Reflections on a 38 Day Roadtrip

17 Jun, 2026

Kay and I have returned from our roadtrip across the U.S. a few days ago, so before I lose all of these precious memories, I thought I would jot down some thoughts so that I may come back to this experience far in the future and be delighted by the details.

The Purpose

Kay went on an unpaid sabbatical after working at her current employer for nearly a decade. The core idea being a hard reset. She (and I) have been through a lot together these past several years. Family health issues, moving twice, and feeling isolated are just a few. The roadtrip served as a a kind of metaphor that she has her time back and she can spend it less preciously over a longer period of time and soak in experiences at a pace slower than work. I won't try to read into her reasons too far, but the gist is she wanted a defining experience that felt totally free, and I was all for it.

There's also the dogs. We could have flown to see friends & family or traveled internationally, but then we would have been without our precious Goose and Peanut for far too long. Roadtripping opened up the doors to spend time with the dogs AND vacation at the same time - something we've only done once or twice before.

The Places

You can see our full trip at Sabby Roadtrip.

The Packing

We loaded and unloaded the car 16 times. Sometimes just "overnight" bags and other times the whole car was gutted. I placed overnight in quotations because even overnight meant about 7 or so bags, haha.

Kay and I had gone on a roadtrip to NY for her birthday back in September 2025 with the dogs, so we didn't go into this with zero experience. During that trip, Kay did an amazing job of jotting down things we could do better next time. We referenced that list quite a bit while preparing for this trip. Some important learnings we applied:

Split clothing into two bags - one for daily drivers and another for miscallaneous. That will help with unpacking and packing less bags for one night stayovers.
1. The daily clothing bag includes the typical undergarments, socks, shirts, etc. plus toiletries.
2. The miscallaneous bag included warmer clothes, dressier clothes, and bathing suit.
Split dog stuff into two bags - one for daily drivers and the other for less commons needs. Again, that allows for less unpacking and packing for one night stayovers. It also just makes things easier to find.
1. The daily driver bag included food, medicine, toys, treats, greenies, brushes,
2. The fallback bag included extra poop bags, extra treats, more toys, doggie boots, and a whole lot more that filled up a bag.
Daily dog food bag - Have a daily dog food bag (a ziploc filled with the food) that you keep in the daily driver dog bag and a separate, larger reservoir of dog food that you refill from. AGAIN, so I wasn't lugging around huge containers of dog food at every visit. For our NY trip, I was taking down and loading up two huge food containers out of and into the luggage container above our car. It takes its toll and is totally unecessary. We had the added benefit that Peanut graduated to adult food right before this trip so she and Goose share the same container of food now.
Dedicated food/snack bag - Kay did a great job of packing non-perishable snacks that we kept in the back hatch that we could dig into while at rest stops or gas stations. We also made it quasi-accessible while on the road so Kay could crawl back and fetch something quickly.
Shoe containers - On the NY trip, Kay's and my shoes were all over the place in the car. Sandals under the driver seat, hiking shoes in the hatch, other shoes packed away. It was not a good system - and we found ourselves constantly hunting for shoes or accidentally leaving them in the car. Kay and I both had a shoe container that carried all of the shoes we weren't wearing. I used a giant canvas bag and she used an egg crate. Both have their pros and cons.
Miscallaneous/Fun container - This is was mostly Kay's container - but it was basically everything that doesn't fall into the category of clothing or taking care of the dogs. It was a large plastic container that included hobby stuff, binoculars, and more.
Portable dog bed - We bought a portable dog bed that folds up like a camping chair. On our NY trip - when Peanut was crowding hotel doors while we're talking to the bell hop or someone else, we found ourselves wanting here to have a "place" we could tell her to go to.
Compartmentalize luggage based on frequency of use - The NY trip taught us that we need to make it WAY easier to unload and load for overnight stays. Getting into your hotel later and tired from driving, the last thing you want to do is unload the entire car only to use one or two things from three heavy bags.
1. Top luggage rack (Tier 3): The top luggage rack contained only camping gear that we would rarely need on non-camping days, which ended up being great for my shoulder. Over the course of 38 days, we rarely needed to access that gear so it was a perfect spot.
2. Back hitch storage (Tier 2): This follows the same philosophy - it should be rarely accessed items that we know we'll need eventually but not often. It included an extra bag of dog food, more camping gear, the fallback doggie bag, and a few odds and ends.
3. Back hatch (Tier 1): The most important luggage - it included our daily driver clothing bags, our shoe containers, daily driver dog bag, fun container, food bag, dog bed, camera bag, Jackery, and cooler.

