Went to AAA today to get up to date maps and tour books. They now have detailed maps of Yellowstone/Grand Teton and Yosemite as well as the tour books. What a lot of territory I am proposing to cover! I got fresh multi state maps so that I can mark them up for my proposed routes and the individual state maps for details. I will also be printing up local maps to help with finding campsites. Some places don't have very exact address data. Since I won't have a navigator on board except "Loraine" (my Gamin GPS), I want to be able to study things the night before so that I can navigate the next days' drive. Loraine and I get into fights now and then but she has been pretty reliable and not taken me down any wrong way streets yet. I recently did the yearly update to her data. I have a feeling she will get a headache and go blank in some areas.
Trying to decide if I want to take my hand held GPS along also for hiking. I would have to take the disks along and preload the maps for each area I will be visiting. What I can download doesn't have the best resolution but I like carrying one, however, so that I can always retrace my steps and mark way points etc.
Batteries, batteries, batteries. I have bought them in multi packs but will probably need more. Flashlights, mini-lantern, head lamp, alarm clock, camera, GPS. At least my emergency radio has a hand crank. Was invaluable during last August's hurricane to alert for tornadoes setting down in our area.
I have heard from one reader that Mickey D's has wifi. That is good news and bad news. Good for on-the-road connection, but bad because I am addicted to their Caramel Frappes at 650 calories per medium serving. Also heard from a reader that prescriptions might be started at Walmart and could be refilled at any Walmart. Great suggestion (except I try not to give them my business)
Then there is something I was reading about at Santa Rosa Lake Campground in NM. Things with diamond shaped heads and rat-ta-lee tails. Their web site suggested to watch hands and feet while climbing over the rocks. I may not be afraid of bears but I HATE snakes. Great brave one I am! Friends in MA have a nice electric fence that they move around to change where their animals can graze. Think I will get a nice double wired one to surround my campsite and never leave my site. Do they come with batteries? Now I grew up in a state with copperheads and rattlesnakes. Never saw a rattlesnake in my youth but had a copper head sun itself every afternoon on the big rock outside of my cabin at Camp Washington when I was a counselor. Then there was also the black snake that lived in the wall of the waterfront when I was Waterfront Director. I hated when that creature would make a visit when the campers were in the water. Think It all stems from a tussle I had with one in a stream while camping up at Stokes State Forest, NJ in 7th grade. Scarred for life. But I'm going anyway!
I am looking forward to some good reading about the places I intend to visit. Can't ever learn too much ahead of time. But overall I think the main focus of my attention will be on the lay of the land; on the physiographic provinces I learned about in school. There are so many land features that I have only read about and never seen. Hogbacks, loess hills and volcanic features.
phys·i·og·ra·phy [fiz-ee-og-ruh-fee] noun
iˈɒg
1. the science of physical geography.
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