If you plan it they will come... day four

Monday September 30th

Foggy start to our day....

Woke up to a foggy, muggy morning at the Knute Rockne Travel Plaza. Other than driving there wasn't much planned for the day. After our breakfast we hopped back on the turnpike with the plan to stop for a break at the Wyandot Service Plaza in Ohio. The drive was fairly uneventful for us but Andrew discovered that he hadn't closed the outside cover for the RV's fridge properly and it decided it wanted to stay in Indiana.

If you plan it they will come... day three

Sunday September 29th.

Sunday morning dawned cool and crisp after a night of rain. As we were planning the trip from the comfort of home we had decided that 7:30 would be a great time to hit the road. We have quickly learned that 8:30 is much more realistic! 

Almost ready to hit the road

Today is to be another long day of driving with only one tourist type stop. That stop is the Field of Dreams movie site just outside of Dyersville IA. But before we reached Dyersville we took a break at the Top of Iowa Visitor Center just across the state line near Northwood. It's very clean and well maintained and the staff we met were very knowledgeable.
 

At the Top of Iowa Visitor Center near Northwood IA

If you've followed our past road trips you may remember this map with the yellow states being ones we've been in or through...

If you plan it they will come... day two.

Saturday September 28th

Frosty morning in Moose Jaw SK

We woke up on Saturday morning cold and a bit of fog. In fact we had to scrape the frost off the car windows! Funny thing is though, we didn't have a scraper in the car so had to use a credit card!

"Fuelled" up, plugged in and ready to hit the road!

After a quick breakfast at Tim Horton's we headed east and south on highway passing  through Rouleau, Weyburn and Estevan before reaching the border at North Portal.

If you plan it they will come... day one.

Friday September 27th.

The day started out a little chilly with the Calgary weather forecast calling for snow!!!!

Fluids topped off, luggage, tools and parts all packed. Ready to go!!

The roads were familiar as we have done this route a number of times in the past. It was raining on and off for the whole drive to Moose Jaw.

Alberta prairie views

Welcome to Saskatchewan

We made a detour to Gravelbourg SK. This prairie town is renowned for its brick  homes, the Our Lady of Assumption Cathedral and its Francophone heritage.

If you plan it they will come.... day zero

We are about to embark on will most likely be our longest road trip to date! It's been a bit of an adventure already with a number of mechanical issues that needed looking after with the car... new head gasket and valve seals, replaced the turbo, and a new front crank seal to name a couple. I also had the wheels rotated and balanced and did an oil change.

This trip will be a little different than our previous ones in that we will be travelling with Sharon's sister and her husband. We will be in the Festiva and they will be in their class C motor home. This allows us a bit more flexibility as we don't have to rely on hotels for our accommodations! We do have a few hotel nights booked though.

Here's a general overview of our trip:

• 2 provinces
• 22 states, 12 of which we haven't been in before
• approximately 11,000km / 6,800 miles
• 20 days
• 1 Festiva meet!

 

Approximate route

A few of things we're looking forward to:

• Time in Amish country
• Two full days in Washington DC
• A return to Festiva Madness! Our last visit was back in 2011
• visiting the towns where a couple of our favorite HGTV shows are based
• New Orleans
• Pikes Peak

I'm going to try and post updates daily but it might end up being weekly, that will depend on access to wi-fi.

What are your favorite road-tripping hacks? We'd love to hear from you so leave your comments below.