Preparation

 

Preparing for a trip of this length is important. 

Vehicle Maintenance.  Make sure your Vehicles are in good running order.  Make sure the brakes, tires and engine are ready for a long trip.  Make sure you have good spare tires. Have tools to do minor repairs. It would be a good idea to have the vehicle checked by your mechanic before heading out, if at all possible. You might also get your generator checked! We are not as concerned about tires on this trip, but on the Alaska trip, we brought a number of extras. Extra tools for doing things on the road is always a good idea.

Insurance and other paperwork on vehicles.  They may ask you for vehicle registration at the border. Make sure your registration is up to date.  Also, check on insurance to make sure you are covered in Canada.  If you have Road Assistance, make sure you will be covered in Canada.  Make sure your health insurance covers you in Canada in case of emergency. You might consider a Travel Insurance for both Medical and Road Emergency issues.  That will also potentially help you if you need to cut your trip short, to reimburse you for reservations etc.

Depending on the timing, you might need to have someone take care of your property.  In this case, we will be spending the summer away from home, making it necessary to have a person mow our lawns, etc.  We have friends and great neighbors looking in on the house and a wonderful friend that will be taking care of my plants.

Figuring out what to do with Mail is also of concern.  You might have a neighbor that will pick up your mail. Currently, the Post office will only hold mail for 1 month.  We have opened a PO Box and have our neighbor pick it up occasionally. We have very little mail that is needed as we travel, but there might be something we need to review.  Hopefully, our neighbor will be able let us know if anything looks like we should be made aware.

Paying Bills. Where possible, setting up ways to automatically pay bills that are standard amounts.  Possibly also set up your bank to pay bills that are different each month but, where your bank and the creditor are able to communicate.  Personally, we have few bills that are already not on Automatic payment. Those that are not will need to be handled while we are on the road.

Concerns about Medications & Medical Insurance.  Most pills are dispensed in 90 day increments. If you plan to be away more than that length of time, you need to determine how you will get medications when on the road. You should also check with your Medical Insurance provider to determine if you are insured in the areas you will be travelling. In our case, we visited the doctor, dentist, eye doctor, etc before we began the trip to make sure we were doing well enough to make the trip.

Pets.  When traveling in a RV, you may be lucky enough to have your beloved pet with you.  Of course, you need to review their needs.  In the case of our loving Dakota, we need Medication that were prescribed by our Vet.  You need to get enough for the time we will be away. There may be other things that you pet needs during the trip.  If you have a dog, make sure their Rabies Shot is up to date and you have a Certificate from your Vet confirming this. We visited the vet to get Dakota checked out and made sure her immunizations were up to date.   I carry a copy of  all her shots with me all the time!

Cell Phone and WiFi Coverage. Check with you carrier to see if you have coverage where you are going and if you do, will there be additional fees.  Check where you are staying to see if they have Wifi Coverage and if they do, is there an additional fee for using it.  Some sites indicate which carriers are accessible in which are not. Can you use your cell phone as a hotspot? That might help you with downloading information onto your computer.

Crossing the border.  There are a number issues that you need to review when crossing the border into Canada and again returning to the United States.

1.     You will need a valid passport.  Make sure it is NOT expired or nearly expired and will NOT expire while on your trip.  NOTE: You will need it on the way back into the US! And it will need to be up to date on your return.

2.     You may or may not need documentation about Covid Shots.  Check on that right before entering since this is a changing issue. Again, I carry this with me all the time!!

3.     You may need to file an ArriveCAN statement online to enter Canada.  This has been needed in the past, and would be needed within 72 hours before entering.  We are unsure if this is needed anymore, but you need to check before arriving!

4.     Documentation for Pets entering.  You need to have paperwork showing that the pet has been seen by your vet and is healthy.  For dogs, you need a certification that there is a valid Rabies Vaccine.

5.     Items being brought over the border. Check before going over the border you need to refer to rules as to what is OK and not, to get over the border. Foods, Drugs, Cigarettes, Alcohol, even electronics may be at issue, when you enter Canada and of course, when you return to the US.

As you can see, there are lots of appointments and considerations when taking a trip like this.  We needed a couple of months just to get all our preparations in order.  We set up our PO box a month before our trip to make sure everything went smoothly.  Trust me, it was down to the wire on getting the mail forwarded properly…

What we need to take with us:

On this trip we expect to need clothing for every type of weather.  We are sure there will be rain, sun, and possibly even snow on our return trip.  Everything we read says to layer.  We are as prepared as possible!

Last year we took a trip into the upper side of Lake Superior in Canada in September and October. We found some differences in what is available.  We are trying to prepare for this.  It seems stores no longer supply bags.  Milk is packaged differently.  Low carb options are very scarce.