Someone commented that it would be nice if I posted timestamps on the postings that I make to this blog. I agree that that would be helpful, but I don’t blog as I did for all the prior road trip. During those road trips, after retreating into the tent at night, I would write into my journal and then create the block posting and send it off. Before I got an iPhone, I had to upload the photos from the camera, and then post them along with the black posting. Now, with the entirely new way of living on the road, things are different. I take photos with my iPhone and my iPad and I postings from either device. Because I don’t know what kind of time that I will have at the end of the day, I feel that I should post messages on the fly. Sometimes I don’t have Internet, so post for particular day may not go out for another day or so. There are additional complications so, for those interested in times stamped postings, I suggest you approach these blogs in a stream of consciousness kind of way. Frankly, that’s the way that I’m experiencing them. Sent from my iPad
Saturday, September 12, 2026
Day five, finger Lakes State Park, Missouri to Perry Lake State Park, Kansas
We made it to my next campsite at exactly 5:00 p.m. As it turns out, it was not Perry State Park where I had camped several times before, but Rock Creek Park, which is on the same lake. I eventually found the entrance to Perry State Park, and since the office was still open, I decided to stay.
Earlier in the day, with Chip’s help, I was able to visit the starting point for my journey along the Donner Party Trail in Independence, Missouri, and then follow the trail to the historic junction at Gardner, Kansas, where the California and Oregon trails separated from the Santa Fe Trail. After that, however, things became considerably more difficult. I wanted to visit one of the historic river crossings, but the shortcomings of Garmin’s GPS, Google Maps, and Apple Maps made it virtually impossible to identify and navigate to the actual historic location rather than some modern place with a similar name. Eventually, I gave up rather than spend the rest of the afternoon wandering around Kansas. Tomorrow, Chip and I will try to figure out a better way to follow the old trail—and, fortunately, I still have the detailed maps I prepared for this trip back in 2021. And because I do not like the Maps prepared by Google and Apple, not to mention, Garmin, I brought along the latest copy of the rand McNally maps in the United States.
As it turns out, the Lakeview area seems to be the preferred location for all the large RVs, and I appear to be the only person here camping in an SUV—or anything remotely resembling a tent. However, I do have a prime spot with a very nice view overlooking the lake.
The problem is that almost as soon as we arrived, the dark clouds started producing thunder, lightning, and rain. I quickly parked the Grenadier, took Annie for an unsuccessful walk, and then tried to set up the smaller tarp over the back of the vehicle. Unfortunately, the tension on the two tie-downs pulled one of them loose from its mooring. Since the tarp wasn’t critical for tonight—and would probably blow down during the night anyway—I abandoned the idea.
Instead, I stashed the Stuff Box, Clothes Box, and camp chair underneath the nearby picnic table and covered everything with the tarp. Somewhere along the way, I need to figure out a system that allows me to leave all of this inside the vehicle during stormy weather. Ideally, when I want to get the heck out of a campsite quickly in the morning, all I should have to do is climb out of the rear, adjust the driver’s seat, and drive away.
Tomorrow, I will consult with Chip about the best way to experience the Donner Party Trail on what the weather forecast suggests will be a dark and stormy day. I also need to figure out where I’m going to camp tomorrow night, since I have no reservation anywhere.
In the meantime, Annie and I are confined to the rear cargo area of the Grenadier for the next 13 hours. As soon as I send this, my first order of business is figuring out how. This is where the fun begins as every day is impromptu from here on out.
Ps… as I sit here writing this at 6:13, I have to admit that with the sound of the rain falling on the grenadier, it does emulate the experience of experiencing the same sounds in the tent, except here, I have a 360° view of what’s going on outside.
PSS… I’M ACTUALLY GLAD THAT I DID NOT SHUT UP THE TARP ON THE BACK OF THE Grenadier. THIS WAY, WHEN I NEED TO GO TO THE RESTROOM, I JUST JUMP IN THE FRONT SEAT AND DRIVE OVER THERE. WITH Annie IT’LL BE A LITTLE MORE PROBLEMATIC.
