July 2012 Cross Country Loop - MA > Oregon > Down CA > Pheonix > Austin > Back Home

Hi!
I'm new here but i figured there was nobody better to ask than you guys about my proposed road trip for this summer.
My friend and I will be 17 and we're planning a trip around the country for the month of July.
We're not really sure where we want to spend time and for how long...our main stop is Austin, TX, but we have family and friends in the Midwest, Oregon, and down California.
We're thinking our days will be like this.
1. MA --> Buffalo, NY
2. Buffalo, NY --> Chicago
3. Chicago --> Omaha
4. Omaha --> Denver
5. Denver --> Salt Lake City
6. Salt Lake City --> Boise
7. Boise --> Portland
8. Portland --> Sacramento
9. Sacramento --> LA
10. LA --> Phoenix, AZ
11. Phoenix, AZ --> Las Cruces, NM
12. Las Cruces, NM --> Austin, TX
13. Austin --> Houston
14. Houston --> Up the east coast & home


We are trying to plan and make this feasible. Basically I broke up our journey into the distances between major cities. Does anyone have any suggestions for where we should stop along the way? How often we should stop to rest? Thanks!!!!!

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

The outline for a trip you've laid out is generally fine, if it goes where you want to go. I'd worry first about what you want to see, rather than list places and try to just fit in what's in the middle. However, there are some much bigger issues that I suspect you're not going to like to hear.

Put simply, I would not recommend a trip of this size and scope for a pair of 17 year olds.

There's a long list of potential problem, many of which coming from the fact that you're simply not adults, and as such, you really can't be out on your own for this kind of time. The biggest and most practical way this will come up is with where you will sleep. Every hotel is going to require you to be 18 years old to check in (and even if one of you was 18, you still would typically not be allowed to stay with an unrelated minor.). Camping may be ok, in some places, but even there, there will be many campgrounds where you will have to be at least 18. Staying with family may work some nights, but even there, are you really close enough with all of these people to invite yourself and your friend to their house for a night?

There are other more complex issues, like you'd be unable to authorize your own medical care if you got into an accident or simply were injured while hiking/walking around. You also would potentially have to deal with things like curfew laws, which will vary from city to city. And that's just a few of the reasons you'd want to wait until you are 18.

There are other practical issues too. For example, the trip you've laid out would take at least a month, unless all you do is drive all day every day, and even on a bare bones budget you're looking at a trip that's going to cost a few thousand dollars.

I know its a dream to get out on the road and take a big trip with your friends, and the movies make it seem like a rite of passage. The reality is however, that most people have a huge dream like this, and it never gets off the ground. And even for the trips that do happen, a lot of people try to do too much too soon, and discover they really don't like it! A cross country trip for your first time out on the road is kind of like jumping off the high dive, without seeing if you can swim in the shallow end.

I'd actually recommend that you think about starting much smaller. Plan to do a trip for a long weekend, or even the better part of a week, were you go several hundred miles from home, instead of several thousand. It doesn't sound as amazing, but the reality is that such a plan is more likely to happen and more likely to be a success. Once you've gotten a taste, and gotten a feel for what you do and don't like about being on the road, then you'll be much more likely and be in a much better to do a huge trip like this a year or two down the road.

As well as motels, hotels and campgrounds, the majority of hostels have a minimum age of 18. In fact you will find that every responsible organisation has an 18 years age limit.

As Michael suggests, keep the dream alive. Do smaller trips now, and work steadily over however many years it takes, towards that dream trip around the lower 48. Then, when you eventually set out for the west coast, you will be well prepared and will have established your own style of roadtrip.

Good luck, and keep dreaming.

Lifey