Grad Cross Country Road Trip

[CourtneyLynn24]

My Best friend Hannah and I are planning a cross country road trip after we graduate. We are both extreme baseball nuts and we watch it obsessively so we plan on going to all 30 ball parks. We also love to try crazy things so we are going on some of the “Americas Best” roller coasters i.e. fastest, longest, etc. We plan on hitting Vegas, Atlantic City, and Mexico while we are at it. We will be driving and want to see the funny random things that traveling different places brings. I have traveled quite a bit. In July I am going to the Bahamas. I have been Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and a bunch of other places that I can’t remember. We both love nature and the out doors. We don’t mind camping or sleeping at truck stops. We will want to keep it as cheep as possible but it’s a once in a life time opportunity since after this road trip we will be starting college and our lives and probably will not have the freedom to just leave for 4-5 months. So if you have any tips or places that we should visit while we go please help us out. We live in Green Bay (no we don’t wear cheese on our heads all the time!) and already have a route established:
WI, MN, SD, ND, MT, WY, ID, WA, OR, CA, NV, AZ, UT, CO, NM, Mexico, TX, OK, AK, LA, MS, TN, AL, FL, GA, SC, NC, VA, D.C., MD, DE, NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA, ME, NH, VT, Toronto, NY (again), PA, WV, KY, MO, KS, NE, IA, back to WI (to get our stuff because we are both going to school in Cleveland, OH), IL, IN, MI, OH.

Please help us out with tips and stuff.

Love
Courtney and Hannah

[Southwest Dave]

Hi Courtney and Hannah, welcome to the RTA forums !

Wow, that's a mighty big plan you have there !

I really think at this stage you have to sit down and do some research as we could throw thousands upon thousands of suggestions at you on a trip this size and I doubt that would help much. Get the map out and search the RTA forums and road trip planning pages for thousands of ideas and as you build your trip you can keep asking questions. The nps site and state parks etc are also a good tool for planning when you are looking for natural wonders and camping ideas.
Anything more specific at this point then just ask, but having the budget to fulfill that dream is normally the first hurdle to overcome. What experience have you of long distance travelling and camping if any ? I would certainly plan on doing a few shorter trips away to get the feel of it first and practice putting up your tent and packing it all up, finding out about all the little things you need. [nothing worse than having a tin of beans and no can opener, Lol!]
One other rather important thing, life doesn't stop when you graduate and start college and the places you want to visit will almost certainly be there all through your lifetime so don't feel you have to try and do everything in one trip but take your time to enjoy the things you do see. I would rather have a well budgeted relaxed trip for a few weeks than one that is too busy and under funded.

Enjoy the planning

[glc]

I would strongly advise that you *NOT* try to drive into Mexico. Frankly, it's just not safe these days. You would also have to purchase Mexican insurance at the border and post a bond to make sure you bring the car back here.

[AZBuck]

Sometimes, all you need is a random list of opportunities to start free associating and coming up with even more ideas for places to see. Here are such lists for each of the states and provinces that should give you a good start. As Dave said, there are just too many places you're going to for more specificity than that at the moment. This is, in fact, the planning portion of your trip where daydreaming is in order - enjoy!

AZBuck

[Midwest Michael]

Out of curiosity, what sort of budget are you planning to have? I get concerned when people talk about doing such a massive trip, but also talk about wanting to do things as cheaply as possible. When you're still at home, its easy to forget just how much it costs to sustain yourself. Being on the road for this amount of time is going to cost you each several thousand dollars. Having a realistic budget is going to help move this trip from "daydream" into reality.

[pancakesx]

I think your trip should be cut down dramatically. You will each need at least several thousand plus car insurance for those months. You will also need passports to get into Canada. You may run into problems with camping and hotels since you are under 21. Also, if you have never actually driven on such a long trip keep in mind how tiring it can get. 4-5 months is a long time to be away and you will need several oil changes and you may easily run into car troubles. I would suggest going on a week long trip first and see how you do with that. I just can't imagine how teenagers have several thousand for a road trip when college tuition and books are so costly. And like someone else said, all these places will still be there in years to come. You will probably enjoy traveling more as you are older and able to pay for more.

[Mass Tim]

...it’s a once in a life time opportunity since after this road trip we will be starting college and our lives and probably will not have the freedom to just leave for 4-5 months.

Ah, but you are forgetting about retirement, where you will have had many years to plan for this great trip and the resources to make it happen.

It sounds like you are under the impression that once you hit college, life stops and you will turn into an uninteresting corporate drone once you land a job. College should be a kick-off to a great life, not the action that ends it. Last year I switched careers to where I work with many well educated people and one thing I've noticed that most of them have in common is a love of travel. They are able to travel two or three times (or more!) a year and really enjoy it, whether or not they have children or stressful positions.

You're trying to do great roller coasters AND ballparks AND touristy-party places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City. How about shortening this up and doing a West to Vegas, East to Atlantic City trip, with some stops at ballparks and roller coasters in between. It's still a several week trip, but I'd bet you'd find it a lot more feasible and enjoyable than trying to absorb the entire Continental United States in one shot.

You'd also learn in the first leg of the trip just how well suited you are for long-term roadtripping. You will learn about yourself pretty quickly, as well as how much patience you have being cooped up with another person for a significant length of time.

Anyway, as others have stated, your plan is going to take a significant budget even if you did sleep in truck stops all the time and lived solely off of grass clippings, canned tuna, and rainwater.

[CourtneyLynn24]

I don't have alot of time to reply to all of this but just a couple things i got from the posts on here...

we plan on being business owners in the future just an fyi

we are not planing on going to college the year right after High School we plan on working for a year since i am going to be a hair stylist.

we have both been saving for this for about a year and we both have already started working (we are in 10th grade this year...)

we were thinking closer to 4 months than 5 and we both have family all around the country so there wouldn't be alot of problems getting help.

i'll get back on some questions when i've got the time..

thank you all very much.