LA to Philadelphia in August?

[MaureenC]

Hi,

I've never done this before ("threads"?), so at age 57, here goes: My son and I will fly from Phil. to LA to help his best friend drive back to Phil. to attend medical school. Neither my son nor I have been "cross country," although I've always dreamed of driving it, so now I'm achieving a dream! We are driving two vehicles, both with standard transmissions: a 30 year old classic Trans Am (I think) and a newish pick up, hauling a U Haul trailer packed with boxes, mainly books. We'll have cell phones to be in touch, and are allocating 6+ days to get across and back to work. Other than the Grand Canyon, and I know this is a huge (dumb) question, is there anything else we "must see?" I would love to go to the Zion etc. and do a southern route, since we've not experienced that before. Any and all suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.

Maureen

[Mark Sedenquist]

Hi, I've never done this before ("threads"?), so at age 57, here goes:

We are a (mostly) friendly group -- so welcome to the world of threads and posts...

Neither my son nor I have been "cross country," although I've always dreamed of driving it, so now I'm achieving a dream! We are driving two vehicles, both with standard transmissions: a 30 year old classic Trans Am (I think) and a newish pick up, hauling a U Haul trailer packed with boxes, mainly books. We'll have cell phones to be in touch,

Although cell phone coverage is much better, there is a huge downside of the modern digital cell phones. They way they work they need to "speak" (RF signal back and forth) to the network every 15 to 30 seconds and when you are in an area with little or no digital service this constant need for contact will run down your batteries in a matter of an hour or two. You can alleviate this issue by keeping your cell phones plugged into the 12-V system in your cars, but you still won't be able to talk to each other. The solution -- get two hand-held CBs and two-magnet-mounted antennas. You can have a private conversation as you need, plus listen in to truckers and obtain current weather information as well. Here is a general article I wrote about CBs and their use. I use the hand-held radio every time I go anywhere (when I am not using the truck with the built-in radio transceivers).

... and are allocating 6+ days to get across and back to work. Other than the Grand Canyon, and I know this is a huge (dumb) question, is there anything else we "must see?" I would love to go to the Zion etc. and do a southern route, since we've not experienced that before. Any and all suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.

If you really push it, you can make this distance in four days, I have done it in three (but we only stopped for fuel) and drove 23.5 hours per day. Six days is not really that leisurely. I would use I-70 and stop and see St. Louis, the Colorado Rockies, eastern Utah (maybe Arches NP) and you could also do Zion.

Mark