Drastic change of plans for our AI-generated trip
Continued from We planned an entire RV trip using AI.
Our original plan for this post was to document our process using AI to finalize our foliage trip itinerary. But then, between drafting the previous post and finishing planning the trip, we faced the devastating situation that every pet-parent dreads. We had to make the decision to let our sweet Tanner cross the rainbow bridge after he rapidly declined in health.
We thought long and hard about whether or not we wanted to take this trip without him. As you read in the last post, he was such a big factor in how we outlined our itineraries. Ultimately, we decided to continue with our plans, hoping to take the trip in his honor. He was an adventure dog until his final day, and RVing won't be the same without him.
Today's post will talk about changing our itinerary, but we wanted to create this note beforehand so the mention of Tanner's passing isn't a shock. This certainly changes the emotional tone of our trip, but we feel we still owe it to ourselves to figure out how we want to RV as new part-timers. We know Tanner would want us to keep adventuring.
We used the most popular AI agents on the market to yield us initial itineraries for a fall foliage trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Now it was time to get details about all the recommended activities and narrow them down to ones that most interested us. We eliminated the itinerary created by ChatGPT after it refused to offer us a basecamp close to our preferred location. That left the itineraries from Gemini, Claude, and Muse. Each had similar suggestions but with their own spin. Would we want to extend our trip as Claude suggested, or would we stick with one basecamp? Would we keep the balance of dog-friendly and human-friendly excursions, or would we need a more delicate schedule for Tanner? How much would we want to eat out vs. eating in the RV? And would we add an overnight at a Harvest Host?
This is where I went back to my usual planning process, only I wasn't starting from scratch. I was taking all the AI suggestions and vetting them. I could have asked AI for descriptions of each activity, but instead I looked them up old school style, pulling up the websites and locations on Google Maps and seeing if they were a good fit. If I then had a question where I couldn't easily find the answer, I went to AI.
But which AI agent did I use for this part of the process? In a surprising twist, I turned to Muse, the new model offered by Meta. Of all the models, it seemed to have the best skillset for setting itineraries, despite some minor details getting overlooked or misinterpreted. I also thought ahead to the booking feature. I wanted to try to book reservations and tickets through AI, and this was the only model that currently offered that feature. This meant that it made the most sense to keep Muse informed of my planning, so when the time came, it would know what to book when.
Originally, our plan was to only take suggestions from AI and not add our own, but that plan went out the window when they limited their campground optimization and I beat them to the punch by finding a great choice of campground in our area, thus sneaking it into the conversation.
So when I found other activities during my search that were 100% in Anthony's and my wheelhouse, I wasn't about to forgo them just because the robots didn't catch them. That would be silly! This was a great opportunity to teach Muse about our interests...like our obsession with mountain coasters.
Something I'm surprised got overlooked was that we'd be in town for the country fair in Banner Elk. When I was conducting my research on one of the suggested excursions – visiting the original Mast General Store location – I found the announcement for the fair right on their website.
I brought the fair into my conversation with Muse, at which point it alerted me to another event going on at the same time: the Woolly Worm Festival. And it's exactly what it sounds like – a festival devoted to woolly worms, aka the really fuzzy caterpillars that are popular in North America and turn into the equally popular Isabella Tiger Moth.
woollywormfestival
That led to this conversation:
Nothing like an opportunity for Muse to learn about Anthony's dislike of caterpillars. (Am I secretly still keeping the festival in the back of my mind? Perhaps).
Muse and I narrowed our itinerary to squeeze the mountain coaster in the evening we arrive and the country fair in on Saturday. Around that, we continued with the balance of Tanner-friendly activities and a few hikes for me and Anthony. To ensure we weren't too pressed for time for our mountain coaster excursion, I decided to add a Harvest Host stop on Tuesday night, which extended our trip by a day but allowed a shorter drive on Wednesday. From there, we successfully filled in every day except Sunday. This left us with a few options. We could plan an outing for our final day, keep the day open and chill, or leave a day early.
I asked Muse for more suggestions, but I left the conversation there, with plans to confer with Anthony.
That brainstorming all happened on September 28, which gives some insight into just how fast we went from thinking Tanner would recover, to realizing he wouldn't. By the next morning, we knew we were saying goodbye to him, and all our Tanner-friendly activities wouldn't happen.
