48statebus part 2 (we leave in 38 days!)

For the past 6 months I've had this nagging feeling that I just wanted (and needed) a vacation after having gone through high school, and now 4 years of college(one year left, that's what happens when you change majors a bunch).....so next summer (2008) I planned on taking about a month off, packing my car and driving to all the places in America that I'd never been to, some that I had been to and all that I wanted to go to. I figured that if I didn't take this epic road trip now I would probably be a long time before I was afforded the time to take a month off.

After discussing this trip with a few friends they all decided that it was just about the greatest idea that they have ever heard of....and so it began. What started out as a 30 solo road trip morphed into an even greater once in a lifetime event. We discussed the idea of renting a van, or possibly buying something relatively cheap and using that...but that wasn't good enough. Then the light bulb went off over my head....what about a bus?! We'll have more room...a place to sleep and did I mention that we'll have more room? : )

The search began, I immediatly hit ebay.com...low and behold I came across a former school bus that had been converted into a camper. Fast forward two weeks and me and a buddy are on a plane flying to Kansas, City MO...we then drove to Tulsa, OK and bought the 48statebus. We drove it, the better part of 2 days back to Pensacola, FL and here it rests waiting for our adventure at the beginning of next May.

By the way, we're not hippies I swear I know that if you think of a a converted bus you get this visual image of a rainbow colored rolling mural full of pot smoking hairy people but that's not us AT ALL...we're just a bunch of college kids that want to enjoy life while we can...after all eventually we'll all be dead!

If you go to the bus' website, you'll be able to check out a bunch of pictures of the bus and a few of the lucky people able to go on this trip.
Since we bought the bus we've knocked down 1of the walls to the "bathroom" and threw the porter-potty out. We installed a second futon and switched to a smaller (less stinky) fridge that was more suitable to what we needed. We've now got the 8 people that we were hoping for but the biggest news is the map that we've layed out for the trip. If that map link doesn't work the myspace page has a hyperlink in bright red letters that say "the map"...it'll definitely work that way. That link will show you everywhere we're planning on driving and stopping, but here's the 48 day break down.

Day 1: Lunch in New Orleans. Drive to Memphis, Tn. It's gonna be a long day

Day 2: Another long day of driving stopping in Tulsa, OK

Day 3: Drive almost to Albaquerque, NM on route 66 some parts of the day

Day 4: Drive to "the 4 corners" that night arrive at Glen Canyon National Recreational Area)this is where it gets good...

Day 5, 6, 7: Rent a houseboat on Lake Powell...the thing is BAD!

Day 8: Drive to the Grand Canyon, and then on to Lake Mead which is right next to Vegas

Day 9 and 10: Vegas

Day 11: sleep in b/c we'll be out late in Vegas and then drive to San Diego

Day 12: San Diego Zoo

Day 13: Drive to LA

Day 14: LA

Day 15: Drive to Yosemite National Park

Day 16: Yosemite

Day 17 and 18: San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Tour, Ride the Cable Car

Day 19: Drive to Winnemucca, NV my friend wants to go Opel farming...whatever

Day 20: opel farm

Day 21: Drive to Crater Lake

Day 22: Crater Lake

Day 23: Drive to Mt. Rainier

Day 24: Mt. Rainier/Seattle, Space Needle, Ferry Boat, the Underground Tour

Day 25: Long day of Driving to Yellowstone

Day 26 and 27: Yellowstone

Day 28: Long Days drive to Mt. Rushmore

Day 29: Mt. Rushmore

Day 30: Longest Drive of the trip...hopefully reach Chicago or just outside of Chicago

Day 31: Chicago Sears Tower, Wrigley Field

Day 32: Detroit, GM center

Day 33: Cleveland, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Day 34: Drive to Buffalo, NY

Day 35: Niagara Falls, Maid of the Mist, Canada

Day 36: Drive to Adirondack State Park

Day 37: Drive to Maine, eat lobster....yum

Day 38: Drive to New York City

Day 39-41: NY, all the touristy stuff: Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Central Park, Metropolitian Muesum of Art, Empire State Building and maybe even a tour.

Day 42 and 43: Drive to spend a day in Hershey Park riding roller coasters

Day 44: Philly

Day 45: Drive to Washington D.C.

Day 46: Washington D.C.

Day 47: Drive to my grandparents house in Latta, SC for some home cooked meals and a free place to sleep

Day 48: Drive back to Pensacola

We'll be doing more in a month and a half than most people do in their lives! I'm especially excited about the houseboat and the helicopter tour...that should really be amazing.

So what do you guys think, anything we've left out or that you would change? Is Cleveland not worth an entire day, only 2 of us really want to go to the rock and roll hall of fame, is it worth it?

Let me know what ya think....

I don't really know why this was moved from the summer roadtrip section...we are going in the summer and are in the planning stages...so it seemed to fit. Oh well, didn't mean to mess up the order of things, sorry 'bout that...

Welcome to the RTA forum!

Its sounds like you've got quite the amazing trip planned out.

The only thing I might be concerned about is the budget for such an elaborate trip, and how much it would cost to repair a bus if you have trouble on the road.

