Road Trip Safety on the National Park to Park Highway

We’re heading out for Stage 1 of our National Park to Park Highway Tour in just one week! The original Park to Park Highway Tour in the 1920s had to carry all their own spark plugs, tires, tools, and gasoline for those long stretches without gas stations. Luckily we won’t have to bring the service station with us, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be prepared.

We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Road Trip Safety in preparation for our big trip. I wanted to share the top three things we’re doing to make sure we stay safe on the road this summer.

Lifeline Road Kit

It’s always smart to have emergency equipment. Our truck comes with a spare tire and jack, but we wanted something more. That’s why I reached out to Lifeline First Aid to request their Truck Road Kit. It comes with safety triangles, jumper cables, road flares, work gloves, a safety vest, a flashlight and even a first aid kit. I love that the first aid kit is stocked with plenty of bandaids. Sometimes that’s all my kids need for an owie to feel better. The sleek carry case is nice, but a bit large for our luggage limited truck.

In addition to the Truck Road Kit, Lifeline sent us the Lifeline Trail Light 5 First Aid Kit – a light weight first aid kit with enough supplies for our family of five when we’re out on the trail. It weighs less than 12 oz! Too bad the iodine prep pad leaked in its packaging on its way over so we had to throw those out. I feel much better prepared for our seven week road trip bringing these along.

Urgent.ly
After hearing about our National Park to Park Highway Tour a blog reader suggested I look into Urgent.ly, an Uber-like app for car maintenance. You download the app to your smart phone and if there is an emergency it’s easy to get help. Authorized mechanics and tow truck companies come to your aid on demand, you can track their progress on the app and even connect with family members in case of emergency.

It’s pretty cool to know that no matter what part of the country I’m driving in, I will be able to contact a tow truck with the press of a button on my phone. I especially like that there is no fee to join, I only pay if I need roadside assistance. Thanks to Urgent.ly I won’t have to carry all of my car maintenance supplies like the drivers of the 1920s National Park to Park Highway Tour.

Before You Go

There are plenty of things you can do before leaving home to prepare for road trip safety. Have food and water in your vehicle. Know how to change a tire. Make sure you start out with a full tank of gas. The one that I struggle with the most is perform scheduled maintenance.

This time since we’ll be gone for seven weeks I made sure to contact our mechanic for a automotive check up. We’ll be taking the truck in to get lubed, rotated, refilled, and checked out before we put five to six thousand miles on it. It’s just one more way to prepare for Road Trip Safety.

So readers, I’m curious who has road trips planned this summer. Where are you going? What do you do to prepare? Leave a comment or contact me on instagram, twitter or facebook. We’d love to hear from you!

See how our National Park-to-Park Journey went in this exclusive photo ebook:

This post includes affiliate links. I receive a small commission if you purchase something by clicking through these links. Thank you Lifeline First Aid for sponsoring gear for our 2016 National Park to Park Highway Tour.