What's Your Advice?

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Originally Posted by Occupied By Tim

Awesome, Judy! Thanks for the help. Yeah, I absolutely agree with you now that I really think about it. Since we're just Juniors in Highschool we'll probably take a smaller in-state roadtrip this summer and work our ways up. But it's just time to convince the other two guys to really plan ahead of time.

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Not only will you learn some valuable skills to help you have a better bigger roadtrip when the time comes, but you will also find out if you really want to travel together in the first place. And how to negotiate with each other.

When I was 20, I went to Hawaii with some friends. Great friends. Crappy traveling companions. It never dawned on me that their idea of enjoying Hawaii was laying on the beach day-after-day doing nothing. While I loved that, too, I also wanted to explore/see/do. I ended up doing a lot of things by myself. But problems arose when they were actually mad at me for running off and leaving them behind. What the heck? They didn't want to go but they were mad at me for going? I still had fun but it would have been more fun if I would have been traveling with like-minded people...or at least people who agreed that it wasn't necessary for us to be joined at the hip during our trip.

Anyway, those are the types of things that you will learn and, hopefully, work out with each other on short trips before taking the epic big journey.

I'm probably one of the bigger proponents of camping here. I love camping while on the road. I much prefer it to sleeping in my car or hotels.

Car Sleeping: I've done it on occasion but, like Larrison, I never sleep as well as I do in my tent. And after being in the car a good part of the day, it's really nice to get out of it. If money is really tight, you can sleep for free in your car at truck stops. Gen who posts here does this a lot more than most of us and seems to enjoy it. I just really hate it and it's always a last resort for me. The main issue I see for you is where will you sleep in the car? If there's 3 of you, there aren't even seats to stretch out on unless you have a big 3-bench SUV. Just something to consider.

At a National Park, you will pay the same fee for sleeping in your camp at a campground as you would for sleeping in your tent.

Camping: It feels great to get out of the car and stretch. I sleep like a baby in my tent. I enjoy taking a walk around the campground before going to bed. It's fun to read the license plates of other campers to see where they're from. And campers are usually friendly so I usually end up having nice conversations with other folks. Sometimes they're coming from the place where I'm headed so I pick up some nice hints. I've paid anywhere from about $10-30 for camping....most often in the $18-22 price range. And this usually includes some nice amenities like hot tubs. It takes me about 7-9 minutes to set-up camp and about the same to take down in the morning. So not a big chunk of time.

IMHO, when it comes to road-tripping, the only thing more important than the tent is the car.

I'm in agreement with Judy and Larrison about getting a tent. You'll end up much much more comforatable.

I too have slept in my car on occation, but its always an option of last resort for me. Even then, I only consider it when I'm traveling solo. I simply can't imagine trying to get a decent night sleep with more than one person in any standard size car. Even the benches of a large SUV would be pretty uncomfortable to me after a night or two.

Camping equipment doesn't have to be expensive. You can find a tent sutable for 4 people for a little as $50, and I've bought cheap but warm sleeping bags for under $10 that work fine for car camping. To me, that's a small price to pay to be a lot more comfortable.