Packing your ‘Look’ for a Road Trip

Now that I have returned from an extended road trip - I have some notes about what worked well for me. It is easy to expand to taking the ‘kitchen sink’ when you have a whole car to hold it. Here are my top 10 notes about how to pack items that sustain your ‘look’ on a road trip:

1. Pack in several small suitcases or tote bags rather than having all clothes in one large suitcase.
2. Know what you will do with clothes after you have worn them. A laundry bag in the trunk (or multiple laundry bags pushed to the very back) can work quite well.
3. Pick your main three colors so mix and match is possible. In my case - I always go with black, red, and turquoise….with black being the color for most of my slacks/pants/jeans.
4. Choose layers sufficient for the coldest place you will be. In December, it was not ‘hot’ anywhere I went so the layering in addition to my regular indoor clothing included fleece/sweatshirt and a coat with gloves in the pocket!
5. Pack shoes in their own bag (best if the bag is unique and recognizable for each; plastic bags from stores work well). These bags can be tucked into a small space in the trunk or even partially under a seat.
6. For items that need to be on a hanger, I prefer to lay them on top of the items in the trunk. Hanging them in the car often reduces visibility…not good while on a road trip.
7. For cosmetics, I generally round up on a road trip. This might be a reaction to the rounding down when traveling by plane (and not checking luggage). At least I use multiple ziplocks so it is easy to get out just the items I need. If you are going to be a guest in someone’s home and sharing a bathroom, it is often a good idea to take a tray or bowl to keep you toiletries contained and easily transported back to the guest room rather than packing them back into the suitcase each day.
8. A small suitcase for toiletries, underwear, socks and one/two days of clothes worked well for me so I could leave the bulk off my clothes in the trunk while I was actually in transit.
9. Plan to do laundry for road trips of more than 10 days.
10. Find a small container for jewelry that has a good lid and is just big enough for what you want to take. My favorite is a heart shaped tin that I got as a valentine’s present several years ago. It is just the right size for earrings and rings. Bracelets can often fend for themselves in the suitcase.

Road Trip in December - Texas

The road trip across Texas was a long one - from Texarkana to El Paso with a side trip toward Oklahoma City from Dallas. It was easy to see the vegetation trend across the state from forest to mixed forest/grasslands to grass lands then sand dunes/desert to rocky desert. There are rivers to cross too: the Red, the Trinity, the Brazos, the Rio Grande. The terrain goes from hilly to flat to a climb up onto the Edwards Plateau to flat again then the mountains.

I wrote about the rest stop mosaics in west Texas in an earlier blog. The rest stops in Texas were all clean and well maintained; the ones in west Texas were the same temperature as outside so were very cold when I passed through. There was at least one where the construction of a new facility was already started, presumably one that will be heated and cooled. 

The pictures below are from the welcome station between Texas and Oklahoma on the Red River (two on left), the wind farms that seem to be more numerous every time I come through west Texas (lower right) and then the mountain ranges that appeared on the horizon to break the monotony of the sand dune part of the state.