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Breakfast at the Quality Inn
Author: John
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All packed
Poppy! She went back to sleep at 6am when we put her in the car. She didn’t wake up until we were about the 2nd car in line at the border. Luckily she went right back to sleep.
She didn’t give us any trouble all day until dinner time as the food service was a little on the slower side.
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Dinner at the Cracker Barrel
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Checkers at the Cracker Barrel
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Coffee and bathroom
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Nap time
Currently heading south through PA
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We made it to Pennsylvania
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Breakfast in Irving, NY
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Breakfast
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Time of departure 6am
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Phone charging kit
Everything we need to charge our phones at night.
A. Dual port USB-C and USB-A wall chargers
B. Portable USB battery for charging
C. Permanent marker for labeling things
D. Philips screw driver for taking portable monitor off VESA mount
E. Apple Watch chargers (USB-C)
F. 10ft Lightning to USB-A cables for charging iPhones
G. USB-C extension cables (because Apple Watch cables are short)
Note: this case also contains 2 x USB-C male to USB-A female and 2 x USB-C female to USB-A male adapters
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Getting in the ocean spirit
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HDMI to Lightning Adapter
We currently have limited video sources for our HDMI monitor in the van.
We will have the Nintendo Switch, laptop and my iPad but they are not the most practical for dedicated video use.
I want my iPad and laptop reserved for my use (work and navigation) and since the Switch doesn’t play movies we needed something else.
Since I need to bring the kids’ iPad’s along anyway I thought they would be a good source for video. Unfortunately they, unlike my iPad mini 6th generation, have lightning ports and no USB-C.
Not wanting to pay Apple’s premium for an official Lightning to HDMI adapter, I bought a cheap HDMI to Lightning adapter from Amazon to solve this problem. It did not work.
After some more research I realized that finding a non-Apple adapter that actually works would be anything but trivial.
I gave up and went with a different approach. I am going to use a USB media player. I found a fairly inexpensive player that would do 1080p. The device was a few years old and did not support H.265 so I went with a slightly newer version that supports 4K (which I do not care about) and does support the H.265 codec. My reasoning for purchasing the more expensive newer unit is that if they claim it will handle 4k it should be VERY able to handle 1080p.
This dedicated media player has a few other advantages over using an iPad.
- It has a remote so the kids can use the device themselves – we only let them use the iPad’s in guided access mode
- It can play any content, we don’t have to worry about HDCP or other copyright protections.
- The unit is cheap enough that it can just live in the van
Hopefully it works as described.
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Revised Minivan Wiring Diagram
I’ve made some changes to the initial wiring diagram. By changes I actually mean I drew a new one.
The most notable changes are the inclusion of a USB media player inside the front console.
Also this diagram describes the device mounts and better indicates device placement.
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Hitch Mount Cargo Carrier
While I can’t say I love the food, I do love the conveinience of ordering McDonald’s ahead of time.
During a road tripAbout 30 minutes before our arrival, I will get the order all ready, asking everyone in the vehicle what they would like and then the moment we arrive. The order starts getting prepared and we are able to pick up our food or have it delivered to our vehicle in no time.
I never want to be the family trying to figure out what everyone wants in front of the cashier.
I want to use this same procedure during our travels as we will need some fast food during our outgoing and incoming journey . I decided it would be a good idea to test this out.
I tried to figure out a way to change my Canadian McDonald’s app to access US locations.
I tried searching for a US location in the app but could not. I searched Google, I tried to find a location change setting. I logged out and back in. I even tried reinstalling the app. I tried connecting through a VPN in the US and even turned of Location Services temporarily for the app.
It would not work.
I figured that the only solution was to install the US version of the app. This was not easy to accomplish.
I needed to created a new Apple ID with a US location which required a US phone number.
Luckily my VoIP provider could accomodate my needs cheaply so I bought a SC phone number for $0.85 USD/month and forwarded calls and texts to my cell phone.
During our trip I will re-purpose the voice handling of this number to make calls to Canada.
I finally was able to successfully get my US Apple ID setup with no payment method and logged in to the App store on my phone.
I then proceeded to download as many US based fast food apps that I could find.
I tested out the US McDonald’s app and was indeed able to find US McDonald’s.
I was able to add a Canadian credit card to the US app which was also a potential problem.
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Minivan Wiring Diagram
I have a few electronic devices I would like to use in our minivan on our trip.
The kids have a few as well.
Here is a diagram of all our devices and how will they be connected in our Minivan.
Cables
- 3 x USB-C Male to USB-C Male (Power Only)
- 1 x USB-C Male to USB-C Male (Video Support)
- 3 x USB-A Male to Lightning
Devices
- iPhone (John)
- iPhone mini (Leanne)
- iPad mini (For alternate GPS and/or movies)
- iPad (Movies for the girls in the back)
- Portable Monitor (for switch or iPad mini)
- Nintendo Switch
- MacBook Pro (for working)
Power
- 2 x 2 port (USB-C, USB-A) 12V adapter
- 1 x 4 port (2 x USB-C, 2 x USB-A) 12V adapter
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Weather Update
I know it is a little early but I don’t see any hurricanes that would affect our adventure yet.
