First Cross-Country Road Trip: New Jersey to California and Back

Dave, thank you! I take that as a great compliment, and I appreciate it! I had an amazing trip - journey of a lifetime - and I certainly don't intend to wait that long again before hitting the road for somewhere new. And hey, both of those shark dives were with trained professionals! This time, I was on my own all over this vast and varied land of ours, and it felt really good to be out there traveling everywhere - if I didn't need one of those pesky "job" things for money right now, I'd just randomly drive around the U.S. often for the rest of my life. So now as soon as I find work, I'll begin saving for the next trip. Don't worry, this isn't the last you'll hear of me. Thanks again!

Sykotyk, thank you! I did my best to take it easy, but I also tried to pack as much into every day as possible and seize as many of those precious minutes and hours as I could, putting them to good use. I definitely feel like it was one of my greatest accomplishments, and just an amazing overall experience. I needed it! And I feel different being home after it - I believe I've become a better person just through this journey.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Serra

As an additional note to my post above about my budget, I should mention that I budgeted an emergency fund of $1,000 for whatever might have come up in that time, and it turned out that I wound up needing that reserve in my last week because the pulley on my air compressor gave out right after my last big stop in Atlanta - the timing was perfect, actually, and I'm extremely grateful that I was nearby a Goodyear and they were able to put in a new one at the end of the work day so I could get back on the road by sunset.

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Thanks for sharing this tidbit and thanks for sharing your wonderful journey with all of us!

Mark

Serra, thanks for posting this!! I am a NOVICE roadtripper and will be heading trekking from LA to NYC in approximately 2 weeks. My best friend is joining me and splitting the costs and we are very excited. Would you be able to post or show your mileage log? I'd like to see how many miles you put on the car per day on your way out West. Thanks in advance!

Mark, thank you so much for your kind words and all your feedback on my trip! I enjoyed sharing the details of my time on the road here, and hearing from you guys along the way. And there's not enough I can say about being sure to have an emergency back-up reserve built into your budget for a trip like this!

Bluefeevah, your trip sounds exciting! It's awesome that you're taking it with your best friend. I'd love to take a cross-country trip now from coast to coast with good company, sharing the journey and experience this time around, since I've already done it solo hitting all the places I've always wanted to see. And of course, it always help to split costs! I hope you have a great trip! Just hearing about these kinds of trips now, just makes me so nostalgic and dream of hitting the road again, even though I only just got back two weeks ago!

I can't even tell you how happy I am that I logged so much of my trip, and it also means that I can give you a pretty specific breakdown of the miles I did each day to and from all these places, so here it is:

(Note that I separated the mileage for some stops, but not for most of them, so there were stops that may have taken me out of my way between many of these points and some include sightseeing around metro areas. It should also be noted that on days and in places where I didn't put on a lot of miles, I was often visiting family or friends who would be driving most of that time.)

Day 1:
295 - North NJ to Falls Church, VA

Day 2:
498 - Falls Church, VA to Knoxville, TN

Day 4:
312 - Knoxville, TN to Metropolis, IL
290 - Metropolis, IL to Columbia, MO

Day 5:
173 - Columbia, MO to Lawrence, KS
309 - Lawrence, KS to Dodge City, KS

Day 6:
388 - Dodge City, KS to Las Vegas, NM
68 - Las Vegas, NM to Santa Fe, NM

Day 7:
65 - Santa Fe, NM to Albuquerque, NM
132 - Albuquerque, NM to Gallup, NM

Day 8:
197 - Gallup, NM to Monument Valley, UT
161 - Monument Valley, UT to the Grand Canyon, AZ
24 - in Grand Canyon National Park
236 - the Grand Canyon to Kingman, AZ

Day 9:
102 - Kingman, AZ to Las Vegas, NV
108 - in the city of Las Vegas

Day 10:
131 - Las Vegas, NV to Death Valley, CA
217 - in Death Valley National Park
170 - Death Valley to Bakersfield, CA

Day 11:
302 - Bakersfield, CA to Napa, CA
45 - in Napa Valley

Day 12:
68 - Napa, CA to San Francisco, CA
33 - in the city of San Francisco
36 - San Francisco, CA to Palo Alto, CA

Day 13:
13 - in the city of Palo Alto

Day 14:
229 - Palo Alto, CA to King City, CA

Day 15:
293 - King City, CA to Los Angeles, CA

Days 18-21:
52 - in the city of Los Angeles
144 - Los Angeles, CA to San Diego, CA

Day 24:
343 - San Diego, CA to Phoenix, AZ

Days 29-32:
59 - in the city of Phoenix
101 - Phoenix, AZ to Tucson, AZ

Day 33:
10 - in the city of Tucson

Day 34:
524 - Tucson, AZ to Roswell, NM

Day 35:
200 - Roswell, NM to Tucumcari, NM

Day 36:
469 - Tucumcari, NM to Amarillo, TX

Day 38:
308 - Fort Worth, TX to San Antonio, TX

Day 41:
380 - San Antonio, TX to Corpus Christi, TX and back

Day 42:
387- San Antonio, TX to Lake Charles, LA

Day 43:
157 - Lake Charles, LA to St. Francisville, LA

Day 44:
579 - St. Francisville, LA to Valdosta, GA

Day 45:
215 - Valdosta, GA to Savannah, GA

Day 46:
471 - Savannah, GA to Knoxville, TN

Day 48:
526 - Knoxville, TN to Germantown, MD

Day 49:
53 - Germantown, MD to Frederick, MD and back

Day 50:
266 - Germantown, MD to North NJ

Total: 10,139 miles

Let me know if you have any specific questions, and I'll do my best to answer them. I love having so much information about the trip, because I look back at it and remember everything. And it just makes me realize exactly what I accomplished.

There were a lot of times that I packed a lot of driving into some days so that other days could be spent driving as little as possible and taking in the experience and sights - but driving was a huge part of the wonderful memories that was my road trip experience, so I always loved doing it. I'd say 500 miles a day was the most I was comfortable driving, but 5 to 6 hours (300-400) miles was my ideal - long enough that I didn't feel like the day's trip was too short for me to enjoy the open road, but short enough that I didn't feel worn down at the wheel at the end of the day. Stopping for a couple hours in certain places when going long distances (like New Orleans between St. Francisville and Valdosta) really helped too.

Thanks for sharing the experience!

Welcome to the RTA Forum Abhi!

We appreciate you looking at old threads, but I will note this thread is from 2008 and the original poster hasn't been active on the forum in more than a decade, so it's unlikely that they will see your response.