I might also look at finding ways that you guys can spit up for some significant time during your trip. It will be virtually impossible to keep 8 people on the same page for more than a month, and giving everyone a little bit of space from time to time will go a long way to a bus-wide blow up.

We figure that the trip will probably cost $3000 per person. The break-down is as follows

11,000 miles---we rounded WAY up to 16,000

8mpg diesel--we rounded down this time...it actually gets 9-9.5 mpg which doesn't seem like a huge difference but it will definitely add up

cost of diesel (most places) seems to be about $2.75 per gallon right now, cheaper in the midwest, more expensive on the coasts....we figured it at $3.00 per gallon

So we've severly inflated the cost of buying diesel
[(16,000miles/8mpg)x$3gallon ]/ 8 people on the bus comes to $750 worth of diesel

ROOM & BOARD: [campsites] ($40 x 41 days)/8people = $205 / person
[hotels] ($180(2 rooms) x 6 nights)/8 people = $135 / person
=$340 per person to sleep

again we think that we've over estimated the cost of rv camping in a national park...it should be considerably less than $40, and I doubt that we'll be staying in $90 a night hotels...we'll probably look for cheaper hotels like a motel 6 or something...just so that we have a hot shower

We figured you can probably eat for $15 per person per day...we plan on packing a LOT of food before we go. So we'll be eating cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and then a hot dinner at a restaurant.

That bring the total up to $1810+ spending money

We've looked at each place we're going, found admission costs and that only added up to $405, 10 bucks here, 20 there really adds up.

Now add in the cost of the houseboat rental for 3 days, 210 per person and you get $2475.

Seeing that we each will have budgeted $3000 per person that will leave us with a little over $500 of wiggle room for souveniers and such...again everything has been overestimated in hopes that we don't run into financial trouble. We'd rather overestimate and come home with some money in our pockets than to underestimate and wind up broke that far away from home. If we do happen to break down we'd end up tapping into that $500 per person reserve which will be $4000 between all of us...

Sorry about the long reply I'm just really excited about this trip, I could talk about it for hours! :)



edit: Also, on the splitting up issue...we won't really have a way to do that, but at the national parks everyone will be free to go do there own thing. Hiking, swimming etc. and at the San Diego Zoo we probably won't all stay together.

I wish there was some way to tow a trailer full of mopeds or something but this trip is expensive enough!!

I'd say your budget is pretty good.

Fuel might end up being a little close, because I'm seeing Diesel Prices above the $3 in plenty of areas.

Your food budget might be of more concern. Its pretty easy to spend $10-15 on a restaurant meal, so just $15 a day will likely be on the low side.

But you seem to be in good shape everywhere else, your lodging expenses should be quite a bit lower that you are planning, and you've got a decent amount of pad.

I think the fuel prices should be alright after all, we're probably gonna end up driving 3 to 4 thousand miles less than what our "estimate" is so it should all work out.

And whoever edited my links and made them hyperlinks is totally awesome, I don't know how to do that so it's very much appreciated I'm sure it makes it easier to read that way

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Originally Posted by 48statebus

again we think that we've over estimated the cost of rv camping in a national park.

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I doubt that you will be able find a national park campground that can accomodate a former bus-nee-RV. Here is some information about other types of campgrounds and here is some information about boondocking.

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So we'll be eating cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and then a hot dinner at a restaurant.

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The size of your ride is going to make that plan difficult -- you will need to be able to prepare most of your meals, including dinner.

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Seeing that we each will have budgeted $3000 per person that will leave us with a little over $500 of wiggle room for souveniers and such...again everything has been overestimated in hopes that we don't run into financial trouble.

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The $3000 per person is about right -- but I don't think you really have sufficient funds in the bus repair fund unless one of the eight adventurers is also a heavy engine mechanic.

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Also, on the splitting up issue...we won't really have a way to do that

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Well, you still might have everyone take this quiz and ensure that all eight of you are envisioning the same kind of roadtrip!

Mark

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Originally Posted by Editor

I doubt that you will be able find a national park campground that can accomodate a former bus-nee-RV. Mark

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I'm not sure I understand why they wouldn't be able to accomodate us? We just need an electrical outlet to plug into. Our bus is no larger than most RVs' and is certified on the title as an RV....?

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Originally Posted by 48statebus

I'm not sure I understand why they wouldn't be able to accomodate us?

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I would bet that the length of your rig is at least 48 feet and most national park campgrounds limit the RV to 35 feet, some are 32 feet.

But you need to do your own research -- check each park's campground information -- it is listed on the NPS site.

Mark

Oh ok, thanks for the heads up...I guess I'll bust out the tape measure tonight whenever I get home to see just how long she really is. She's listed as a 35 ft. bus but I'm not sure if that includes the hood or not...I guess we'll see!

I've got a quick question that maybe some of you guys with a lot of roadtripping experience can answer. Since we'll be leaving early May and will be on the road til mid June... how hard do you think it will be to find campsites? I know at the major attractions we'll need to plan ahead (NY, Washington DC, San Diego, Seatte) but what about the smaller places...the national parks, and rv sites off the interstate...? I figured since we're leaving early in the summer that might help, I just don't want to run into a bunch of No Vacancy signs and spend the whole day looking for a campsite...