Okay, well Google Maps says 3,838 miles. But just take our word for it. Whether it’s camping in a beautiful spot all to ourselves or sleeping in the car at a Walmart parking lot after a day of driving – I wanted to share some lovely stuff of what I do.

First off – IT WAS COLD AS S***. We camped out for the majority of November (minus some lovely time with my family in Santa Rosa under a roof and with a warm bed) but man oh man, sleeping in a tent or in the car has been reallllllly chilly. Good thing I have plenty of coats (almost all purchased from truck stops) that keep me warm just fine. Most of you have seen my wolf coat, and it’s as warm as it is sexy.

If this gets enough traction, I’ll share a special image of it.

You might be saying, “well duh Dillon, it’s winter”. And to that, I’ll say, ” Shut your mouth gypsy woman, you don’t know my life. True, I didn’t think about that, but because I like to see places without other tourists around, I figured winter would be a cool time to go. I’m enjoying myself, stay out of this.”

Okay, maybe not to that extent. And I take back the gypsy woman part, I don’t know where that came from. But I’m fairly long winded when you sass my road trips! It’s fun, get out and go do one.

Jeez. Anyways, yes, it’s cold! Even as I write this in my tent my fingers are freezing cold. It typically gets down to 20ish degrees. But hey, we bundle up, Niko has his blankets and hiking vest, and we stay cozy!

Through ALL this whining though, I want to share how lovely it’s all been and how you can absolutely do these things too.

This all is just going to be a quick overview of things we’ve done so far. Realizing I haven’t shared jack shit about my trips really at all yet, I thought I’d at least mention a few things. If you’ve paid any attention, you probably wonder what the hell we even do. Well, stick around 😉

You should definitely bring a companion. Neeks is obviously mine. We don’t talk much but that’s why I dig it. My man has seen a lot of things and he keeps me company as we roam the world together. But from an overall safety standpoint, it’s not necessarily smart to go alone.

I know Neeks can’t really perform first aid on me if need be – but he still is a pretty solid alarm system, though a cute one that likes his belly rubbed.

At the beginning, I thought Niko would be hating me for planning a winter road trip, but of course being half husky and half badass, he loves this weather. He begs me constantly to roll the windows down, so I bundle up (yes, in my sick wolf coat) and roll them down for my guy. We put up with each other well.

And so we started off in late September 2017. We left Denver CO to make our way to our west. The best part about my traveling is that I can work from home (or in this case, my car, my tent, or coffee shop) so I never really have to take “time off”. Thus, road tripping is something we do a lot of. I travel to my clients and their business and I also prospect others along the way. From this style of “traveling business”, my clientele is mainly breweries, wineries, and real estate.

But that stuff is boring.

I know you just want more of the dirty details and the cool pictures. Lucky for you, I’m a people pleaser – I’m here to deliver.

Road trips are always quite exciting. And this time was no different.

My thoughts were basically: “I know I want to see more of the country. However, it’s also important I stay organized and make money while traveling”.

On the flipside, Niko’s thoughts were/are: “Let’s play fetch.”

As we began, I figured I would be splitting my trip into halves: one being the four thousand miles in the northwest, the other being a couple thousand miles in the southeast.

In the Northwest, we made stops in Santa Rosa CA, Bend OR, Cannon Beach OR, Seattle WA, Coeur d’Alene, ID, Bozeman MT, Spearfish SD, and finally ending in Minneapolis MN.

Here are the overall guidelines we hung onto:

• Spend as little money as possible each day – we shot for a $30 a day limit. Things like refraining from hotels, eating out, or doing things that cost money.
• Continue to stick to a routine – a typical day for me includes business items, a workout, some reading/writing, and plenty of exercise for Neeks.
• See the coolest things we could find – pretty self-explanatory. I use apps like TripAdvisor, AllTrails, and RoadTrippers to find things nearby.
• SHARE – I’m brutal about this, and I realize some people don’t care at all, but I want to do a better job of sharing since I know the things my dog and I do are a bit out of the ordinary.

