Winter Road Trip Preparations

Average Temps in January

The average temperature in my neighborhood in January and February is about 3°F with lows down to -25° at night. Sometimes we can have periods of 5-10 days of sustained subzero temperatures.  Also, the high latitudes of Wisconsin and Minnesota make for very long, dark and cold nights.  The winters are  hard and can run well into April. Sometimes winter seems to run up to nearly 5 months. Ugh!

For the last decade I've typically gone down to Texas Hill Country in the area of Marble Falls, Kerrville and Fredricksburg for a week or twos of road bicycling.  The Hill Country is lovely in the winter and early spring and a bicyclist's paradise.  So many winding, country roads with low traffic volume!  These rides were usually done in the company of other friends from Minnesota and Wisconsin.  We'd often have 15-25 folks together and have wonderful times covering the countryside. Typical day rides varied between 35 and 50 miles.

Since COVID, group rides became problematic. So many people were reluctant to travel.... but I personally didn't have any hesitation to go driving out in the the "Big Empty" on my own.  For years I've used my minivan for various solo forays.  So, in 2020 I loaded up my Toyota Sienna as well as a roof box.  In the van I've taken out all the rear seats and have a raised bed. Underneath the bed is storage for clothing and gear. When driving distances, I'd stow a bike in side the van and then lock it to an exterior rack at night for when I was sleeping/living in the minivan.  

Typically, when traveling, I camp at night on there periphery of Walmart parking lots.  I've black tagboard cut down to fit the windows.  From the outside, no one can see me inside, even when I've lights on.  I've a secure and private little RV.  The minivan gets nearly 22 miles/gallon and so is an efficient way to travel.  I love minivans and have used them for camping/traveling for nearly 25 years. 

In 2020 I drove back to the Fredricksburg Texas area and spent 5 days doing some familiar bicycling routes.  Then I continued west and ultimately visited Southwest Arizona, 'boondocking' in the Quartzsite, area. There are hundreds of thousands are square miles of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) areas where dispersed camping is allowed.  No campgrounds, per se, just a lot of open space.  Quartzsite especially attracts "Boondockers" because of the extremely comfortable weather in January-March area.  Many 10s of thousands of folks gather in the area. I found it very interesting and enjoyed setting up camp and bicycling and exploring the area.

Camping Near Quartzsite On BLM Land

 After getting a sense of the Boondocking Mentality, I thought it would be interesting to try something a little more suitable for the rough ground of BLM and US Forest Service Roads and later in the early autumn of 2020 I started shopping around for an additional vehicle.  I ended up purchasing a 2007 4x4 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickup truck. The truck had spend all it's previous years as a utility vehicle for a farm services firm in southern California. It's service history was well-documented on CarFax and it also had no rust.  

From my time in the Quartzsite area, I'd decided that I'd like a Pop-up Camper for the truck.  This category of truck camper comes with a lower profile and center-of-gravity than a regular truck-bed camper. They're also somewhat lighter.  Once you've set up camp, you can raise the camper up and then you have a lot of room, especially for one person.  The camper has a refrigerator/freezer that works off AC/DC or Propane. Also, there is a 3 burner stove as well as a small furnace to take the edge off the cold in the mornings. 

Right away, I had my local mechanic, Mark, upgrade the truck's shocks, as well as install adjustable air-shocks in the rear. Also, I had 10-ply tires installed so that the truck could better handle the weight of the camper as well as all the gear that I cram into the rear of the extended cab.  I did not want to lose control because of too weak of a suspension system. Also, we gave the truck a little bit of a 'lift' so I've a bit more clearance underneath. Before these modifications, the truck handled more like a car; now, it feels more like The Real Deal.

Finally, I had a trailer hitch installed to the FRONT of the truck.  When covering distances, I still prefer to have my bike(s) stored inside the vehicle.  But once I'm at my ultimate destination, I can lock a bike to the front rack of the truck and have it handy for use.  When in Phoenix, I bought a couple solar panels as well as a control system and played with this for charging a 2nd 'house' battery.

Roof Raised and Solar Rig Set Up

This January I went back to Mark and asked that he set up the truck electrical charging system with a Battery Isolator so that it would charge both the truck battery as well as the primary House battery in the camper.  This will hopefully keep the house battery topped up from my driving.  I have fiddled around with the solar system but I'm not fully committed.  I hesitate to drill holes in the roof of the camper in order to install a roof-top system.  I figure while driving down the road I already have a charging system via the truck alternator. So why not have that as well as whatever I can glean from the sun?

Mark Crimping New Wiring Harness from Under
The Truck to the Camper

After Mark completed the battery conversion, I started loading up the camper and vehicle.  My goal was to get rolling on Sunday, January 30th.