I will send some day five photos in the next message since I took the photos on my iPhone and I am writing this on my iPad
donner party trailon the road day 5 next directions from Chip
https://chatgpt.com/s/t_6aa5b07f39ec81918a3947f7ff36d660 Sent from my iPhone
donner party trailon the road Gardner Junction Park
https://chatgpt.com/s/t_6aa5aca46bfc8191a663733e94b1cefa Sent from my iPhone
Day 5, independent Square, independence, Missouri
It was on this exact spot that the Donner party, then consisting of the Donner’s and the Reeds, started there, faithful journey, 180 years ago, on May 10, and now we start following that trail as far as it and ChatGPT take us
Sent from my iPhone
Day 5 getting on the Donner party trail
After we leave, we will head for independence, Missouri, about 100 miles away. From there, we will start the Donner party trail, which we never had a chance to start back in 2021 when I had to return after three days because of Donner’s illness. Although John Reid and the Donner family left Springfield Illinois on April 15, 1846, traveled to independence, Missouri, where they hung out for a couple of days, finalizing their supplies, and then set out on the Oregon Trail on May 10, 1846. I will start the trek at the independence historic courthouse, which is where they started, and then have chip guide me from there to stay on the trail as much as as possible today. I will post my communications with Chip below.
And first, excellent news about the Grenadier. Two normal starts this morning with the door firmly closed strongly supports the safety-interlock explanation rather than a transmission problem.
On Perry: you did not make a mistake. Your reservation at Perry State Park is actually quite workable with your goal of staying faithful to the Donner route.
And yes: Perry Lake and Perry Reservoir are the same body of water. Kansas Parks calls it both Perry Reservoir and Perry Lake; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officially calls the project Perry Lake, a reservoir created by Perry Dam on the Delaware River.
How I would handle today’s route
From Independence, follow the historic Oregon/California Trail as closely as practical. The original trail went southwest from Independence, crossed the Big Blue, passed the Indian Creek/Flat Rock area, reached Gardner Junction, and there turned northwest away from the Santa Fe Trail. The NPS identifies today’s U.S. 56 and 183rd Street in Gardner as the historic junction.
From there the historic trail continued northwest, crossed the Wakarusa near Lawrence, crossed the Kansas River near Topeka, and then followed the north side of the Kansas River westward.
That last part is the key to your Perry question.
I would stay on the historic route all the way through the Topeka area, and only then break off for Perry State Park for the night. Perry is northeast of Topeka, so you’ll make a north/northeast diversion to your campsite. Tomorrow morning you can simply return to the trail in the Topeka area and continue west/northwest.
In fact, the National Park Service’s modern California/Oregon Trail auto route takes you west toward Lawrence and Topeka on K-10 → US-59 → I-70, then continues west from Topeka before eventually turning north toward the Big Blue country.
So I would think of Perry as your motel for the night, not part of the Donner route. You leave the trail near Topeka, sleep at Perry, and return to approximately the same point tomorrow. Historically, you haven’t “skipped” anything.
One other correction to what I told you last night: your memory about Indian Creek was indeed right. The Donners and Reeds joined Colonel William Russell’s larger wagon train at Indian Creek on May 19, 1846, about 100 miles from Independence.
If you want, once you reach Independence Square this morning, I can guide you waypoint by waypoint—Independence → Indian Creek → Gardner Junction → Lawrence/Wakarusa → Topeka → break off for Perry—rather than letting your GPS simply choose the fastest highway route. That would be the way I’d do this trip.
Perfect. Head for Historic Truman Courthouse, 112 W. Lexington Ave., Independence, MO 64050. That puts you at Independence Courthouse Square, the right place to begin.
Once you’re there, just tell me “I’m at the courthouse.” I’ll give you the next single destination to enter into the Grenadier’s navigation. We’ll work westward one historical waypoint at a time—Indian Creek, Gardner Junction, and onward—while keeping you as close as reasonably possible to the Donner-Reed route and eventually peeling off toward Perry Lake for tonight.
