Hello - I'm a new poster and hope to learn a lot from all of you!
My husband and I are celebrating his retirement by planning a 3-month road trip starting early June. We plan to fly into Boston where our son is living and then rent a car and tour around that part of New England - around 10 days. We'll then take Amtrak to Harford, CT, rent a car and drive around CT visiting friends and exploring (4-5 days) then take Amtrak to NYC, rent a car and explore around for 3 days.
From NYC we plan to fly to Wash DC, rent a car, visit family, explore the area for about 5 days and then drive to Memphis going through the Smokey Mts, visiting Graceland, visiting family for 10 days then taking a train from Memphis to Houston, TX. Family will drive us around plus we plan to all go to San Antonio to see the Alamo, Riverwalk. This visit will take about a week to 10 days.
Then take a train from San Antonio to Albuerque, NM. Rent a car, visit Santa Fe and Taos and start our 4-Corners trip (plus driving until we reach Calif!) visiting many of the national parks - approx. 2 weeks.
Then a visit to Montana, Wyoming for a few days each, driving through Idaho and stopping in Washington for a few days to visit friends, heading down to Oregon to visit a friend for 3 days, see some of the coastline and then driving the rest of the way down the coastline to California and the Bay Area where we will stay close to 2 weeks.
Are we taking on too much for three months? How much time should we allocate for our time in the Four Corners? Should we cut corners anywhere or eliminate an area and do at another time?
We really want to see the national parks, especially: Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Bryce, Zion, Tetons. Is there anything you would do differently such as change the route I'm proposing, drive to one state first before the other to make it more time efficient? Any suggestions as to where to stay in any of the areas? We do anticipate it to cost a few dollars but it's a special trip. Any help will be so appreciated! It has taken me a long time to pull this itinerary together but I know it's not perfect. Thanks very much! Kulagal