I do some long distance routes that I would love to make a little easier by staying overnight.

First mistake, not packing the dog's go bag ahead of time. I forgot his food. $9 of an unnecessary expense.

Second mistake, I decided because of the flooding not to go to Sam's Club and get snacks that needed to be cooked but would taste alright at room temperature.

Third mistake, did not plan the route correctly and overslept to boot. Stressed out from the get go.

Fourth mistake, when I realized the phone reception and the hotel WIFI was worthless; I did not go to a McDonald's and continued to fight the battle from the motel. The motel was party central until 2 am so I started the next day 3 hours too late so had to beat the rush hour in Corpus.

Fifth mistake, I did not print off the most important part of the report to get my security code.before I left the house.

Ultimate mistake, I leaped before I looked. I'll know better next time. It was a good lesson, but an expensive lesson.

Oh and I left the dog's blanket at the 2nd hotel. It's not worth calling to have it saved for me, just one of those things that makes you wish you had a V 8.

Now the good news

I saved on gas and hours of driving. One route that I normally plead no, no, no, but do because I love that scheduler is 17 hours and around 700 miles of driving.. Gas is easily $50. The other section of that route is over 350 miles, 12 hours and $30 in gas depending if I can find a WalMart. Round day trip mileage would have been at least 1000 miles.

My total mileage 795 and I need to top off the car. Total fuel cost will run around $50.

The best part of the entire trip is when I got home; the pets weren't ticked at being left alone and cuddled.

Definitely a live and learn experience. I'm not afraid to try it again, but hopefully next time I'll be more organized with the needed paperwork and packing of everything required.

Thank you for sharing. I have never tried that type of mshopping because I know I do not have the stamina to do route. But it's good you found something positive about your experience. Not everybody can do that. My hats off to you!

You can be well organized but something could go wrong.

I have kitties and as another shopper wrote, pet friendly most often just means dog friendly -_-

Yeah, but you can leave a car with food, water, and a litter box for a few days and they are fine.

Sounds great that you well reviewed your mistakes. Pretty fine that you take care not to repeat this.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2016 10:08AM by jinna.