No need to worry about the whole day’s navigation right now. Get yourself and Annie safely to Independence Square first. Then we’ll start following the Donners west.
Day 4 campsite, finger, lakes, State Park, Columbia, Missouri, site number 24
Chip (my name for ChatGPT) did an excellent job at recommending the site as it is at the very end of the camp, and a cul-de-sac that contains only two other campers, one and number 23, and one and number 25. Chip suggested it should be very quiet. As it turns out, the occupant of the other two campsites partied loudly until 1230. We had somewhat of a false alarm last night. Twice, when I engage the gears in the grenadier from park or reverse to drive, warning, lights and bells and messages went off, telling me to secure the vehicle in a safe spot to prevent rolling, and it automatically shifted the gear back from drive to park. It took me about 10 minutes to finally get the vehicle moving, and I don’t know what I did in order to do that. I immediately turned to Chip and he asked me if my seatbelt was on and or the driver’s door shut completely. As in both cases, I was making very short trips in the Grenadier, neither my seatbelt was on nor the driver’s door shut securely. Chip solve the problem for me. Please note, the interest of time, I do not proofread my messages, so there may be some errors in them.
Sent from my iPhone
Friday, September 11, 2026
Day four, leaving Lincoln trails State Park heading towards finger Lake State Park in Missouri
This park, a beech forest, it’s like an oasis and an urban desert. It’s the cornfields and whatever else they have planted, it rises like a refuge for the weary.
Sent from my iPhone
Day 3, Fort Lincoln State Park somewhere in Illinois along I 70
As I might have written earlier, when I arrived at the dealer this morning to install the storage shelf in the rear, it had not arrived. It wasn’t expected until as late as 230. Without explaining all of the details, and there were many, I gave myself until 12 o’clock before I had to move on. As it turns out, it arrived at exactly 1208 was installed no more than a half hour later, and we were on our way, well within what I thought if everything had worked out., Before we left the camp this morning, when I was in the bathhouse, the door opened at ANNIE popped in. She’s learned a new trick. If there’s a window that is open, she takes advantage of it, it leaps out. She did the same thing at the dealer with the vehicle was in the garage. I couldn’t find her in the shop until she finally appeared, probably looking for me. I thought at first I was going to have to exercise Plan B, which was to bivouac somewhere before our goal of 300 some miles today. Fortunately, we didn’t have to do that, and made it to the Lincoln Trail State Park, just as the sun was setting. And what an absolutely fabulous camp this is, almost like a country club. For better or force we are the only campers I can see the place is completely empty Annie preoccupying herself by staying on guard for all the animals that are sort of hovering on the periphery of our camp. When I flush this flashlight around the camp, it hits their eyes and you could see these bright eyes, just staring at us, probably waiting for us to go to bed so they To avoid what happened with any last night, I set up this little fan that I bought just before I left, thinking that something like this might happen when we were in the back of the vehicle. Hopefully, it will circulate the air in the rear. I also have the windows roll down with screens put over them so we can get as much fresh air as we can. I am slowly beginning to emerge from the shakedown phase of this, and getting used to living my life in a completely different way than I do on a daily basis back home. That’s the most difficult part about this trip, learning how to do the normal routines of life and a totally different way that you did it back home.
Sent from my iPhone
Days 4-5, Lincoln Trail State Park, Marshall, Illinois
One of the joys of these road trips is after I exit the interstate highways, I get to drive down numerous local highways and roads that paint a picture of the real America, the people who are doing valuable work that makes life easier for those of us in urban environments. In this neck of the woods where I am now, exiting interstate 70 got me onto 2 miles and miles of cornfields, and whatever other crops are planted in the acreage as far as the eyes can see. After a brief stop at the local trading Post, that is, the local, super Walmart, I made it into the camp just as the sun was setting. Perfect timing. And what an absolutely lovely park this is. It is an oasis and it’s all the cornfields, apparently, a beach forest. I can only see one of their camper in the distance. Otherwise, the park is completely empty. If I did not have to move on in particular, I could probably stay here for a few more days.
