Philadelphia to Washington-- May 2012

Hey y'all. So, as you can tell by the title, my friends and I have decided to finally take a cross country trip this summer. We are juniors in college, and if we had any time to go straight across the country, it would be this summer. All of us enjoy the outdoors and basically exploring anywhere we can. We have been planning on going on a cross country trip for going on four years now, so we have some basic knowledge on what it takes. Our destination is Seattle, Washington. I originally wanted to drive down south through Tennessee, into Texas, up to Colorado, and into California, however that would take a few days longer. My current idea is driving to Chicago, spending the night, and leaving the next morning starting down "route 66". Ideally, my friends and would like to stop in Las Vegas for a night on the way to California. We also plan to spend a night or two in LA, and another night or two in northern California, as we have places to stay there. Returning from Seattle, we would like to stop in Yellowstone and really get to see some cool scenery up in the northwest.

Our dilemma is this, we only have 15 days to do it all. I know you can see a lot in fifteen days, however, we really do not want to be rushed. I come here to ask what is the best way going about such a trip? We want to see some sights down route 66, however, we don't plan on stopping for everything that has that nostalgic or "wow" factor. I'm really at a loss on where I should take it from here. If anyone can give me some general insight that would be great! Thanks a lot!

-Matt

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Let's be brutally honest. You probably could make the drive you describe in fifteen days. You could even spend a day in Las Vegas and Los Angeles while you were at it. But that would be it. so what's the point? Since you are not 21 you couldn't even walk onto the gambling floor of any casino. And other than those two days of 'rest' the remainder of your trip would be almost constant driving, trying to cover the nearly 7,000 miles required in only 13 days. Frankly, you might as well shut yourselves up in the car in a garage and save the gas for all you'd really get to experience on such a trip. What I can pretty much guarantee is that by the time you got back to Philly you would not want to see or talk to each other for a fairly considerable amount of time, you will be that fed up with the enforced proximity for such an extended and unrelieved period of time. If you really want this to be an enjoyable experience, you need to add considerably to the time you're allowing for it, cut back severely on your ambitious plan, or both.

AZBuck