
I finally made a decision on whether to take my own car or a rental. Not wanting to put over 3000 miles on my car in only 2 weeks pushed me to opt for the rental route. Being a cheapskate meant I spent an entire night searching the internet for coupon codes and pricing out rentals on the major renters websites. In the end and settled on renting a compact (a decision I may end up regretting) from Hertz using a 20% and $30 off coupon. The work was made harder, but cheaper, by an absolutely enormous list of coupon code combinations that I found in a forum post on deal-hunting website Fat Wallet.
Despite being a cheapskate, I’ve been using this trip as an excuse to get a few things that I’ve been wanting for a while but couldn’t justify to myself until now. I picked up a tiny, super-cheap netbook, a Compaq Mini, for $80 to take on the trip with me. I wanted something small and easy to carry with a battery life longer than the full-sized laptop I have now. I found a special 1-day only deal on the ridiculously named Cowboom and couldn’t turn it down.
I also finally replaced my GPS that was taken when my car got broken into late last year with a Garmin Nuvi 755T. It came at a steal of a price since it happens to be a model that’s a couple years old and being phased out. I chose it because it was one of the few, and definitely the cheapest, of the Garmins that supported multi-destination trips. Considering the complexity of my trip, that was a necessity in my mind. With a free update to 2011 maps it didn’t really seem like I was buying into inferior technology so I jumped on it.
The most frivolous purchase, both in terms of necessity and the fact that I sadly (and uncharacteristically) paid full retail price for is a new lens for my Nikon D60. When I was in school, ironically majoring in photography only to end up in IT, I learned to shoot with my mom’s 35mm Cannon AE-1. It was a bare bones, no frills 35mm film camera and I absolutely loved it. This new lens basically turns my DSLR back into a fixed-focus 35mm camera and I’m excited about taking pictures on my trip with it.
Beyond packing and fine tuning my route (exporting from Streets and Trips to the Garmin works, but is imprecise) there probably won’t be any new updates before the trip. I do have full intentions to update with posts and pictures everyday, but the availability of internet access and the time to spend on posts will be the real mitigating factor as to whether or not that is a reality. Regardless, the countdown has begun…11 days to go.
3 comments:
Simple travel = complicated planning.
Take a blanket to go with that sheet...it can get COLD in the desert at night.
And more water than you think you'll need...remember the paddle from hell.
Water shouldn't be a problem. I'll have a 1 liter bottle, 2 liter Camelbak bladder, and a 5 gallon water cube to stick in the trunk.
Good...BEFORE you go into the desert FILL them ALL.
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