We took some time to think about what this trip now meant. All this year, Tanner was the only one still excited to travel. Would we really gather up the cats, who'd much rather just sit pretty at the cottage, to take a trip even we weren't sure we wanted to take? We still didn't know if we were emotionally ready to RV again, and without Tanner, the mere thought of RVing felt so strange. We had now lost both our OG travel companions, the ones who learned to RV with us, and who shared our most formative years as travelers. This foliage trip was supposed to be our way to gauge our interest in RVing as part-timers, as we slowly heal from the tumultuous year we just had. Now, if we went, we needed to wrestle with the fact that it wouldn't be an accurate gauge. This would be a bereavement trip, one to help us remember the incredible adventures we had with Tanner, and to help us adjust to RVing without him. It didn't sound fun, but maybe it was necessary as a part of our grieving process.
We didn't have a lot of time to decide. We were in a time crunch, trying to make plans for peak autumn with just days to spare. Campground availability was dwindling fast.
Then, another obstacle:
Remember, during all this planning, our trailer was getting repairs up at our dealer, Trailers of the East Coast. It had been there since September 14. During that time, the techs let us know that they had a couple setbacks. First, when they went to fix the positioning of our awning, they discovered dry rot on the fabric and recommended a full replacement. At first, we just asked them to fix the arms because they wouldn't stay properly in place when we extended our awning. Now they'd need to order a whole new awning from ATC. Second, they kept ordering new patio screens from ATC, but they kept coming broken. We knew from our personal experience that those screens aren't the sturdiest. As the third screen made its way from Indiana, we told the guys that, if this one was also busted, to forget the replacement altogether. It would be nice to have our patio back, but this wasn't as necessary as the roof or electrical.
Speaking of electrical, we needed to get the trailer over to EcoEthic, who were generously keeping their schedule open for our repairs. The initial plan was to let TOEC have the trailer for 2 weeks and then bring it to EcoEthic for about a week. With these new delays, we decided to keep our schedule with EcoEthic but bring the trailer back to TOEC at a later date, once the new awning had gotten delivered.
We asked around to see if anyone was available to transport our trailer the 20 minutes from TOEC to EcoEthic on September 28. At first, we couldn't find anyone, which meant one or both of us would be making the 4-hour trek up to NC that day. We could send Anthony alone again, or we could both go. The advantage of us both going is that we'd both get real-time explanations of all the repairs. We made a tentative plan to take a day trip – Anthony, myself, and Tanner. Tanner couldn't spend that many hours alone at the house, and we thought he might enjoy a little trip, anyways. Then, as the date drew closer, one of the guys at EcoEthic offered to transport our trailer for us, and we accepted. Now that we knew a return trip to TOEC was happening, we felt less need to debrief with them at the end of this appointment. But the elephant in the room of course, is that we wouldn't have made the trip up there anyways. Tanner got sick a few days earlier, and by September 28, he was in no shape for travel. We're so grateful to Chris at EcoEthic for coming in clutch. Otherwise, the whole repair plan would've gotten totally messed up, as would our foliage trip.
By October 1, we had reworked our plans. Buggy was getting electrical repairs at EcoEthic. Afterwards, we hoped Chris would be willing to drop Buggy back at TOEC for the remaining repairs there. We could pick it up and then head straight into the mountains. It was almost a good plan. After getting the trailer, we'd only have a 90-minute drive to our campground. However, we faced a risk we've been trying to avoid. The cats would have a 4-hour drive in the truck with us, followed by an unknown amount of time while we get the trailer, go over all the repairs, and hitch up. We promised ourselves (and them) that we'd give them plenty of breaks in the RV whenever we traveled again, and now, it wasn't possible.
The other risk was that, if there were anymore setbacks at TOEC, we were now bound to trip plans. Because of this, we made a command decision to start the trip on Wednesday October 14 instead of Tuesday October 13. It's the week after Columbus Day Weekend, so giving TOEC the full day Tuesday to work seemed like a smart choice. Even still, finalizing these trip plans meant facing logistics we never expected:
- Taking a trip without our dog
- Not getting our RV back until the day our trip starts
- No ability to set up the RV for travel and pack our stuff into it, which means starting the trip with it still in storage mode and in who-knows-what condition from its weeks at the service appointments
All these drastic changes should be enough for us to throw in the towel and plan a trip at another time...but yet, here we are, still planning it. Maybe the road was calling us more strongly than we thought. Or maybe, deep down, we feel that it's time to get back out there. We figure, worst case scenario, something happens that keeps us from going, and we cancel the trip. We aren't tied to staying in the RV anymore. We have a home. We have that sense of security that we've never had before. After over a year of not choosing the road, we were choosing it again.
To be continued.