Final Week Preparations for Trip

Wow!  My West Coast road trip departure date is less than a week away.  Who knew that when I started planning this trip back in January how fast time would fly by and that I'd be less than a week away from my departure?  With only a few days left, I am in the process of wrapping up everything that needs to be taken care of before I depart.  

First and foremost, I'm getting all of my work in order so that when I leave, all my employees continue to get paid and work keeps moving.  My employer is being very generous by letting me take four consecutive weeks off from work, so I want to make sure that everything runs smoothly while I'm gone.  That way I can do something like this again in the future.  

While dodging rain and thunderstorms in Maryland, I've spent the majority of this week getting my car prepared for the road trip with an oil change, inspection and preparing the inside for the wife and kids being in there for hours on end.  

One of two major upgrades I made to the car was getting a USB power hub for the back seat, which I mounted on the back of the center console in the back seat.  For kids today, USB power is a must.  So after doing some research, I settled on buying a AI AIKENUO 96W Quick Charge USB Adapter on Amazon.  The reviews seemed pretty good and I liked the fact it had 5 Quick Charge 3.0 ports on it.  I have mounted it in the car and so far so good.    

Another must have is shades for the windows.  I had thought about getting the windows tinted, but I'm not a huge fan of window tint.  In the past we have used retractable window shades that mount on the window, but they are usually cheap, flimsy and don't stay down.  So I bought two GgomaART Magnetic Sunshades on Amazon that my kids can easily put up and take down by themselves.  These shades attach with some high strength magnets to the metal door frame and work surprisingly well in my 2017 Nissan Altima.  

Finally, I upgrade the wife's Amazon Kindle to a Samsung S6 Lite tablet so she can have more capabilities while on the road.  We found this on sale at Costco and so far she seems really happy with it.  Not as the user, but as someone setting it up, I really liked the stylus pen that came with this tablet.  Unlike the iPad (which I have), you do not need to pay extra for the stylus with the Samsung S6.  It comes with it.  Very nice for the price!!!

This weekend, I have the following activities to prepare for the trip.

• Learn more about how to efficiently use my GoPro Hero 9
• Do a trial run of packing the trunk of my car (suitcases, cooler, disc golf discs, and skateboards)
• Buy some local beer to bring out west and share/give away to fellow travelers I meet up with on the road.  

I've scrambled to get all of this done in the last week while I get ready to head out the door.