One Way to Pack Clothes for a Long Road Trip

There are a number of ways to get creative when packing clothes for a long road trip.  Here’s what I decided to do.

DF Shira has a lot of experience with long trips and gave me the suggestion of packing daily outfits in two-gallon storage bags, placing them in bins and then transferring daily needs into a small suitcase to take to the hotel room.

Hub found 27 gallon storage totes on sale at Costco and picked a few up for our trip.  The bins seem huge, but since we have a truck the three we took are no problem at all.  For packing into a car trunk, smaller bins would work great too.

Bin 1 – my outfits stored in plastic bags.

Bin 2 – his clothes all thrown in there.

Bin 3 – miscellaneous items we want on hand but don’t need daily such as beach towels, device sanitizer, trash bags, chargers, etc.

Winter whites were on tap for the first Texas leg of our trip, but those stayed packed and blue jeans came out.  The snow was slow to melt in some places and the weather just felt very chilly.

On Day 3 of our trip we stayed in a hotel with a really nice laundry room and a huge washing machine.  John so kindly did a big load while I hit the exercise room.

Exercise

Speaking of exercise. There is a lot of treadmill going on in my routine.  It’s been too cold to even get out for a long walk.  That’s ok, I’m motivated to run and it feels good to sweat. 

Bis, tris, and abs each day too.  Squats, lunges and dead lifts every other day.  Not terribly fun, but I’m keeping up on it.

Texas Sites

I promise not to bore you with every single thing we do on this trip, but here is a quick run down after two days of doing absolutely NOTHING except staring at I-10.

We opted to head straight to Austin since John had not been there.  Our route was via Highway 290 through stunning Texas wine country.  During our Alamo visit to see our beloved family, we visited that area a few years ago and as we drove through we had wonderful memories. 

The Texas state capitol was open and not very busy on a Saturday morning.  It’s quite an impressive building.  The maintenance and immaculate condition showed all the Texas pride.  I think you could eat off the bathroom floors, they’re so clean.

A drive by Lake Travis on a cool, but sunny day showed us a small peek of the huge recreational area.  Apparently they have a nude beach, but if anyone was crazy enough to be using it, we thankfully missed it!

Over the years I have heard Texas friends and colleagues talk about the amazing Buc-ee’s.  Which I understood to be a nice gas station throughout the state.  Well, that’s quite an understatement.  Oh, my!  Yes, they sell gas.  And have a full-service bbq, deli, bakery, home goods, hardware, clothing, food, drinks.  We spent an hour in there and didn’t see it all.  I’m glad we had the chance to stop for “gas.”  FUN.

Gator World

Last stop in the great state of Texas was an “adventure park” with rescue gators, snakes, lizards and other critters you don’t see every day.  The place is a bit underwhelming from the outside, but the staff and well-cared-for animals made this a memorable visit and a recommend if you’re in this part of Texas.

Louisiana

Ok, on to the great state of Louisiana.

Blessings on your week and thanks for joining us here.