Road Tripping in the US - Updated

[cbayer]

Last edited Mon Apr 8, 2013, 04:24 PM - Edit history (1)

I am a huge fan of road trips. Last spring, my husband and I took a two month, 8.600 mile cross country trip and did almost all of it off the highways. We called it our "no chains" tour, as we never stayed in chain motels, ate in chain restaurants or shopped in chain venues.

I would love to share with other like minded people ideas on how to plan and execute these kinds of trips. I have some great websites I use, but I am always looking for more.



UPDATE: We will be leaving on a cross country and back trip in just a couple of weeks. I have been (over)planning it, of course. The thing about staying off highways and out of chains is that it really is better if you have designated and reserved some specific places to stop. Ferries fill up. Motels can be in short supply for a hundred miles. Not all small town cafes are great.

GPS has made this so much more fun, to say nothing of how much easier it is.

Anyway, will check in from time to time.

[TBF]

1. I'll be interested in seeing responses to this topic as well

I can see my husband and I doing this when we retire. Driving to Florida with the kids is tiring, but in an RV with my dog and hubby I think I could be very comfortable. It would be ideal to be able to get off the highway and see different areas. I haven't done as much traveling in the western half of the country so that's where I'd head first.

[Little Star]

2. I love this idea...

But my husband is not that adventurious. I would love to do an extended one with the big National Parks as my stops. A gal can dream can't she?

[cbayer]

4. For one trip, we bought an annual pass for the National Parks.

We set those as destinations. The nice thing is that you can drive through briefly and not feel that you have wasted the admission fees. Or you can spend all and come back the next if you want.

For example, Grand Canyon was over-run with tourists and we were glad to just make a drive through with a few stops. But some of the parks in Southern Utah were wonderful for the whole day.

[TBF]

6. I didn't know you could do that -

I have been to Niagara Falls but not the other major parks. I would love to see the Grand Canyon and also the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary - which is also in one of those Canyons in Utah. We're hoping to take the kids on a driving trip out West in a few years.

[cbayer]

7. The annual pass pays for itself in one visit to a major park.

I would highly recommend Mesa Verde if you are doing that region of the country. And southern Utah is, imho, one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring places in the world.

My family took road trips every summer. We camped in National Parks and and traveled mostly off the highway. It's then that I learned how great a road trip can be.

[Adsos Letter]

16. I remember when those passes first came out!

The "Golden Eagle" pass. I can remember my dad talking about how expensive they were ($20, iirc).

We took major vacation trips each year, so it got good use.

[Seedersandleechers]

3. My late partner and I used to do the same thing.

Especially the no highway route. There is so much beauty out there, and I miss him so much.

[cbayer]

5. I am so sorry that you lost your partner.

There is nothing better than a partner who loves to do the things you love to do.

My sincere condolences.

[LNM]

8. I love Road Tripping as well

Since my husband and I are semi-retired and our children are grown, we take a couple 3 week roadtrips per year. We'll take the freeways to get quickly further from home and then get off the freeways and meander to our destinations. I like your idea of "no chains" tour. We pretty much do the same thing, although we also camp a lot. We bring along Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-Inns and Dives" and Jane and Michael Sterns "Roadfood" books. Some of the places have been great, others seemed to go downhill. We'll also drive through a town and lunchtime and just look for the cafe with all the cars parked outside. We've had some wonderful, memorable meals that way.

I don't usually take internet access with me although I did on a trip this spring. I used "TripAdvisor" to find/price motels.

Another thing I do, as the navigator, is draw on our atlas the route we took with markers for where we ate lunch and where/when we slept.

Wave back at you, I haven't found the smilies lookup yet!

[cbayer]

9. The Stern's Roadfood site has a download that marks all of

their reviewed restaurants on google earth. Sometimes, I just plan the route around that app.

We also like to tell Bertha (our GPS) unit to take us to a specific location and use the "avoid freeways" option. She has taken us through some interesting routes, to say the least.

We also do the small town-cafe with all the locals option. And tripadvisor is a gem for finding places to stay, but I haven't found it that great for food choices.

Can't wait until our next trip!

BTW, to say , it is simply (colon)hi(colon)

[LNM]

10. I'll have to check out the Stern's site.

Thanks for the tip.

[Angry Dragon]

13. try this link for smilies

http://www.democraticunderground.com/emoticons/

[quakerboy]

11. I am thinking toward doing a trip like this.

The last one i did solo, via a 1 month unlimited greyhound pass. Stopped to see friends, family, visited a few new places.

Now I am married. I was working a lot, as was she, and time off, though offered in reasonable quantity, was never available in big enough chunks to make anything more than a long weekend work.

But If we cannot find work before the weather is nicer, a nice long road trip seems in order. An inheritance means we will likely have a little cash(not a lot, but enough to pay for gas at least) around that time, and I figure I might as well do it while I have the time. I would love to start building resources for that now. Places we can stay for free or really cheap is top priority. Interesting people to meet are second. Things to see/do are third.

A few years back, I recall looking up a website where people connected with others who had a couch to offer for a night or two. I seem to have lost the link. I will have to see if I can find that. I was also planning to reach out to facebook friends and people here to see if we could find friendly way points.

[cbayer]

12. I think you may be thinking of couchsurfing

http://www.couchsurfing.org/

I have a few friends (much younger) who do this and have never had a problem either hosting or being hosted.

You can also pull off into any National Forest and "camp" out of your car for few anytime.

Check out roadsideamerica.com for a great site of the weird. It's really fun to plan a trip around some of these places.

Go for it!! And stay off the highways. You can do it and you can do it cheap.

[Adsos Letter]

14. We love to Road Trip!

Our last big one was two years ago, when we turned helping our daughter move from Philly to San Diego into an opportunity to see some country we hadn't seen before. We took the route from Philly-to Savannah-to San Diego during the month of April.

Right now we are in the process of planning a longer (time-wise) trip of the same route, and hitting as many of the eateries highlighted by Guy Fieri on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" as possible.

We're planning three weeks to make the trip from Philly to Savannah, and three weeks to do Savannah to San Diego.

[cbayer]

15. Sounds fabulous. We took two month trip from LA to Maine and back last spring.

its' a great time to do it - children still in school and all.

You may want to check out roadfood.com as well. We really liked the google earth app they have used it a lot to find great little places to eat.

Enjoy!

[jambo101]

17. Getting the right attitude

I recommend a book called Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Highways

[cbayer]

18. That looks great!

Did you see the interactive map site:

http://littourati.squarespace.com/storage/moon-files/moon_map.htm

I think I will download the kindle version and we can read it to each other as we go through areas on our upcoming trip.

I made a similar trip as his after Katrina. Differences were that I never got all the way back to NOLA and I went through Canada.

There is nothing like a good road trip, particularly in the US.

Thanks for the recommendation!