Time scales

[Don & Claire]

We are starting to plan a summer road trip. We have purchased the Road Trip USA book and note that there is a complete absence of time scales. We will have 4 weeks. We do not want to have to spend every day in the car and we would rather travel on "two lane black top". Any advice that seasoned travelers can give about the kind of time scales involved in going east west (or vice versa) or top to bottom, how much driving in a day, days off etc would be most gratefully received.

[Mark Sedenquist]

If you use Interstates and drive 6-8 hours per day you will find that you average about 55 mph (even if you drive sections at 75+ mph)

If you use two-lane roads (in the west) and drive the same 6 to 8 hours per day you will average about 48-50 mph. Two-lane roads east of the Mississipi will drop to an average speed of 45 mph, (more towns).

The USA is very big place. Some of the nicest scenery can be viewed from Interstates -- use them. Plan to spend some quality driving time on some of the smaller two-lanes routes -- to see specific country.

Four weeks is great span of time to see much of the country. However, time and space are relative -- I have driven hundreds of thousands of miles in recent years and figure I have seen something between 10% and 15% of the USA. If you were to drive a new place every weekend for the rest of your life you would not see everything in a single state the size of California -- so seeing all of the USA in four weeks -- that would be quite a challenge.

On this site, we have links and profiles about roadtrips that have visited all 48 of the lower states. One of the most interesting is the Quest-4 adventure. For more information check out the roadtrips on the <a href = "http://www.roadtripamerica.com/links/travelogs.htm">Travelogue Page</a>. The Quest-4 link is about 2/3rds of the way down that page.

[Don & Claire]

many thanks for that. Over here (in the UK) we have on line route planning services that just calculate simple routes from A-B for day to day motoring giving maps timings and milages. I'm sure you must have such things in the 'states. If you know of such a thing could you post the web addresses please?

[Mark Sedenquist]

There are a number of on-line mapping programs -- the one I prefer for accuracy of data is now owned by Microsoft -- but run as <a href = "http://mappoint.msn.com/(53hkuv45l53nb155hv4gtyfp)/Home.aspx">MapBlast!</a>

Perhaps of more use -- check out our review of these <a href = "http://www.roadtripamerica.com/travelplanning/userguidefree.htm">free on-line</a> and <a href = "http://www.roadtripamerica.com/travelplanning/userguidecustom.htm">fee-based</a> roadtrip planning services.

Mark

[Don & Claire]

Many thanks once again.

I would choose either the eastern or western US because 4 weeks is not a lot of time to visit the whole United States unless you want to spend all the time in your car.

IMHO, the western US is the most scenic and most diverse.

I use a tripmaking program called "Micrsoft Streets and Trips" because it gives me the most accurate driving times. It's also a lot faster and more versital than any website I've ever visited.

If you give me the locations you are thinking about I can plug them in and get back to you.

Utahtea

My wife and i are traveling 3000 miles across North East US and into Canada over a 4 week period in May/June 05 to visit friends in the US.

I've just been trying out the "Mapblast" site you reccomended above and i have to say that it appears to work very well [considering its free] and certainly as well as route planners we have here.

Thanks for the info