First Time Road Trippers!=)

Hey everyone=) I'm Kate, and I'm very new to this site. I am from the mountains of Maryland, and every weekend my friend Trexler and I head out to see if we can discover any back roads..or anything interesting in our area. We both enjoy riding around, it's something that we've done for two years now. My two best friends and I have been riding around since we met during my first year of college. (My favorite story is of the time we went for a nice relaxing drive on Thanksgiving Day..and ended up getting lost in West Virginia. I was late for my Grandmother's feast, but I had enough entertaining stories to last the entire dinner. Like, seriously-who knew toilet bowls could be lawn decorations?!)

I am going to be a junior next year, and the two boys will be seniors. We are transferring to a bigger university together-and want to have a bit of an adventure before we buckle down and concentrate on getting our degrees.

Last night, after riding around for an hour..we started talking about driving across country. Starting in Maryland, and ending in California. The three of us are dreamers..without any big plans for the summer. We think it would be a fantastic journey..but here's the thing...

Because we all are on time schedules most of the year, with school and work-we like to take it easy in the summer time. We don't want to map out the trip to every stop. We want to beable to take an exit when we see something interesting on a roadsign-but we also don't want to end up broke in Texas or some other state.

So, my basic question is-is it foolish to go on a cross country trip without any destination but the final one? And if I loosely plan stops and such, how much money is suggested? The three of us are hardworkers-and could manage about $800 bucks a piece..if we started saving now. I want this to be the trip of my life-because I don't know when another summer will come that I can do something like this with my two best friends.

We've thrown around a few things that we'd like to see--Trex wants to see the Grand Canyon, I want to drive through that tree, and Andrew--well Andrew doesn't really care where we go; as long as he's away from his mother!=)

I really appreciate any help that anyone can give me, as I'm totally clueless when it comes to things like this. We can devote as much time as possible to this trip--but I think two weeks would be a good amount of time for aimlessly driving..=)

We have a reliable car to take-plan on filling a cooler with food, but staying in a hotel every other night-and camping on other nights. We're from the boondocks-and they're both eagle scouts. I've been camping since I could walk-so we're pretty experienced in that.

Has anyone ever taken a trip like that? I need some sort of advice. Thank ya in advance!!=)

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Having a trip with no specific destination is a great idea! Some of my favorite trips have used that exact premise.

I do however see a few obsticles. It could be difficult to do California and back in a meandering fashion. Even at a quick pace, you'd need about 10 days round trip, which doesn't leave much time wondering.

Your budget might be a touch low too. You could pretty easily spend close to $1000 on gas alone, and if you get a motel for 7-8 nights, that will probably cost you another $400. Leaving you with only about 1/3 of your budget left for food, camping, and any other expenses. Its not a totally unfeasable budget, but you would be pushing it a bit. I'd recommend camping most nights, with only a couple of motel stays to keep you closer to your budget.

Honestly, if I were you, I'd start making your way west and see where you end up after 7 or 8 days. At that point, examine where you are and start thinking about turning back towards home. You might make it to California, you might not, but I can say you would have a great trip that you could remember for the rest of your life.