1 Attachment(s)
May 2011 - OK to KCMO the long way (car)
I recently discovered RTA so I'm new here. Hello All :)
My husband (35) and I (28) are planning to move from our hometown to Kansas City next May and we decided that there would never be a better time in our lives to take a cross-country road trip than when we are "homeless" and transitioning and have no kids. We just want to take our time, relax, and soak in the country and the Trip and the roads.
So the planning has begun. We've got a basic trip mapped out and it goes something like this
Home --> Nashville, TN --> Jacksonville, FL --> Florida Panhandle (Friend) --> Baton Rouge, LA --> Dallas, TX (Friend) --> OKC --> Albuquerque, NM --> Phoenix, AZ (Friend) --> Grand Canyon --> Las Vegas, NV (Friend) --> Death Valley, CA --> Hwy 1 California Coast --> San Francisco, CA --> Scenic 101 --> Portland, OR (Friend) --> Olympic National Park/Seattle, WA --> Missoula, MT -->Going-to-the-sun Road, MT --> Yellowstone, WY --> UT --> Pike's Peak, CO --> KCMO
I know there's a lot going on...
We're pretty open on what we want to do at all those places... and to be honest the places are more "general direction" than anything... Except for the "Friend" parts.
We've never gone on a trip like this and part of what started it is that my husband has an '05 Subaru Impreza STI (for any rally car people here) and we're interested in fun roads to drive on...
There's the Devil's Tail (I think that’s what it’s called) in TN and the highways up the west coast and the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana that we want to drive...
Also we’re interesting in going rafting... I found a place in Missoula, MT that seemed good... 10,000 Waves.
For food, we intend to have a propane stove/grill so we can do most of our own cooking.
We plan to stay in motels/hotels, camp, and stay with friends.
I've done a very rough mapping out of the days to get an idea of how many days we may be doing what to get an idea on lodging and the general length of the trip...
I figured:
Departure: Mid-May
Total trip: 48 - 55ish days
Miles: 8500 - 9000ish
Gas: $1000 - $1500
Hotels: 17 - 20 days
Friends: 10 - 12 days
Camping: 21 - 23 days
Before I started planning, I randomly decided that $6000 is my budget goal.
Here are my questions:
Is $6000 even enough? We don’t plan on purchasing too many souvenirs, if any. So we don’t need much set aside for “things”. Just Food, Shelter, and Fun. Oh, and gas but that’s the easy part.
How much is average for hotels?
How much for Camping?
How much should be budgeted for sustenance?
Would it be a good idea to join AAA?
Do you know of any really Awesome things to do/see along this path? If it helps, we’re both nerdy art kids who enjoy nature and don’t like huge crowds.
Also, my husband is a tattooist and wouldn’t mind doing guest spots along the way, but I don’t know if anyone here would be familiar with that. Just throwing it out there :)
Oh and feel free to answer questions I haven’t thought to ask ;)
1 Attachment(s)
Newest Round of Route Adjustments
So I don't know if anyone else has this problem but as I'm researching everything and trying to see what is out there, I feel like a kid in a candy store... I want to see everything! Everything looks amazing!
The more I research each state the more things I find out about it. Like Arkansas.. I have to say I've been a bit biased about it in the past but after looking at so much of the things the state has to offer, I think we're going to have to take separate road trip just check it out since it is so close to home.
All of this brought me to the realization that I need a little more focus and I was reading in another post about how to gain some (focus on what you want to see and also write down things you would like to see) and i think it's really helping.
We both decided that Northwestern US (northern CA, OR and WA) is where we want to experience the most. and to do that without completely running out of cashflow we decided to nix most of our trip towards the East... Some of AR, All of TN & GA, and East FL. This shaved off about 1000 to 1500 miles of road and maybe a week or more of traveling.
Plus the only reason we were starting toward TN was for a friend that is no longer there.
Now, we're maybe going with a quick stop/camp at the Ouachita National Forest, AR then head for our friend in the Florida Panhandle and then work our west along Southern Texas and Southern New Mexico and head north in Arizona for Phoenix and continue with the rest as planned.
And i'm going to make a list of all the places we might want to check out along the way and the different campgrounds available. so we'll be able to make our selections "choose-your-own adventure" style :)
Even if we don't do half of them, at least we'll have options and know what is available.
"How long is a piece of string?" type question.
Hi Pfemm,
It's difficult to answer a "how long" question as you could drive the route and glance over places in 7 nights or so, but you could spend a Month quite easily in this area. I would consider at least 10 days before Vegas to get around in, and if you have more all well and good, you could spend 3 or 4 days in the Moab area alone and only really scratch the surface.
The West rim is a quite a long drive from the National park and some of the road to the rim is unmade and can be rough going I understand. You can get transported to the rim and the Skywalk, but it is quite expensive as it is not part of the National park system.
If you take the 261 to Muley point you will drive up the Moki dugway, a gravel road with some nice hairpins but comfortable [and level] enough in the Subaru. On the way is Goosenecks State park which is a short detour and although not much else there than the view of the river winding it's way around the rocks we liked it. Great place for a lunch break, but you will have to take your own.
As to where to stay, it'll depend how much time you can afford to this part of your trip.
