We are back on the road on the second of our shakedown trips in advance of some more serious travel next year. We are headed back to Texas. Beaumont, Texas to be precise, where we plan to work for five days, and then spend some time on a Texas Gulf Coast beach before returning home.

Today we drove 277 miles, checking out the views and some campgrounds along the way. We stopped for the night in Hot Springs Arkansas.

We learned quite a lot from our Annular Eclipse Trip, and besides the logistical changes we’ve made, we’ve beefed up security both at home and on the road. The latter after someone tried to break into our hotel room in New Mexico — while we were in the room. At the same hotel we watched a guy in the parking lot putting on tactical gear including a vest before entering. With hindsight we should have switched hotels there and then.

Unfortunately, each State has its own unique laws regarding how and where you can carry and transport firearms. To comply with many of the states’ requirements, we bought two portable safes. One for firearms, and one for our laptops, ammo and magazines. That’s because many states require that guns are kept locked away while travelling, that they cannot be loaded¹, and that magazines and ammo must be secured separately. Most also specify that neither can be kept in the glove box or center console. All the different rules will make your head spin. They also make researching a trip extra complicated.

There are a few states that are so draconian with their gun laws that we won’t be able to stop in them.

Traveling Security — This laptop safe will hold both our laptops, plus ammo and magazines in the base. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

Hornady gun safe — I bought a portable gun safe for travelling. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.