Sent from my iPhone
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Day 3…
I need to develop the patience of Job to handle this particular shakedown. It is quite different from my previous five-day shakedowns because of Annie, the Grenadier, and my own mobility.
I managed to get a halfway decent amount of sleep last night. However, at about 2:00 a.m., I was awakened by a ticking sound that repeated every second. At first, I thought it was coming from the huge bus that had pulled into the campsite next to me, but it wasn’t. It was Annie breathing. The more I focused on it, the less sleep I got. Once I realized she was all right, I shifted my position in the Grenadier so that I was farther away from her and tried to go back to sleep.
I broke camp at about 9:00 and arrived at the INEOS dealer around 9:45 to have the storage shelf installed. The problem was that the shelf had never arrived.
It is now 11:54, and I am sitting here waiting for UPS to deliver it. UPS tells me that it is package number 22 out of 141 on the truck, although I have no idea how that translates into an estimated delivery time. If it arrives within the next 45 minutes, I will stay and have it installed. If not, I will move on without it.
Either way, it is now too late for me to reach Lincoln Trail State Park tonight, so I will consult with ChatGPT to find another campsite somewhere along the route.I will then have to make more time on the road tomorrow to make up for a while. I lose today.
Wednesday, September 9, 2026
I knew this would have eventually happened
Annie seem to prefer comfort of my mattress.
Sent from my iPhone
In the back of the G wagon now 9pm
I finally got settled into the back of the Grenadier. I have both rear windows open, with screens over them, but it is still hotter than a sauna. Annie is breathing very heavily, and I expect that the two of us will interrupt each other’s sleep tonight. She has had a very hard time on this trip. If I turn back early, it will be because of her—not because of all the other problems.
The rain came on suddenly. I had failed to check the forecast because today had been almost entirely sunny. It was still bright outside when I drove the Grenadier to the dump station. When I returned five minutes later, the rain was pouring down. Lightning is now flashing about every ten seconds, although there is still no thunder.
Fortunately, the rain let up for a few minutes, giving me just enough time to climb into the rear of the Grenadier and inflate my mattress. Otherwise, I would have been sleeping on a very hard floor.
Now that I have faced this particular challenge, my conclusion is this: when it comes to saving time, sleeping in the back of the Grenadier is definitely the way to go. But when it comes to comfort and enjoyment, give me a tent. In fact, if this continues, I may start setting up the tent every night.
Trip so far
So far, this trip has been a disaster.
For the first time on any of my long road trips, I forgot something important: my cane. No big deal. I found a walking stick and was able to buy another cane along the way.
I came down with some kind of bug yesterday and have been relatively dysfunctional ever since. I don’t think I’ve ever had a cold—or whatever this is—as bad as the one I have now. Every hour or so, I break into a sneezing fit that lasts about 15 minutes. Tomorrow, I’ll take my temperature and a COVID test. I just had my flu and COVID shots last week, but they won’t be fully effective for another week or so.
Then Annie got sick. It’s not clear whether she has healed herself, but I should have a better idea tomorrow.
The rear storage shelves for the Grenadier never arrived at my home in time to be installed before I left. Apparently, they didn’t arrive at the INEOS dealer in Dublin, Ohio, today either, which means I may simply have to do without them.
No sooner had I pulled into the campsite tonight than it started raining like hell. Fortunately, I had covered the gear that has to be stored outside with a tarp. Whether the tarp actually held is something I’ll discover when the rain stops.
I was hopeful that the refrigerator and its charger would learn to accommodate each other on the road, but apparently they have decided not to cooperate. At the end of today’s long, hot drive, I checked the refrigerator and discovered that it had shut itself off because the battery was dead and it wasn’t receiving a charge from the charger. Right now, I have it plugged into the electrical outlet at the campsite—rain and all.
The weather has been absolutely miserable in terms of the heat. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such a oppressive heat on any of my road trips as I have experienced these last two days..
These trips are supposed to be enjoyable. So far, this one has not been. And I’m less than two days into it.
