot of oranges because they lasted really well in the car. We also would sometimes get special snacks like rice crispies or turn overs.

We pretty much only drank water so we always had Kirkland water bottles in the cooler as well! Also, when we were camping we would make nicer food like baked potatoes, grilled corn, and breakfast burritos!

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Okay you guys, these are just the most common questions but I know there are more! If you want more detail about any of these topics or have other questions please please please just ask! I love helping other people travel and see the world!