Folks,
Thanks VERY much for all your helpful suggestions. I’ll try to update the plans but not replying individually to each post…because that would be unwieldy with as many multiquotes as it would include.
I’ve had long, heavy duty jumper cables since we bought the truck 5 years ago. We’ve now just picked up 2 24 oz cans of tire sealant, which should work on Expedition tires; a Swiss army knife, just in case; an auto tool kit in a case; a better first aid kit in a case (our old emergency kit can go to my grandson for his car, driving around near Houston); a 20-foot 30k-lb tow strap with loops; and a tire step for getting up into the Thule cargo box, which we will pick up in early June.
I’ll pick up some gorilla tape and 2 2-person emergency blankets before we depart, as well as 3 trays of water bottles – and we will bring a sharpie to prevent any arguments about ownership of a bottle in use or rolling around on the floor. We have a large insulated cooler with a Velcro-secured opening on top for easy access, it will go on the 2nd row between the two passengers. Should allow for plenty of refrigerated food as well as cold drinks. We will also have plenty of other non-refrigerated food along. Got plenty of wipes, too.
As we are bringing along the rechargeable tire pump and the jump starter, I think we will hold off on a new battery for now. The original battery has been behaving well though I recognize it could be reaching the end of its useful life. We are scheduled for regular service at the Ford dealer in Minot ND just before we wander into Canada but we’ve got to get to Saskatoon that night. The dealer said adding spark plug change to the service would mean he’d have the vehicle most of the day – so I’ll postpone that until the next service, which will certainly be due by the time we get back to the Houston area. I have no idea why the dealer thinks changing spark plugs takes so long but we don’t have spare time that day. I’ll also be sure that the dealer does a thorough check on the spare tire, which is the full size original. I’ve used it before without difficulty, but only for 100 miles or so.
I’m still undecided about the spare belt – I’m not sure I’d do very well at changing one in the field – but I’ll ask the dealer in ND to look at it carefully, and if it looks funky at all, change it.
On the way back from the dealer to the hotel in Minot, I’ll pick up appropriate bear spray at an nearby outdoor supply store I’ve identified. Better than what I can get in NJ, and cheaper than in Canada. Guns not an option.
Clothing – absolutely need to be flexible, from 30s up to 70s, rain or not, and lots of effective mosquito repellent. I understand the mosquitos are large enough to have first class and economy sections. We are also well set up with camera phones, a DSLR camera with excellent optical zoom, lots of memory for devices, both SD, microSD, dual connector pen drives, laptop, and external HDs.
The Milepost is very cool. Bought 2 copies of the 2019 book, one for me and one was sent to my grandson. Also been through the web site and I downloaded the relevant maps, pieced them together into a single PDF file, and composed an index page in the order of our route, and you can tap on each line and it jumps to the right map. We will load that file into the two tablets the family is bringing.
I downloaded coverage maps from our cellular provider, pieced them together, and overlaid our route. Looks like our longest coverage gap will be around 460 miles Cassiar BC37 heading south once we cut off from the Alcan. All of us in the car are also adding our carrier’s North American option for the duration of our trip so that nobody gets nailed with surprise charges. I took a look at SiriusXM coverage and it disappears pretty quickly after we cross from BC to YT. Of course, the built-in nav database in the 2014 Expedition doesn’t need any external help to be wrong , no matter how often you buy the updates (Make a Legal U-Turn! Joe’s Crab Shark in South Plainfield NJ!).
Did a bit of research on the money issues…found my bank has an alliance with a bank in Canada so no extra fees for withdrawal from an ATM up there, and the exchange rate is good, set by Visa. First ATM is only a half hour drive after our first entry to Canada. This way is much better than pre-purchasing Canada dollars in the US at my bank or a forex bureau. Upgraded one of my airline credit cards so now I’ll have no foreign transaction fees (it was 3%), plus double miles on gas, food, lodging. As usual, I will alert all the cards about the travel plans. They even make it possible to do through their mobile apps these days.
I think we will be back in the US by July, so I won’t have to worry about Canada Day greetings…I’ll be down south, wondering how people can have a Confederate flag sticker on their vehicle and still celebrate the 4th of July.
Again, thanks everyone for all the suggestions. We will certainly document the trip and share what we can.
It all adds up. Trying to pass on a love for the road to my grandkids and it seems to be working.