The one enjoyable thing is being with Annie. But I get that at home, without all the hassle and disasters.
Day 2, morning
This journey is not getting off to a good start. Somehow, I picked up a cold and sore throat and, although I was in bed for nine hours, I probably got about three hours of sleep. On top of that, there’s no way to control the window controls without the engine being on, so I really can’t control the temperature in the rear when sleeping. Perhaps I’ll experiment tonight by leaving the key on in the intermediate position without the engine being on, and maybe that will provide power to the windows, without draining the battery. On top of this, Annie . threw up this morning. I have been down this road at least a half dozen times on these road trips and successfully visited vets along the way. I will watch her situation for a few days and then decide what to do. I unloaded the tent from the rear of the Grenadter and secured it on the roof rack. That will free up a little more space in the back, and save me some time at campsites by not having to unload and then load it again. I just hope I secured it securely. Today we had to ALUM Creek State Park in Ohio and, if UPS performed as they promise, will stop off in Dublin Ohio tomorrow at the INESO dealer to get the rear cargo shelf installed. That will free up even more space and save some time. I may even try to mount the tarp poles on one side of the defender on those accessory rails that I have, and the camp chair on the other. The problem is, I understand that in some states, they make it illegal to transport gear hanging from the sides of your trucks.
Sent from my iPad
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Important message
Because my typing is horrific, I dictate a lot if not all of my messages. However, apple dictation transcription is often worse than my typing, and you will find in my messages that there are a lot of items that just don’t make sense upon first reading. Unfortunately, I often do not proof my messages before I send them, and even sometimes when I proof them, I miss the transcription errors. But if you struggle hard enough, you will be able to figure out what I was trying to say by mouthing the words that you see. For many of my postings, I will ship them over to ChatGPT to do some proofing. I have found that it is normally 100%. Sent from my iPhone
Day one, Coopers Rock State Park, Annie’s bed
To make things very comfortable for Annie, I shut the passengers seat back to the vertical position, and move the sheet up about a foot. Fortunately, I got the extensions on the platform and the rear of the vehicle, so that there’s no foot well there, And her bed gets another 1 foot extension. Until the storage shelf for the rear is installed on Thursday, the solar panels are normally transported on the back of that passenger seat, which I had to remove tonight. If you look close enough, you will see a white extension cord coming out of the rear side of Annie’s bed. That’s the cord for the heating pad that will provide some warmth to her during the cold evenings. It will receive its power from the ECOFLOW charger, which is in the rear, which also will be recharging the battery for my refrigerator while we sleep.
Sent from my iPhone
Day one, Coopers Rock State Park, West Virginia
Having taken more than 15 of these long road trips, I can say there are two things I definitely do not like about them. First, the last day of packing. I get rid of the easy stuff first, before I start packing the office, the food box, the kitchen, the stuff box, and my clothes. When the temperature outside is in the 90s, it is very difficult to imagine that you might actually need a winter coat somewhere down the road. That is probably why I own about eight winter coats. In other words, I never thought I would need one, and then ended up buying one somewhere along the way. The only enjoyable thing about the last day of packing is Annie. She recognizes when we are getting ready to take a trip, and she does not let me out of her sight. As I walk back and forth between rooms, retrieving one item and putting another away, she follows me everywhere without exception. If she is concerned that I might leave her behind, she is sadly mistaken. Second, the first five days of the trip—especially the first. Transitioning from living in a spacious condominium to living in a vehicle roughly 1/20 the size is not easy. I figure I have about half the space per person that the astronauts had when they went to the moon—and their trip lasted only seven days or so. Finding where things are is not a chore. It is a mission. The consolation is knowing that within three or four days the shakedown will be over, everything will have found its proper place, and I will be in full swing with this new way of living—at least for the next few weeks, if my plans work out as I hope. I pulled into Coopers Rock State Park at about 4:30 and went immediately to the