The biggest thing was keeping an ordinary life routine while doing all of this.

To give you a rough idea, my typical day on the road goes like this:

7am to 8am: Clean up camp and get organized

This includes things like taking down the tent, throwing away trash, and making sure the items in my car are set up in an efficient fashion. Having my gloves, water, and breakfast close at hand so I can get my ass on the road are major keys.

I also like to keep necessities up front by me. Things like my “go bag”, which contains all necessities like some clothes, my laptop, and my camera for if I pull off to a hotel room or need to work at a coffee shop. What’s the difference between me and person preparing for a zombie apocalypse? Literally nothing, besides maybe my sweet wolf coat.

8am to Noon: Workout and business items

I’d get workouts in by searching for Anytime Fitness locations near me. They are so convenient for what I do, it’s honestly unreal. I then can get a little exercise in as well as shower (which, who would’ve thought, is super crucial to a comfy road trip).

Running my small business (DJPFocus.com) while driving so much during a day can sometimes be difficult. But I can take and make calls via handsfree in my car and run day to day items like client advertisements and campaigns from coffee shops. Planning ahead is the biggest key.

Let’s be real, I learned to juggle at like age five, I have no problem keeping things up in the air.

Noon to 5pm: Exploring shit/ Drive to next location

Sometimes our schedule fluctuates like I’ve mentioned, but this is usually the time when we go and just look around a city or explore some wilderness or play fetch at a park or try to pick up chicks, wait what? Basically whatever.

Most times, we go find a hike nearby using the app AllTrails.  If we’re in a city, I throw the leash on Neeks and we’ll just walk the streets of wherever we’re by. We’ve come across lots of things. Unreal views, cool breweries, live music, performers, half-naked homeless people running around with a Santa hat on, you know – just normal, adventurer things.

If we’re in the middle of nowhere, we’ll just wander. Niko and I have been to countless city/ state/ national parks and have seen tons of cool crap. Even creepy crap. Like this one time we heard some sort of demon baby crying in the wilderness. I’ll post the video here eventually and link it!

We mostly just get out and about. The kid needs exercise after all. (Up to you to decide who the kid is here…)

After that, we just head off to the next location. North, south, east or west baby.

5pm and on: Light travel/ Rest/ Recover/ Play fetch with Niko

Time to get situated wherever we are for the night. Most times it’s setting up a tent or getting my car ready to be slept in. I’m okay with either, though the car route is pretty sweet since it’s much warmer…

When you’ve got a good setup, it’s a fun and cheap way of traveling around! I do have a couple recommendations when it comes to sleeping in your car while road tripping.

1. Your sleeping base is more important than your covers. Make sure to have tons of padding and insulation between the ground/ car and you! Then get all cozy in your sleeping bag and try not to fog up the joint too much.
2. Use protection. And not that type of protection. It’s important to be skeptical of other individuals and be wary of your own safety. I usually have a knife on me and I’m confident using it in self-defense. Always lock the car too, especially when you’re sleeping in it!
3. Bring extra sheets to cover your windows. (Thanks, Brian Mac). It makes it more comfortable and cozy for you. And segueing off the safety bit – nobody wants to bug the bearded guy with a dog who has sheets over his windows. That’s a fact.

Well, I think that’s a good introduction to everything! I had a fun time writing this so I’ll try to share more often here.

We’re headed east next. We’ll be going through Lake of the Ozarks MO, Memphis & Nashville TN, Savannah GA, and Fort Myers FL, before working our way back up.

If you have any questions or want to rip on me for something, I always like hearing from people! I’m working on branching out into the other realms of my traveling, like how to be efficient on your travels and tricks that work for me and best spots to play fetch with your dog…you know, important things like that.

Be a badass and kick some ass today, punks.

Dillon Pomeroy | (952) 836-5644 | dillonpomeroy@gmail.com