4,000 Mile M850 Road Trip Highlighting Wyoming, Colorado & Utah

[A_Carnie_With_Small_Hands]

Perhaps you’ve covered it before snowbimmer but how about a write up of your road trip packing list? Anything interesting or entertaining beyond personal luggage?

[mjn77]

Originally Posted by A_Carnie_With_Small_Hands

Perhaps you’ve covered it before snowbimmer but how about a write up of your road trip packing list? Anything interesting or entertaining beyond personal luggage?

For me;

Spare oil and coolant.
Paper maps.
Snacks.
Water.
Identification.
Car paperwork (probably only relevant if you're crossing country borders).
Emergency medication.

[A_Carnie_With_Small_Hands]

Originally Posted by mjn77

For me;

Spare oil and coolant.
Paper maps.
Snacks.
Water.
Identification.
Car paperwork (probably only relevant if you're crossing country borders).
Emergency medication.

Don't forget the petrol or car keys either, right?

Come on mate, that's too obvious of a list, and lacking the detailed photography snowbimmer serves up. Images of suitcases spewing dirty clothes aside, looking for the good stuff our road trip master might be holding back.

I see you're in UK? Great Britain at its two most distant points, must be a warm up drive in the context of this thread. One could run 2 times round trip Lands End to John o'Groats (837 miles each way) and come up short of this journal. Heck, there are only about 7,700 miles of irregular coastline in total.

Cheers, all in fun.

[tracer bullet]

Originally Posted by snowbimmer

Stay tuned.

Awesome!

Thank you for putting so much work into these. I think probably 2% of the people reading it leave a comment and so it might seem like it's not worth it, but it's safe to say we do appreciate it!

Almost 25,000 views, only to go up, so... you're doing something right

[snowbimmer]

Originally Posted by mjn77

For me;

Spare oil and coolant.
Paper maps.
Snacks.
Water.
Identification.
Car paperwork (probably only relevant if you're crossing country borders).
Emergency medication.

Originally Posted by A_Carnie_With_Small_Hands

Don't forget the petrol or car keys either, right?

Come on mate, that's too obvious of a list, and lacking the detailed photography snowbimmer serves up. Images of suitcases spewing dirty clothes aside, looking for the good stuff our road trip master might be holding back.

I see you're in UK? Great Britain at its two most distant points, must be a warm up drive in the context of this thread. One could run 2 times round trip Lands End to John o'Groats (837 miles each way) and come up short of this journal. Heck, there are only about 7,700 miles of irregular coastline in total.

Cheers, all in fun.

Kids, kids!!

To be fair, A_Carnie_With_Small_Hands, I can't drive to effing Norway, like mjn77 just did. So there's that, anyway.

Going to have to disappoint you, but there's not a lot that's interesting or entertaining. Everything in mjn77's list. Usually a gallon of water, plus individual water bottles and sodas in the cooler + food - because we get on to some lonely-ass stretches of road. It might be over 100 degrees or it might be 35 at night - and who knows how long it would take a tow to get to us. So, warm coats, too.

We travel over many passes above 10,000 feet. The spring and fall can be iffy with snow - therefore a small shovel is included. Never needed it.

Glass cleaner, because we'll go 450 miles between fill ups and the summer bugs can be hellacious.

Flares. Never needed them.

Mobility kit. The car came with runflats, but I have non-runflat Michelin PS4Ss on it now. Only one flat in the last 275,000 miles - and that was in town, 2 miles from the dealership. Never used the wonder goo. Knock wood.

Tools. Not sure what I'd exactly use them for under the hood. Can't really fix cars like the old days. Never needed them. Electronics will probably fail first.

Faraday pouch. Fob is supposed to go to sleep when not in use, but if you can blow off body parts in the mid-east using a pager, well........ I also have StarGuard, so the the car could be located to within about 5 feet if stolen anyway.

My BMWs have been extremely reliable. While travelling I have never encountered one single mobility problem. (The noisy rock in the rotor shield didn't prevent me from driving and it worked itself out). Never put oil in, or coolant or air in the tires (well, maybe once with air). Never had a mechanical problem or starting problem. All my prepper packing has been useless - but, you never know. I'm just always trying to see around the next corner - who knows what awaits.

Ok, now for the secret list:

7'-5" of 1/2" climbing rope
4 golf balls
1 knitting needle
Plastic spatula
2 one ft sections of 2x4
3 fishing lures
Small kaleidoscope
9" of duct tape
6 walnuts
Stopwatch
Small food scale
Lady's discus (I know, weird)
A coupla thimbles

Most should be self explanatory.

I still feel like I'm missing something........I'll think about it.

For some reason I have a boring pic of my trunk.

[mjn77]

Originally Posted by A_Carnie_With_Small_Hands

Don't forget the petrol or car keys either, right?

Come on mate, that's too obvious of a list, and lacking the detailed photography snowbimmer serves up. Images of suitcases spewing dirty clothes aside, looking for the good stuff our road trip master might be holding back.