campsite I had reserved at the Rhododendron Campground, where Donner and I stayed once before. After surveying the site, however, I loaded back into the vehicle and we left. We drove down the road to the other campground and checked into a much more favorable site there. That is probably the first time I have ever done that in the more than 350 campgrounds where I have stayed. But the tripping hazards at the Rhododendron site were simply too great, and there was no reasonably level place to park the Grenadier so that I could sleep comfortably in it. One of the differences between tent camping and sleeping in the vehicle is that level ground has suddenly become considerably more important. As I may have written earlier, the storage shelf never arrived today, which seems to be typical of UPS these days. The vendor is having another one shipped overnight to Dublin, Ohio, where I will stop Thursday morning at an INEOS dealer to have it installed—that is, if UPS delivers as promised. Since I am writing these blogs on my iPad but taking photographs with my iPhone, I probably will not be able to include the photos in the posts themselves. Instead, I will send them separately, probably one at a time to stay within Google’s limitations. I think I will call it quits here and spend some time developing a standard operating procedure for closing up shop for the day and settling in for the night. I suspect that after a few days it will become automatic. There is no question that I miss tenting. There is something about turning a campsite into a temporary home that sleeping in the Grenadier cannot quite duplicate. But tonight, when I do not have to pitch a tent—and tomorrow morning, when I do not have to take one down—I may decide that the extra time is worth the trade-off. About 50 miles into the trip today I realized that I forgot my cane. I think this is the first time all the road trips that I’ve taken that I forgot something. There’s not a big deal because I did bring along a walking stick, and was able to pick up another cane like walking stick at Cooper’s rock campsite. Blow is a photo of our campsite that I just took on the iPad. We are staying in site number 13. For future purposes, I think I will only stay in this campground which is called McCollum, and try to get any of sites nine through 14.
Monday, September 7, 2026
Monday, September 7th, 7:30 pm
The storage shelf did not arrive today, so Plan B is now in effect: it will be shipped overnight to Columbus, Ohio, where I’ll have an INEOS dealer install it for me on Thursday. Timewise, this may actually work out better. If it does not arrive there in time, Plan C (go ahead wihtout it) will work out just fine.
The Grenadier is packed—literally and figuratively—except for the Wardrobe, Stuff Box, Office, and Personal Bag. I’ll pack those over the next two hours. At the first or second camp, I’ll move the tent and camp chair to the roof rack, since I can’t get out of my garage with them up there. And once the storage shelf is installed, it will free up considerably more sleeping and living space for Annie in the rear, along with giving me some much-needed additional storage.
That means that at each camp, all I’ll need to do is:
- Unload the Wardrobe, Stuff Box, and tarps/poles — 5 minutes.
- Set up the tarp if it is raining or rain is expected — 15 minutes.
- Get the chair down from the roof rack — 5 minutes.
- Remove the kitchen and set it up — 5 minutes.
- Inflate the mattress — 1 minute.
Total: 31 minutes, down from about 90 minutes when I had to set up the tent. I’ll still set up the tent whenever I’m staying at a campground for two or more nights. After all, it’s really not camping unless you’re in a tent—especially when it’s raining and you can hear the pitter-patter ---sometimes poudinf--- on the rain fly.
I now have campsites reserved, roughly 250 miles apart, for the next six days, taking me through Perry Lake in Kansas, which gets me close to where I’ll pick up the Donner Party trail. The Donner Party left Springfield, Illinois, on April 15, 1846, and eventually assembled at Independence, Missouri, where the westward journey really began. There isn’t much of a record of exactly how they traveled between Springfield and Independence, so Independence is where I’ll begin following their route in earnest. And perhaps I will turn northwest at Fort Bridger instead of southwest and the Donner Party did, hopefully for a happy ending.
This is the trip I planned to take with Donner in 2021, but had to turn back aftre two days when his illness started to appear. He will be missed on this trip, but he will be with is in spirt. Here he is shown with the Donner Party in 1846.
After Day 6—technically Day 11 if I include the five-day shakedown trip, although I don’t think I’m going to count that anymore—I’ll play it by ear and decide where to go next. I hope to be back in DC before October 11 to use the ticket I have for MacBeth at the Met in NYC on that date.
