First time making a trip from Minneapolis MN to San Francisco CA

[rezax]

Hello everyone! So glad I found this forum. So much information and advice here. I will be making my first road trip from Minneapolis to San Francisco. The longest I have every did was a 10hr and never had to spend the night. Trying to knock this trip out in 3 days with about 10hrs a day of driving. Also trying to cut down on my expenses and will be sleeping in my wagon. The dates are not confirmed yet but can as early as next week. Any recomendtions and advice for a new traveler? How about must see places on the way? I will be taking the 35 to the 80.

[glc]

Welcome!

I'm afraid you are underestimating your drive times - this trip is over 2000 miles and you really need 4 days - longer if you encounter weather delays. It's going to be VERY COLD sleeping in your car too.

Must see places? All you are going to be seeing is the highway through your windshield unless you add some days to the trip.

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

I think you are in store for a pretty miserable time.

3 days will make this a miserable, and someone dangerous, slog. You'll have to be on the road far more than 10 hours a day. It will actually work out to closer about 13 hours a day, which frankly is too much to be safe when you are talking about a multiday trip. That's significantly more than professional drivers are allowed to do.

Throw in the fact that you are planning to sleep in your car, and you're not even going to be getting high quality sleep. Its going to be very cold overnight, so you'll need a heavy duty winter sleeping bag (Zero Degree rated) even to be warm enough, and when you factor in that your going to spend all day in a car and then all night in the car, you're just not going to be set up to have a trip that's at all fun, or even particularly tolerable.

The advice: Add at least a day, if not two, so that you can actually make the trip safely and comfortably, and possibly even have time to see a few things along the way. Two, make getting rest a priority, and that means shelling out $50 to get a warm bed at least every other night, if not every night.