Travelling Cross Country Summer 2003

Hey guys, I'm going to be graduating college in the Spring down in VA and me and a ocuple college guys are travelling cross country. We want to hit up all 50 states and canada. We have all the necessities to do this, howver, we are lacking ideas for places to go. Is there a website or do people post journals or something about trips they take so all that work is taken care of for us? I've gotten books from AAA about all the states but I'm looking for more. HELP!!!! Email me at msaint99@hotmail.com thanks

Marc

Hey Marc-


Whatever you do...


DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DRIVE TO HAWAII


Limit yourself to the 49 continental United States.



ab

You're looking for the parties aren't you? Yeah I tried reasearching places to go & kept getting like Elvis's ball of Twine or some other such boring stuff. I want to know where the ACTION will be people!! could you let me know if you find anything cool?

Try entering your question at www.fodors.com forums. Also the library Fodors books are very useful.

How much time will you have? That will make a huge difference in planning your route.

Go to mapquest.com once you have some ideas and use their free trip planner to calculate mileages and driving time.

Depending what your interests are and on time available, try to hit EVERY National Park in America! That's a goal of mine. Still working on it. Amazing places, every one is different. Buy a $50 national park pass at the first one that gives entry to all and expires in one year.

Some friends and myself are also hitting the road this summer for a 4 months road trip. We are going to as many national parks as we can, there is some awesome hiking, biking, rafting you can do within them, but look them up on the internet. if you into hiking and backpacking go to backpacker.com, they have tons of good info on great places to see. you have to go to the Rock n Roll hall of fame in chicago, and austin texas is a sweet town, with tons of parties and live music, and don't pass up Lake Louis and Banff in Alberta canada. And you better go going to the everglades and the keys, camp with the crocs man, it'll be sweet. good luck.

In my many years with AAA, I planned two of these so-called "Grand Tours" that involved visiting the Lower 48 states. The overall routes took on roughly a "figure-8" shape, and and involved 7-8 months of travel. Here's what I can tell you:

1) Sit down with those Tour Books and make an all-inclusive list of locations that you plan to visit. You might want to classifiy them into priorities (must-see, probable, possible, etc). Obtain individual state maps from AAA and plot these locations on each of the maps.

2) Seriously reconsider whether you want to include such distant locations as Alaska. A road trip that includes Alaska is a unique venture that requires a bit of extra preparation. AAA's Alaska highway map has a very good section of how to prepare your vehicle and what to expect.

3) Transfer the locations you decide to visit onto a USA road map (you can use colored pins, a circle stamp, etc). Decide which direction you want to head to first.

4) Consider the seasons and the type of weather you might encounter in various regions of the country. Heavy snow is frequent in the Rockies late into spring. In the Southwest, summer can be very hot.

5) Plot a rough draft of your proposed route ("connect the dots"). You might want to get some extra copies of the USA map for this exercise.

6) Create a day-to-day calendar (perhaps using a spreadsheet format) to give you a proposed schedule of your trip. This is where you calculate highway distances between each location, travel times, number of days spent at various destinations, etc. Throw in a couple of "do-nothing" days here and there as well, for rest, laundry, hangovers, vehicle maintenance, spontaneous parties and all that. Of course, the schedule should be seen as a guideline only, as you will likely modify it as the trip unfolds. On a trip this long, following a set schedule is impossible, but a guideline will give you an idea on the time factors involved with each segment of the journey.

7) By all means, try to camp as often as possible. During the summer, a good rule of thumb is to visit the national parks on weekdays (when they are less crowded) and go to the cities on weekends (nightlife!).

There are many, many web sites that offer travelogues on road trips. You may want to look at a few to get a feel for what other travelers have experienced on the road.

Best of luck!

I'm planning a trip for 2003. I'm thinking southern route west and northern route back. (Leaving from NC.)

National parks and camping majority of the time.

I'll keep you posted on what I've found if you'll do the same for me.