How much do you pack for a few days on the road?

You don't travel anywhere in the west or southwest or west coast or most of Cali without ample water on board. Warm water out of a plastic jug can be a lifesaver.
In urban area it is ok without water, but anything outside of I5 or I80 I would always make sure to pack at least 1 gal of potable water.

Plus it saves you money, when the kids ask for something to drink it is better to have water ready than let them waste money on sugar water.
 
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I only drink warm water. Spent so much time in need of water, and only warm water was available- I not only got use to warm water, but I prefer warm water over cold water.

Opposite when it comes to soda or beer. I want and always ask for extra ice in my soda, and for a beer I put the glass and the bottle of beer in the freezer for 15 minutes before pouring the beer out of the bottle and into the glass.

How weird is that.....
When I was a kid my grandma believed that heat shock can get you sick (as in brain freeze will get you sick). So after a hot sport game she wanted me to drink "hot" water.... until I cool down....
 
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A couple thousand bucks…
and a snub nose .38
With fuel prices what they are now I can see the a couple thousand dollars and the way the world is today a firearm is always a welcome companion.

OP, I lived in NC for years and we traveled to KY to visit my parents several times a year. I was driving a '97 Ford Escort station wagon on the trip for the last several years we were making the trip and was always able to fit everything we needed in the cargo area in the back.
 
Actually, I do. If the chlorine is filtered it actually taste fine. You drink tea once in a while too right? It is just like a very "bland" tea.
A few glasses of warm water make a great emetic for most people. If it doesn't work add a teaspoon of salt and you will barf. Well, maybe not you.

 
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Not the taste, although the taste from the plastic jug isn't too great, but temperature. Not very refreshing. For a road trip I just put some fake ice in a cooler along with some bottled drinks.
Curious, why fake ice not real one? You can just dump the water out instead of having to refreeze fake ice to be used again. If I need ice, I usually just get them from the hotel ice maker and put them in my "water proof" plastic bag and tie a knot around it. As they melt I'll just dump the water and keep the bag and contents, save the wet bag for the next day. (dry them up with hotel towel then hang them up side down).
 
With fuel prices what they are now I can see the a couple thousand dollars and the way the world is today a firearm is always a welcome companion.

OP, I lived in NC for years and we traveled to KY to visit my parents several times a year. I was driving a '97 Ford Escort station wagon on the trip for the last several years we were making the trip and was always able to fit everything we needed in the cargo area in the back.
I think he was just trying to make a snarky comment. No idea why you'd want to carry a few thousand dollars for a trip. Maybe a few hundred but pretty much everywhere you'd want to go will take a credit card so no need to carry that much cash around. A couple thousand would be 20+ 100 bills, hard to fit all that in one wallet, then if you move it around, it's in two places, etc. Sounds like more hassle than its worth.
 
actually, carrying extra cash (& extra credit/debit cards from a second financial institution) & a means of protection are most highly prudent & most certainly responsible preparations for a road trip.

if an atm has ever chewed your card or a bank has locked your account because of possible fraud you understand the need for backup cards and more cash. do a card travel notification.

being able to protect oneself and loved ones becomes more challenging when away from home, thus “evening the odds” becomes more crucial. here is a useful website: https://www.handgunlaw.us/

1-2 jugs of potable water is enough, gas stations have a potable water faucet for refills and i never let a gas tank go below 1/2 mark anyway. if worried about yucky flavor add an unsweetened (non-caffeinated for kids) herbal tea bag (lemon or mint are the best) to a potable water jug, which won’t hurt a radiator or washer fluid container in extemis.

if doing any kind of an adventure (e.g. scuba, hang-gliding, boating, backwoods) vacation look at your health insurance. many regular policies don’t cover extraordinary rescues or circumstances so you may need to add a supplement policy.

if traveling with your own minor kids carry their birth certificates. if unrelated minor kids are coming along also have a notarized letter of permission from their own parents.

paper maps.
 
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If I'm going hiking or camping, I'll have my roadtrip tote, a duffelbag, hiking pack, and a 24 case of water. All my emergency stuff fits into the spare tire well and is always in there. It's great only having to pack for one person!

Oh, and enough smokes to get me out of IL so I can buy somewhere cheaper.
 
When I was a kid my grandma believed that heat shock can get you sick (as in brain freeze will get you sick). So after a hot sport game she wanted me to drink "hot" water.... until I cool down....
Is grandma Chinese? It was uncommon to see cold drinks when I was in China. Hot water with lemon was a lot more popular than you'd think.
 
Is grandma Chinese? It was uncommon to see cold drinks when I was in China. Hot water with lemon was a lot more popular than you'd think.
Yup. She also believes that crunchy cereal in cold milk is bad for you (as in gives you pimples or blisters in the mouth), so Kellog's Frosted Flakes in hot milk only, served when it turns soggy....

Never ate cereal again until about 14, in cold milk.
 
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Me for a week: a small backpack.

Wife and kids for a weekend? gimme a large station wagon…
Yep!

Same here.
I went for a week long motorcycle trip, had 1 large bag.

Family (me and wife with 3 teenage kids) went 2 nights to visit inlaws (450 mile drive each way) and had the back of the mid size SUV full.
I had just 1 medium bag. Wife had 3 plus a food bag. Son had 1 backpack. Daughter had a large and medium size bag.
Yep again. I've always traveled light; one medium sized duffel bag and a couple of shirts on hangers. My wife brings 5 times that amount. It's one of the few things we argue about. It drives me nuts. It drives her nuts. Every single time we travel we leave the house PO'd at each other.

Scott

Edit: We always bring more cash than we need and multiple credit cards from different institutions. We don't travel with guns but we do travel with a top quality, highly potent pepper spray.
 
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Yup. When I was a kid in Hong Kong restaurants charge extra for cold drinks (I think they still do, like about 25c USD) more than hot ones, but piping hot "diluted" tea is free.
I'm a when in Rome person and some of the funniest times were when my hosts tried to anticipate my wants but were rebuffed. One time the company that I was inspecting served lunch and one place setting had a fork and cold can of Coke but the others had chop sticks and water. I didn't sit at the Coke seat and acted ignorant. Lol. I knew it was for me. They were nice people.

A guy that i was with memorized the word for cold. Pinga or something like that. The Chinese folks never knew what he was saying. I can eat and drink to an extent like the Chinese when I'm there.
 
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