The Shelf

Leading up to the trip, I had toyed with the idea of creating something for the back hatch that would help with packing and organizing. Just days before the trip, I set out to create the shelf. Without going into the boring details, like most projects, it graduated from "oh this is simple - I'll knock it out in an hour" to "I hadn't thought about that - let me go back to Home Depot for the fifth time" in the span of 24 hours. Quick learnings:

Need to account for floor not being level when building furniture for a vehicle
Similar, generalized learning - you can't just CAD everything prior - sometimes it makes more sense to just work within the space with a level, scrap wood, pencil, and measuring tape.
When using thinner plywood (3/4 inch), you need to create thicker anchor points that don't rely on just 3/4 inch screws
Carpeting doesn't needs staples - can just use gorilla glue spray
Turnbuckles are awesome for securing things quickly

The Second (Dog) Row

Reflections on NY Trip

Kay and I were not great dog parents in terms of safety for the previous NY trip. We left the back hatch completely empty and made that the dog area. The second row was where we packed some of our luggage. There's so meany reasons why that's not ideal:

Unless dogs are secured in crates in the back hatch, they are not safe in accidents
You spend ZERO time with your dogs while on the road
You waste an entire back hatch that can be filled to the brim with luggage
In the case of our Mazda - it's not as well air-conditioned so the dogs are never as comfortable as they could be

v2 - The Second Row

I'm really happy with how we executed on this roadtrip with the dogs. The second row of our Mazda has two captains chairs with a center console between them. The center console is awkwardly taller than the two chairs, so for lying down, it wasn't going to work. However, removing that console was quite easy (thanks Nate). With that removed, we were able to stuff that center console area with our camping blanket, and then stuff the footwells with our miscallaneous clothing bags and create a large area for our dogs to lie down.

In addition to the the leveled lying area - we bought crash-rated harnesses to buckle the dogs in during the trip. We chose the Clickit Sport Plus. Many people do not realize that basically 100% of harnesses fail during crash tests. Non crash-rated harnesses are not designed to support the g-forces of a car accident. I won't deny that they may help for some hard brakes, but if in terms of a real collision, they just aren't up to snuff. With such a long roadtrip ahead of us - I'm glad we took this extra precaution.

These harnesses had the added benefit that the dogs cannot slowly crawl their way to the front row for love (we've had this happen in the past). Additionally - they cannot fly out of the car as soon as the door opens because they're excited to see grass.

The Pace

Pacing is a top three factor to a great roadtrip I would argue. Call it people, places, and pace. If I were summarize our pace in as few words as possible it would be: Brisk, Saunter, Stay, Jaunty, Friend Stays, Bolt.

Brisk - Days 1-5

We started off the trip with four one-night stayovers in a row. That was possible because our drive time was always under 6 hours each of those days. We would pack and leave in the morning, arrive well before night-fall, enjoy the town for a few hours, and then head back to the hotel or airbnb to unwind.

This was a great pace to start the trip off on. We were not getting immediately exhausted from driving, it gave the dogs time to accilimate to their new daily environment, and it allowed us to explore many new cities quickly, and it starts the trip off with energy and excitement. The short drive times also allowed for some flexibility for midway fun like a trip to a river park in Austin where the dogs swam in the river.

I have no notes - I would not do this any differently.

Saunter - Days 6-14

We slowed down a week into the trip and did two multi-night stays at Santa Fe and Sedona. This was a great change of pace to better explore the towns we were staying in, get some exercise with hiking or visiting dog parks, and explore more restaurants than before. It also allowed for some veg time that I definitely needs every now and then.

Stay - Days 15-22

We completely slowed down and STOPPED when we made it to LA (really Newport beach). At this point we actually completely unloaded the Mazda into the Airbnb including the shelf!! Kay's parents visited from Hawaii and we were able to explore all parts of the area including a trip to Catalina Island, my Uncle Tom in Camarillo, a Dodgers game (they won), Kay's cousins at the Getty museum, among many other memories.

