Maine to Cali

[nick robinson]

Hello,

In May some friends and I are going to be taking a road trip from the capital of Maine (augusta) to Hollywood. I am looking for help to sugest a route and things to do. We are all sophomores in college going to school at Syracuse University. We want to do fun stuff for kids our age. I love the ocean so would like to stop at a few different oceans (One thing i really want would be to stop at a few hotels on teh way so i can surf). So has anyone do maine to cali? or something similar... The thing isnt going to be planned very specificly. We are going to spend 10-14 days driving doing whatever peopel want to do. ButI want to have an idea of places to go/stay/eat.

[nick robinson]

Here is one idea

Maine to Richmond Va Time: 11 hours, 21 minutes Distance: 710.35 miles

Richmond to Atlanta Ga. Time: 8 hours, 44 minutes Distance: 533.24 miles

Atlanta to Orlando Time: 7 hours, 22 minutes Distance: 439.07 miles

Orlando to Austin Time: 18 hours, 57 minutes Distance: 1124.29 miles

Austin to Santa Fe Time: 13 hours, 35 minutes Distance: 801.99 miles

Santa Fe to Vegas Time: 9 hours, 58 minutes Distance: 633.59 miles

Vegas to Hollywood Time 4 hours, 11 minutes Distance: 276.30 miles

Total Time: 74 hours
Total Distnace: 4516 Miles

Approx 4.5hours of driving per day.

That would be spread out over 14 days. So that means we only have to drive 4-5 hours per day leaving us plenty of time to see everything. Although we will probably end up staying longer at some places and thus well have to make up for it driving 8 hours some days... thats fine.

[Mark Sedenquist]

I will post more later, but I just had to comment...

I would like to speak to anyone why can drive from Las Vegas to Hollywood in 4 hours 11 minutes! Depending upon the time of day, the fastest it can driven legally is 5 hours. If the driver were to blow through the construction zones and maintain close to 70 mph (impossible) the entire distance, the route could be accomplished in 4.5 hours. Anything less is ludicrous.

M

[nick robinson]

those are just map quest times based on distance, not construction and other shit.

[Mark Sedenquist]

It look like you must be using an average speed approaching 64 mph for some of your calculations. Given a good car, it is possible to reach an average speed of around 65 mph over the course of three hours, but very few drivers can sustain an average speed much over 55 mph anytime one drives more than five hours at a stetch. In order to achieve 65 mph over the course of an eight hour day, most drivers will need to reach triple digits for much of that day.

So, on first blush, I would say your time estimates for covering the country are very generous.

[nick robinson]

Why is that? I drive from maine to new york a bunch of times a year (to and from college) and thats 500 miles and i average about 70mph. But keep giving me tips and stuff, becuase you are probably right .

[Mark Sedenquist]

How did you calculate the 70 mph average speed? Even if your speedometer reads 75-80, it is pretty unlikely that you can average much more than 53 mph over the course of 400 miles, unless you never stop for fuel, there are no traffic slow-downs and you never stop for food or other pit stops.

Mark

[nick robinson]

Well its 500 miles and i do it in a little over 7 hours...

Anyway back to the road trip - anyone have some coolplaces to stop or ideas on the trip in general I want to start planning ahead.

[PJ]

cleveland ohio....rock and roll hall of fame

Nashville, Tennesee....good partying town

Memphis, TN....graceland!....civil rights museum

drop down to new orleans, LA....bourbon street!


Texas...

New Mexico...Roswell...UFOs!
.............Albuquerque
.............up to north west corner...4 corners..shiprock

Arizona...canyon de chelly
..........painted desert
..........grand canyon

maybe Utah....zion national park

Las Vegas

San Diego

LA


i did that trip and about 2 weeks...fast paced but a lot of goodies!

[nick robinson]

Ok we sat down today and planned out how we want to do this. Here is what we came up with.

Day 1: Maine to R.I. to NYC (218.81 miles + 180.51 miles)


Day 2: NYC to Hatteras North Caronia via washington Dc (494.90 miles)


Day 3: Stay North Carolina



Day 4: North Carolina to Atlanta (660.41 miles)




Day 5: Stay in Atlanta for the day


Day 6: Atlana to New Orliens (487.87 miles)


Day 7: New Orlieans for the day.


Day 8: New Orliens to Huston (507.18 miles)


Day 9: Huston for the day


Day 10: Huston to Santa Fe (801.90 miles)


Day 11: Santa Fe to Phenoix 526.82 miles


Day 12: Pheniox to Vegas (287.09 miles)


Day 13: Vegas for the day


Day 14: Vegas to Cali (270.47 miles)


Day 15: Cali


How does this look? The other two guys im going with want to maybe cut out another day, but I dont want to lose anything so we will probably end up doing what is above. They will stay in cali until day 18 then fly home and ill be staying in cali for the summer.