Ed and Annie
Monday, September 7, home
NOTE: When I email these posts, instead of jumping to a new paragraph where I do, Google inserts something like this: >>>. I complained about it to their AI bot, so it is hoped that they fixed it. If not, please bear with me until it is fixed.
We still plan to shove off on Tuesday morning. If the storage shelf for the rear of the Grenadier does not arrive by today, Monday, we will leave directly for the first camp, Cooper's Rock near Morgantown W, about 250 miles away. (I'm going to try to limit my miles per day to something less than 300). If the shelf does arrive, then we will leave at 8 o'clock stop off at the INEOS dealer in Silver Spring to have him install the shelf. Otherwise, the shelf will get installed at an Ineos dealer in Dublin Ohio (just beyond Columbus).
Although we plan to shove off and Tuesday morning, I still have all the packing to do, items for which make up almost 5 pages my to take list. I admit that I suffer from the Overpacking Disorder when I am driving, but I would rather have these items with me than to have to take an hour on the road each day to pick up items that I didn't take.
Since the purpose of the trip is essentially to pick up where Donner and I had to turn back home in 2021 do his illness, I spent some time today refreshing my notes on the Donner party trail route that we planned back then. If there's one destination on that trail that I have an interest in seeing it is the site in Nevada where John Snyder, a driver for one of the members of the party, was killed in an act of self-defense by Jim Reed. His burial spot is in an unmarkred location alone a dirct road in the high desert 11 miles from the nearest town (160 people) and was only discovered (but not uncovered) about 15 years ago by burial canines.
It’s time to get packing and loading the Grenadier. Below is the planning book for this trip. When we return, I will have a new patch made up with Annie on it as she will have earned it, as will have the Grenadier.
Saturday, September 5, 2026
On The Road-26 REAR CARGO STORAGE
What a difference the Grenadier makes in terms of my road trips. It will get me to my destination each day faster, and it will save me at least two hours a day by eliminating the need to set up camp every evening and then break it down again the next morning. But because traveling much more than 250 or 300 miles a day is tough on Annie, I’ll probably use that extra time to enjoy some of the campsites where we end up.
And while I am finding things a lot easier at the campsite with the new sleeping arrangement, I will miss the comfort that comes with making a tent your home for a period of time—especially when you’re lying inside listening to the pitter-patter of rain on the fly.
And while the Grenadier may get me where I want to go faster, I’m beginning to discover a few things I don’t like about it. Fortunately, they are all trivial. For example, just about every inch of space in the cab of the Defender is usable and within reach. That is definitely not the case with the Grenadier. So, for cab design, I give it a 1 out of 10. However, I’m hoping the rest of its capabilities will more than make up for that and, on average, make it a worthwhile investment.
In addition to the super-comfortable LUNO mattress, I invested in a BougeRV 9L refrigerator. It runs off the Grenadier’s electrical system while I’m driving and then, when I’m not driving, either on its own battery—which seems to last almost 20 hours—or from my EcoFlow power station.
But I have a lot of things to charge, including the refrigerator, and if I am stationary for a few days, I’ll need some source of electricity other than paying extra for a campsite with an electrical hookup. So I invested in a 220-watt solar panel setup.
I suppose I could carry the panels on the roof rack, but they are better protected inside the vehicle. Right now, I have them stored vertically behind the passenger seat. To avoid having to take them out every time I arrive at a campsite, I also invested in a rear cargo storage shelf for the Grenadier (see photo). It sits between the width of the vehicle 7 inches from the roof The solar panels will take up half the space, the emergency triangles another chunk of it, and the rest for whatever is in need of a final resting place in a vehicle.
They couldn’t get the shelf to me in time to have it installed locally before I leave Tuesday morning, so I’m having it shipped to an INEOS dealer near Columbus, Ohio, where I should be two days after I start the trip. They’ll install it for me there.
That’s all I have for now. I’ll post a few more of these miscellaneous thoughts before I leave, and once I’m on the road, I’ll try to post every day—at least on the days when Annie and I are moving.
