Lin Guoqing was very cautious about his next trip. He no longer wanted to join a tour group. If Xiao Zhou showed up again, he felt that either he would end up in the hospital or in jail.
He decided it would be better to travel on his own.
It was just the two of them, so there couldn't be anyone else trying to steal her away, right? Even if there was, they could legitimately report her to the police for harassment.
But the key to independent travel is to prepare a travel guide in advance, otherwise it will probably only be a chance. If the travel experience is not good, Chen Chunhua will definitely prefer to continue traveling with a tour group next time.
Since the old lady wanted to eat meat, their next stop was to go to Inner Mongolia and buy some beef and mutton.
Lin Guoqing put on his reading glasses and started working on his strategy on the computer. This took him several days.
Every time Chen Chunhua passed by Lin Guoqing, he was taking notes seriously on the computer.
I have to say that Lin Chang's notes are very detailed. Not only does he have a daily itinerary, but he also has various prices that netizens have written down when they reviewed their experiences. There's even a simple map.
"What is this?" Chen Chunhua asked, pointing at the map. The words on it were too small for her to read without her reading glasses.
"Distance chart." Lin Guoqing pointed at the lines on the chart and explained to her, "The numbers on this big, thick line are the distance and driving time from Hohhot to Ordos.
The smaller characters represent the city's attractions. For example, in Hohhot, you can visit the Jokhang Temple and the museum, while in Ordos, you can find the Whistling Sand Bay and the Kubuqi Desert. After Ordos, the nearest city is Baotou, which is located in the north, and has the Xilamuren Grassland..."
This simple map almost covers the entire Inner Mongolia, which shows the effort Lin Guoqing put in.
"It's such a huge place, we have to drive everywhere. So we'll fly there, rent a car, and then drive the whole way."
Chen Chunhua understood, it’s just a self-driving tour!
"Why don't we just drive there?"
"Where are we going?" Lin Guoqing looked confused.
"Let's go to Inner Mongolia!" Chen Chunhua suddenly thought of something and was very happy. "Hey, actually, we can drive directly from here to Inner Mongolia! We can drive and play all the way there! This way, we can have fun in the whole country!"
Lin Guoqing opened his mouth for a long time, then looked at the notebook in his hand, and finally muttered, "How long will it take..."
"It doesn't matter how long it takes. We're all retired, and what we have the most now is time!" Chen Chunhua didn't care about this at all. She sat down next to Lin Guoqing and continued to encourage him.
"Really? We don't have much to do right now, the children can take care of themselves, and their children are grown up and don't need us to do anything.
Shuchao and Qin Hong can take care of Mom, and with my eldest sister here, we can definitely travel from city to city and drive around the country. Don’t always think about traveling around the world, let’s travel around China first!
If you drive yourself, you don’t have to worry about when to buy plane tickets and when to catch the train. If you think the city is beautiful today, you can stay a few more days. Tomorrow, if you think it’s going to rain and want to sleep in, you can just stay awake.
Retirement life is about taking it easy, not crowding in so tightly! You can put your stuff in the car, so you don’t have to carry it around…”
Chen Chunhua thought it was a good idea and felt that this was the way to go.
"Mom, don't you want to go out and eat all over the world? We can send her some delicious food wherever we go. She'll definitely be happier. Anyway, we both know how to drive, so if we get tired, we can just take over. Maybe we can even stop by to see the second brother and the others!"
Lin Guoqing thought about it, it was true! However,
"Should we get a new car? An RV? Like the ones we see on the beaches of Southeast Asia. It's spacious, can hold lots of things, and even has space for sleeping!"
"Yeah, yeah! That's good!"
The couple enthusiastically discussed their road trip plan. At the end, Lin Guoqing pointed to his guidebook and asked,
"Then is my Inner Mongolia strategy still useful?"
"Why is it useless? We can definitely get there!" Chen Chunhua affirmed his efforts in the past few days and said that he had to keep working hard.
"You just need to do more planning, especially about the route, how to drive to where..."
In the past, driving required a large map to study. A few years ago, navigation systems became available, mounted on the windshield. The one Lin Shuying bought for her parents had a smart navigation system, which was quite advanced. However, updating the maps was a hassle; if a road section was renovated, a new map had to be downloaded and re-mapped.
I heard that mobile phone navigation systems have been released this year. Lin Guoqing feels that these systems are tailor-made for their self-driving trips, though they are a bit confusing to operate.
He planned to take a three-pronged approach: bring a paper map, stick on the navigation device, and download the navigation on his mobile phone. Three cobblers are always better than one Zhuge Liang!
They first went to Shanghai and bought an RV. When the salesperson introduced the car, he praised it as being particularly high-end, saying it had an American design concept, imported acrylic windows, and a high-end chassis. The total cost was more than 500,000 yuan.
The kids were worried they'd been ripped off, as it wasn't some luxury car, and yet they were asking that price. But after the car came back and they looked it up and down, they all thought the price was reasonable.
"It even has a toilet? And you can even cook!"
"Do you want to take your blankets with you?" Lin Shumei measured the two separate beds in the RV with her hands and said, "This bed looks about the same size as the bunk beds at school. How about I go get you a mattress and blanket of a special size?"
"We need a kettle, too." Lin Shuying had already finished looking at all the cabinets and tools and began planning their daily necessities. "We have electricity here, so we definitely need a kettle. If we can shower, we'll also need two towels and a bath towel, and a toothbrush."
"With such a large space, I can put some fruits and instant noodles in it! And bread, if I get hungry on the way, I can fill my stomach." Lin Shuchao pointed at the microwave oven and refrigerator in the car and said with envy.
"If I want to eat food, I can heat it up right away... Well, I'll have to buy a rice cooker!"
Chen Chunhua: ...it looks really rich, but do they really need to shower and brush their teeth in the car? Don't they stay in a hotel?
They were going out for a trip, but it seemed like they were really going to live in this RV.
Lin Guoqing didn't look too happy either. He hadn't noticed when the salesperson was explaining the car that the sofa could be turned into a bed. Why did one car need two beds? Were they supposed to sleep in separate beds?!
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