This happened smack dab in the middle of the trip and it was great to have the mental break from long-haul driving for an entire week. It very much felt like we were living in Newport beach for a while and could enjoy the area like a local. I think most of our stops would be like this if we were actually retired. In terms of pacing, having the longest stay in the middle of the roadtrip felt right. It almost made it feel like two roadtrips instead of one long one.

Jaunty - Days 23-31

This stretch was mixture of multi-night stays with some long driving days between. A few nights in Carmel followed by two long-haul days until we made it to Moab for a couple of nights. In-between, I managed to lose $500 in Las Vegas at the craps tables.

If I were to rank the pacing of all of these stretches - this specific stretch would rank lowest. I really enjoyed my stay at Carmel and Moab, but did not enjoy the long driving days in-between. We would have thrown in some filler days in-between if we did not have some constraints around the end-date of our roadtrip.

Friend Stays - Days 32-36

This was a great ending to the roadtrip. We stayed with friends in Colorado for multiple nights. We had a full day to veg and recover from driving (and hiking in Moab). After that we spent a couple nights in Hastings, NE where Kay grew up and stayed with one of her childhood friends.

It was great to end the trip before we booked it home with friends and connection. In fact, I would say the roadtrip wouldn't really be worth it if we didn't use it as an opportunity to connect with our friends along the way. Not to mention our dogs got to meet our friends' dogs!

Bolt - Days 37-38

At the end of the trip - we absolutely booked it home. This is 100% the right move. When the conversation becomes "I miss my bed" - there's no reason to stretch it out. This was definitely the longest driving days of the trip - but at this point we and the dogs were well-trained, we had a system for stopping at gas stations efficiently, and Kay and I did a good job of balancing the driving (no matter how much her driving sometimes terrifies me).

The Highs & Lows

The Lows

Kay forgetting her jewelry bag in a $50/night motel in Houston
1. Fully recovered - a great human cleaned our room
Goose going apeshit on another Golden Retriever in Balboa Park in San Diego
1. This is our fault - that's all I'll say
Pulling into a pet store parking space in Sedona and almost cleaving off our luggage rack
1. Only my pride was injured
Getting to Joe's China too late in Hastings and not being able to order General Tso's
1. Kay was waiting for it to get dark to see the fountain
Cleaning Goose and Peanut, covered in mud, with a single rag and bottle of water
1. We have since purchased a hand-pumped shower for this reason
Not being able to ride the Balboa Island ferry because of our back hitch storage
1. We still took a picture as if we did

The Highs

Listening to Dungeon Crawler Carl together - a really fun LitRPG audiobook series that we both love
Salt Lick BBQ outside Austin - great patio for dogs
Champagne tasting in Fredericksburg and then hitching a ride in our sommelier's Jeep Wrangler because it was raining cats and dogs out. What a great guy.
Stargazing in Marfa, TX
Two independent Uber drivers excitedly telling us about prairie dogs in an abandoned lot in Santa Fe
Our long hike in Sedona, taking the bus back to town, eating tamales
Dog beach in San Diego, followed by dog wash, then Farmer's Market in Little Italy
Dolphins chasing the boat on the way to Catalina Island
Smell reports from Youtubers covering local chemical leaks
1. This is intentionally vague
Goose leaping into Uncle Tom's pool with the pool cover still on. And then in the hot tub.
Jim's first MLB game and we won
Chinese dinner in Sawtelle with Scott & Connie - best meal of the trip
Point Lobos and all of its wonderful volunteers with telescopes
Sunset and sheep at Mission Ranch
Highway 1 / Big Sur / Bixby Bridge
Point Sur Lighthouse Tour - learning about Fresnel lenses
Greek dinner in Carmel complete with live music from the waiters
Staring up at the mirrored ceiling at The Cosmopolitan - something Kay and I did together 13 years ago way before we were even dating.
Basically dragging Goose up a scramble to see Corona Arch early in the morning
Gyros @ Food Truck Park in Moab
Widow's Bay for hours in Parker
"Is that my dirty napkin?" with Nate & Alyssa over margs
Hastings Aquacourt being lowkey amazing
Walking w/ Goose & Peanut in Kay's old neighborhood
Abigail's kids feeding the dogs unlimited treats