Hi everyone,

I'm in the midst of planning for a 'little' road trip my boyfriend and I are heading off for in the fall. I was hoping I could get some tips / suggestions regarding the route I have so far and things to see/do along the way.

About us; both mid 20s living in NYC. We're both kind of...over the city and are itching to get out of here. Head off into the big wide world. So like most sensible human beings we've decided to quit our jobs, pack up and head off in my luxurious 2002 Toyota Camry, on what Austin is describing as an "indefinite" roadtrip.

We're both into more outdoorsy things, off the beaten path, weird kitschy suff. I'm sure we'll some touristy things along the way but I think we both want to kind of avoid that.

I've done a decent amount of short(er) term travelling, I guess. Roadtrip to Maine, trip alone to Arizona (flew in), went to Spain for two weeks, back packing through the UK for 3 weeks, Amsterdam and Germany alone. And then shorter weekend/several day trips based from home, often.
Austin is a champion of long distance travel - doing big drives from NYC to Buffalo, Chicago to NY etc. And growing up in western NY he's done a fair amount of camping in his day.

Accommodation wise, we plan to be camping/ staying with friends and couch surfing as much as possible. The occasional hotel here and there. Also hopefully doing some helpx/wwoofing in a few places.

As previously mentioned we're taking the Camry, which gets decent gas mileage. We're also bringing our bikes, so hopefully when we're in more compact cities we'll be able to ride them - which will also help cut down on gas.

Here's the route of what I have so far;

Starting early October

Leave from Long Island
Buffalo, NY (staying with family - dropping the rest of our stuff off and doing final tune ups on the car)
Pittsburgh, PA (staying with friends)
Columbus, OH
Chicago, IL (staying with friends and family)
Milwaukee, WI (probably a day or two day trip while we're in Chicago)
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN (think we should find a stop over somewhere in Wisconsin? If so where along the way? Staying with friends in Minneapolis)
Fargo, ND
Bismarck, ND
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND
Billings, MT
Yellowstone National Park, WY (I'm figuring we'll get here sometime the first week in November. Any opinions/suggestions on going there this time of year? I know the weather can be extreme. I'd really love to make it there)
Missoula, MT
Spokane, WA (might have some family friends out here)
Seattle, WA (staying with friends.)

Once we hit Seattle (mid November) we'll probably try to find seasonal jobs at a retail store or something along those lines for about a month- month and a half, since stores will (hopefully) be hiring. Just to cushion our cash flow.
With Seattle as our home base we'll also go up to Vancouver, Olympic National Forest/Park, Anacortes, maybe Port Angeles and other surrounding areas.

While we're in Seattle and Portland we'll use that time to regroup and probably reroute things a bit etc. But here's what I have from there.

Portland, OR (staying with family and friends for Christmas/New Years)
Eugene, OR
Redwood National Forest
Somewhere between here and San Francisco we have a friend, just have to locate him :]
Santa Rosa / Napa (maybe)
San Francisco, CA (staying with a friend)
Oakland, CA
Berkley, CA (staying with a friend)

From here I'm not sure if we should head to Yosemite (as similar problems as Yellowstone arise- weather conditions etc) or go down to Big Sur. Suggestions?

Death Valley, CA
Las Vegas, NV
Grand Canyon
Albuquerque, NM (suggestions for stop overs between GC and here? - staying with a friend once we arrive)

And that's about where I'm up to. I'm stuck deciding if we should head North from NM or head East.

Other destinations we're planning on going to;

Denver, CO (friends)
Breckenridge, CO (friends)
Casper, WY
The Badlands, SD
Austin, TX
Dallas, TX (friends)
Oklahoma City, OK (friends)
New Orleans, LA (friends)

Possibly head North to Colorado, Wyoming, the Badlands back down through Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and then back east?

Oh, and I think it would be awesome to make it up to Alaska. That portion might have to wait for another time though.

Anyway, like I said earlier there's no real end date... So there's no time limit on anything we're doing. And the amount of time we spend in certain places depends on how much we enjoy it.

Also- I have a question about working while on the road. I found the page on RTA that has some job listings etc, but I was wondering if anyone else has worked while on the road or if anyone has any other suggests about possible short term/temp jobs and how to get them? We'll have a decent chunk of change saved but by no means enough to keep us going through the entire trip. Austin is a bike/car mechanic, and I have restaurant/bartending experience.

I probably have about a billion other questions that will come up, but I think this is it for now. I'll just troll through the rest of the forum and see if I can find answers there.

Any thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
K