I see you're in UK? Great Britain at its two most distant points, must be a warm up drive in the context of this thread. One could run 2 times round trip Lands End to John o'Groats (837 miles each way) and come up short of this journal. Heck, there are only about 7,700 miles of irregular coastline in total.

Cheers, all in fun.

You'd be surprised by how many people don't carry the basics. I've given spare coolant to a few people when on trips! Otherwise they'd be stranded for hours waiting for help.

I don't roadtrip in the UK, i go abroad and rack up 3-4k miles each time. Check my sig for previous trips!

Originally Posted by snowbimmer

Kids, kids!!

To be fair, A_Carnie_With_Small_Hands, I can't drive to effing Norway, like mjn77 just did. So there's that, anyway.

Going to have to disappoint you, but there's not a lot that's interesting or entertaining. Everything in mjn77's list. Usually a gallon of water, plus individual water bottles and sodas in the cooler + food - because we get on to some lonely-ass stretches of road. It might be over 100 degrees or it might be 35 at night - and who knows how long it would take a tow to get to us. So, warm coats, too.

We travel over many passes above 10,000 feet. The spring and fall can be iffy with snow - therefore a small shovel is included. Never needed it.

Glass cleaner, because we'll go 450 miles between fill ups and the summer bugs can be hellacious.

Flares. Never needed them.

Mobility kit. The car came with runflats, but I have non-runflat Michelin PS4Ss on it now. Only one flat in the last 275,000 miles - and that was in town, 2 miles from the dealership. Never used the wonder goo. Knock wood.

Tools. Not sure what I'd exactly use them for under the hood. Can't really fix cars like the old days. Never needed them. Electronics will probably fail first.

Faraday pouch. Fob is supposed to go to sleep when not in use, but if you can blow off body parts in the mid-east using a pager, well........ I also have StarGuard, so the the car could be located to within about 5 feet if stolen anyway.

My BMWs have been extremely reliable. While travelling I have never encountered one single mobility problem. (The noisy rock in the rotor shield didn't prevent me from driving and it worked itself out). Never put oil in, or coolant or air in the tires (well, maybe once). Never had a mechanical problem or starting problem. All my prepper packing has been useless - but, you never know. I'm just always trying to see around the next corner - who knows what awaits.

Ok, now for the secret list:

7'-5" of 1/2" climbing rope
4 golf balls
1 knitting needle
Plastic spatula
2 one ft sections of 2x4
3 fishing lures
Small kaleidoscope
9" of duct tape
6 walnuts
Stopwatch
Small food scale
Lady's discus (I know, weird)
A coupla thimbles

Most should be self explanatory.

I still feel like I'm missing something........I'll think about it.

For some reason I have a boring pic of my trunk.
Attachment 3555993

Yeah, i forgot spare car keys, fridge and sun cream! Spare car keys are super important as in 2017 the GF lost hers when out walking on the Furka Pass! Lukily i had her spare set in my car so we were able to carry on and her lost keys were found a few hours later by someone else out walking the same route. They posted them back to our home address and were waiting for us when we arrived home.

Of course the weather in the mountains can change very quickly;

4.06pm


4.19pm


So make sure you have a coat, etc.

[A_Carnie_With_Small_Hands]

Great stuff, gentlemen. Here's to many more enjoyable drives.

[KevinGS]

Thanks for sharing, and for all the pix. I just returned from a 7,500+ mile trip across the country myself in my M4. We may have been on a few of the same roads. Here's the thread highlighting my trip: https://g80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=2122809

And here is the general map of my trip, with the top one being my trip from MD to Vancouver, and the bottom one being my trip back home from Seattle, through Salt Lake City, across Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and then home. This map doesn't represent the many detours I took, for example I went down to Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons as well while I was in Yellowstone.

[snowbimmer]

Originally Posted by tracer bullet

Awesome!

Thank you for putting so much work into these. I think probably 2% of the people reading it leave a comment and so it might seem like it's not worth it, but it's safe to say we do appreciate it!

Almost 25,000 views, only to go up, so... you're doing something right

Wow.....thanks for the nice words. Post count is encouraging enough. I've done 11 threads and six went Main Page. That's where the eyeballs are.

[snowbimmer]

Originally Posted by KevinGS

Thanks for sharing, and for all the pix. I just returned from a 7,500+ mile trip across the country myself in my M4. We may have been on a few of the same roads. Here's the thread highlighting my trip: https://g80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=2122809

Thanks for the link - just read thru it and posted over there. Great write-up

[mjn77]

Originally Posted by tracer bullet

Awesome!

Thank you for putting so much work into these. I think probably 2% of the people reading it leave a comment and so it might seem like it's not worth it, but it's safe to say we do appreciate it!

Almost 25,000 views, only to go up, so... you're doing something right

Yeah, loads of people look, but not many comment. My latest write up is on over 20k views, but maybe a few dozens comments.