I just got back from a 2 week road trip to Boulder CO and Simi Valley CA and thought I'd share my experience carrying on a 2300 mile road trip.
First off, I had no issues whatsoever on my trip. I carried every day and everywhere with the exception of Nevada and California. I carry a M&P45c in a M-Tac Minotaur and one extra magazine.
We left at 12:30a on the first day so that the kids would sleep through most of the 12 hour trip to Boulder. This meant that we would be driving in the middle of no where in the middle of the night which was great because there was little to see and even less traffic. The trek to Amarillo is pretty straight forward and from there we took 287 north to Colorado and I70. Much to our surprise and concern it turns out that there is absolutely nothing between Amarillo and I70 for some 320 miles on 287. I think we passed 3 "don't blink you'll miss it" towns and not one of them had a modern gas station that I was comfortable stopping at. My wife and I are seasoned road trip veterans from our days touring with a show and we have a rule that we only stop at well lit and populated truck stops. We gassed up once we hit I70 and the drive was uneventful.
Boulder was delightful and we arrived about 1pm. The first thing I did was to get that holster off as it had become extremely uncomfortable after 12 hours in the car. I think if I do another big road trip I'm going to look into a shoulder rig or something I can pocket carry. Sitting in the passenger seat wasn't really an issue but driving really caused some serious discomfort. I carry at 4 o'clock.
While in Boulder we were hanging out with family and had to do a few touristy things like visit Pearl street and of course take a hike in the mountains. I carried on both of those occasions. I didn't see any signs on Pearl street or in any stores so there weren't any issues there. The hike we took was in a national forest but despite the no guns sign at the trail head there was nothing of note there. My wife asked about the sign and I told her that it only applied to carrying without a permit so I was good to go. We did find a valid sign at Gross reservoir where there was a boat launch. Somehow it was posted as private property even though it was a civic water reservoir. We were just driving around and seeing the mountains so we just turned around and left. The weather and the mountains were gorgeous of course.
I decided not to carry on the drive from Boulder to California so I wouldn't have to mess with anything once we hit Nevada since they don't honor Texas CHL. You can open carry, in theory, but I don't have an appropriate holster and we were going to be passing through Vegas...
...we all know how things go while armed in Vegas. I packed my pistol in a combination lock box that I got from Academy for parking lot duty. Being that we were going to California the pistol needed to be unloaded and the ammunition needs to have a lock between it and the gun. I went ahead and unloaded my magazines and placed all the ammo in a ziplock in my suitcase. The pistol went in the lock box and in my suitcase as well.
California was nice but I really didn't like being unarmed when my inlaws insisted we take the kids to the Natural History museum to see the dinosaurs. The museum is right next to the LA colosseum which is not the best area. We were under the watchful eye of the LAPD "ghetto bird" which is usually on 24/7 patrol in that area. I generally detest LA and downtown is no place for me at any hour.
Drive back we did in 2 stages. LA to Alburquerque and Alburquerque to Grapevine. I prepped my .45 for easy access and loading for when we returned to the United States at the Arizona border. Kept the pistol in the lock box in a cargo drawer under the passenger seat (unloaded of course) and put the loaded mags in the glove compartment with my holster. Once we crossed the border I went ahead and suited up but waited till we were past the truck inspection station to actually load and holster. We took one side trip and stopped at the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest national park. If you have never been there it is gorgeous and the summer storms roiling around us were incredible to see. I had my first complete uncontrolled exposure while there....
My youngest, who is 3, kept running on the trail and finally tripped and cut his knee. Well the storms around us were pushing a lot of wind and when I bent down to help my boy I turned my back to the wind. The wind pretty much inflated my shirt like a bounce house and blew my shirt up around my shoulders...
So now I'm standing in a national park with lots of other people around and I'm frantically trying to grab the bottom of my shirt which is up around my armpits and giving everyone a good long look at the .45 in my waistband while my 3 year old is still on the path crying about his knee...
Well it turned out that there wasn't anyone right by us and anyone that could have seen anything was busy staring at the pretty rocks. So I finally get a hold of my shirt and pull it down and do a quick scan to see if anyone is staring wide eyed at me....nope...phew...
As we were leaving the "Crystal Forest" trail there was a family that was picking up the rocks, throwing them, trying to pry things off the petrified trees and generally running off the trail and being extremely wrong. I thought about saying something but I was still a little unnerved by my inadvertent exposure. As I got closer it became clear that they were not from the US and perhaps didn't quite get that what they were doing was wrong and illegal. Anyway I did my civic duty and used the emergency phone to contact the ranger and gave them descriptions of what they looked like and what they were doing. The ranger stated that they had received several calls and asked if there was a silver dodge caravan in the lot. "Why yes there is sir", I replied. They thanked me and that was that...we went on our merry way.
A few miles up the road we had stopped to get some pics of the storms rolling by and the ranger is coming the other way. As he sees me he turns on his lights and pulls up next to me. I'm out of the car on the side of the road and am beginning to panic that maybe someone had called me in. He doesn't actually stop but slows way down, rolls down his window and tells me to not stop on the side of the road in the park and then takes off in the direction of the people I called in. "Yes sir!!!"...Phew again...
We finished our tour of the park and stopped at the gift shop at the end to hit the bathrooms. As I was leaving the bathroom I just about panicked again as I realized that I had completely spaced and entered a building in the park. I had also done so at the front of the park when we picked up some souvenirs. Now I'm not sure if I was in a pickle or not. The gift shops are run just outside the park gate where you pay and they are run by Xanterra resorts which runs most of the national park retail services around the country. The visitor center right next door I'm sure would be a no go but I don't know about the gift shops. Anyway...concealed means concealed and it ended up being a non event.
We finished our drive to Alburquerque, crashed at a motel and then finished our drive to Grapevine without incident. At one truck stop in Texas I couldn't wait for a stall to open up and decided to try my technique at keeping my pistol covered while using a urinal. I have practiced this many times at home and can keep my shirt over my waist band pretty well. The only issue is if you don't keep your pants pulled tight against your waist the weight of the gun drops them down to your knees. Anyway...I was desperate and it was Texas so I went for it. Used to furthest one with my right side against the wall and managed to keep it concealed.
Everything went well except for my trip to the Painted desert and even that ended being a non event. The one take away from this has been that driving with an IWB .45 at 4 o'clock for long periods is bloody uncomfortable!!!! On the plus side though, my holster is now perfectly formed to my body and when I'm not driving even more comfortable than before. So there you have it...long road trip while carrying into friendly and very unfriendly states.
