Road Trip from New Jersey to Portland, OR

[Peter Bratt]

Dear all,

My wife and I are planning on driving from New Jersey to Portland this June for a wedding. Any thoughts on a route? We would like to take a senice, slower pace, taking about a week to get there. I was thinking about driving US highway 2 out to Portland, and then taking another highway back.

Any thoughts would be great, especially regarding costs, etc.

Sincerely,
Peter

[Robert Schaller]

If you pick up US2 north of Chicago at Duluth, the US2 route is about 3200 miles and over 6 days just driving. Beautiful route. You could return through Salt Lake and Cheyenne, or evn I-70 for the beautiful run across Colorado -- there's some great federal highways (non-interstates) in that neighborhood as well -- US50 for example -- if you haven't gotten your fill of the two-lane pace by then. (Some love it, others get bored). Keep your options open and go where the whim takes you with nothing more than a basic plan to get you started.

For two people, you can probably get by on $150 per day with fuel where it is right now, not counting spending loot. roughly $60 day gas (@26 mpg and $2.75 gal), $35-$75 lodging, $35 per day food. You could make do with less if you are frugal.