The Ultimate Road Trip/Vacation
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...
National Parks could be a problem
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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.
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.
Quote:
So we'll be eating cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and then a hot dinner at a restaurant.
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.
Quote:
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.
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.
Quote:
Also, on the splitting up issue...we won't really have a way to do that
Well, you still might have everyone take this quiz and ensure that all eight of you are envisioning the same kind of roadtrip!
Mark
48statebus part 2 (we leave in 38 days!)
A LOT has changed, for starters diesel went from $2.75 to $4.00/gallon...plus we had 4 people bail on our little trip. So we've had to drastically change the make up of the 48state/48 days road trip. Below is a list of all the days and dates for the trip and some of our reserved activities are in there too!
Day 0 May 8th Thursday: Leave Pensacola, Fl at about 7pm…drive through the night
Day 1 May 9th Friday: drive all day, Memphis by lunch get to St. Louis by night time
Day 2 May 10th Saturday: St. Louis all day, drive to Tulsa, OK by night time
Day 3 May 11th Sunday: All day along Rt. 66, spend the night near Mesa Verde state park
Day 4 May 12th Monday: spend some time at Mesa Verde State
Park and get to 4 corners monument by 4pm local time….get to the Grand Canyon at night*****campsite already reserved******
Day 5 May 13th Tuesday: wake up at 3am to hike the Grand Canyon, get back to the rim by nightfall…drive to Hoover Dam sleep near there
Day 6 May 14th Wednesday: Hoover Dam tour in the morning…Vegas the rest of the day and Cirque de Soleil "Zumanity" at 10:30 at night
Day 7 May 15th Thursday: Las Vegas all day
Day 8 May 16th Friday: Leave Vegas til noon…drive to San Diego****Apartment reserved, staying with a friend****
Day 9 May 17tth Saturday: San Diego****Apartment reserved, staying with a friend****
Day 10 May 18th Sunday: San Diego all day…then drive to Los Angeles******Staying the night at a different Friend's house*****
Day 11 May 19th Monday: Los Angeles******staying with friend #2 again*******
Day 12 May 20th Tuesday: Los Angeles*****staying with friend #2 again*******
Day 13 May 21st Wednesday: Six Flags Magic Mountain all day…drive to Yosemite that night****Campsite already reserved****
Day 14 May 22nd Thursday: Yosemite****Campsite already reserved****
Day 15 May 23rd Friday: Yosemite****Campsite already reserved*****
Day 16 May 24th Saturday: Skydive Monterey Bay…continue to drive to SF, sleep near SF
Day 17 May 25th Sunday: San Francisco all day, Night Tour of Alcatraz reserved
Day 18 May 26th Monday: Driving hwy 101 to Crater Lake
Day 19 May 27th Tuesday: Crater Lake
Day 20 May 28th Wednesday: Driving to Mt. Rainier
Day 21 May 29th Thursday: Mt. Rainier
Day 22 May 30th Friday: Seattle, dinner at the top of the Space Needle
Day 23 May 31st Saturday: Long days drive to Yellowstone****Campsite already reserved*******
Day 24 June 1st Sunday: Yellowstone*****Campsite already reserved*****
Day 25 June 2nd Monday: Yellowstone****Campsite already reserved*****
Day 26 June 3rd Tuesday: Leave Yellowstone, drive to Custer State park*****Campsite already reserved*****
Day 27 June 4th Wednesday: Mt. Rushmore/Crazy Horse
Memorial….then drive almost all the way to Mall of America
Day 28 June 5th Thursday: Finish driving to Mall of America
Day 29 June 6th Friday: Mall of America
Day 30 June 7th Saturday: leave Mall of America, stop in Milwaukee…then drive to Chicago
Day 31 June 8th Sunday: Chicago
Day 32 June 9th Monday: Drive to Cleveland…. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Day 33 June 10th Tuesday: Drive to Niagara Falls….Maid of the Mist tour…maybe cross into Canada
Day 34 June 11th Wednesday: Drive to Adirondack state park****Campsite already reserved*****
Day 35 June 12th Thursday: Whitewater rafting Adirondack state park****Campsite already reserved******
Day 36 June 13th Friday: Leave Adirondack, Lobster lunch in Maine, then eat dinner at the Cheers bar in Boston
Day 37 June 14th Saturday: drive to NYC, first night in NYC hotel****Hotel already reserved*****
Day 38 June 15th Sunday: NYC****Hotel already reserved****
Day 39 June 16th Monday: NYC****Hotel already reserved**** Avenue Q tickets already bought
Day 40 June 17th Tuesday: NYC****Hotel already reserved****
Day 41 June 18th Wednesday: Six Flags New Jersey all day
Day 42 June 19th Thursday: Hershey Park all day
Day 43 June 20th Friday: Philadelphia all day
Day 44 June 21st Saturday: Drive to Washington DC****Campsite already reserved******
Day 45 June 22nd Sunday: Washington DC******Campsite already reserved********
Day 46 June 23rd Monday: Washington DC*****Campsite already reserved******
Day 47 June 24th Tuesday: Leave Washington DC, sleep in Latta, SC*****Grandparents house already reserved****
Day 48 June 25th Wednesday: Leave Latta early, spend the afternoon in Atlanta, GA…and then finally head home ****Finally sleep in our own beds******
The first 2.5 days are pretty hectic but other than that we really should only have 1 other crazy day and that would be the Yellowstone to Mall of America day which is going to take ALL day...
