I have just read all 21 pages of this thread and I am not any closer to a decision about whether or not to drive to OCS for class date 18JAN2015. I have a reliable, 10 year old, low mileage, well maintained 2wd truck. I like the idea that someone mentioned earlier in the thread of partying my way up the East Coast! Haha. I also have no aversion to long distance road trips (1k miles for me from here in ATL). I road my Harley 7k miles around the country this summer so 1k miles with a heater and a cup of coffee seems easy. I guess I'm asking that given the recent revelation of no pov trips, what's the general consensus from the BTDT guys here?
Situations like this where I can't make a quick and firm decision are foreign to me and piss me off!
Haha
I say bring it. Then after commissioning, you can just throw all your gear inside and get on I-95 back down to Atlanta before you continue on to P'cola. If you try to get back home in one straight shot, you'll probably need to spend the night in Rocky Mount or something, so plan ahead for that.
At OCS, disconnect the battery after you park it so it doesn't die on you, which is what happened to two of my classmates (but not to me, although my truck was only about two years old at that point). If you wanna be a good shipmate, bring some jumper cables so that if your classmates' vehicles (or even yours) die, you can give the battery a jump. If it has several seats (mine's regular cab, so it's only two and a half seats including the driver), it's nice to have an alternative to shelling out some money on a cab, assuming you can get a DD.
Oh, and if you'll be doing any driving in wintertime, you might wanna put bags of sand/gravel/kitty litter in the bed to put some weight on the back tires (I'm assuming it's rear wheel drive) and a shovel if you need to dig yourself out. Make sure your tires are all-season and do other wintery things that you wouldn't think to do in Georgia but are necessary for snowy New England weather. Last Christmas in upstate New York was relatively green, but you never know.