Planning Summer 2010 Road Trip

[rebeccajanet]

At the end of June, my husband and I are setting out on a 21-day road trip from Eugene, Oregon, through CA, AZ, NM, TX, CO, WY, MT, ID, WA, and back to OR.

We have a budget of roughly $3,000 and we are driving a '00 Chevy Malibu. We plan to camp out, stay with friends, or stay in motels/hotels. I will list our basic itinerary below, but first here is a list of some of the fun/random things I would like to do while on our trip, if you know of any good locations for these things within our route, please let me know!!

-horseback riding/trail ride
-roller skating rinks
-drive-in movie
-cool museums
-awesome 50s diner
-hot air ballooning??

We are planning on going to mostly national parks, a few theme parks, and interesting cities....

Here is what I have come up with so far!

Day 1: leave Eugene heading south on 1-5 to Highway 101, stop in Bandon, OR. Get back on the 101 to Redwood N.P., camp for the night
Day 2: drive to San Fran, see Golden Gate Bridge/Fisherman's Wharf/etc for the day. Drive to Santa Cruz, stay the night
Day 3: spend the morning/afternoon at the beach boardwalk/amusement park, and then drive to LA to stay with a friend
Day 4: have our friend show us around LA, drive to Anaheim in the pm to stay the night
Day 5: Disneyland all day, then drive to Vegas, stay the night
Day 6: Vegas for morning/afternoon, then drive to Grand Canyon, camp for the night
Day 7: Grand Canyon all day, drive to Phoenix to stay the night
Day 8: drive to El Paso, TX to stay with friends
Day 9: drive to Carlsbad, NM for Carlsbad Caverns. drive to San Antonio to stay the night
Day 10: drive to Austin, spend the day. stay the night there
Day 11: drive to Amarillo (or somewhere near there), stay the night
Day 12: drive to Canon City, CO to see the Royal Gorge Bridge, camp for the night
Day 13: drive to Rocky Mountain N.P., spend the day, maybe horseback riding? camp for the night
Day 14: drive to Fossil Butte N.P, camp for the night
Day 15: drive to Jackson Hole, and then maybe go to Grand Teton N.P.
Day 16: drive to Yellowstone, spend the day, camp
Day 17: Yellowstone all day, camp
Day 18: Yellowstone in AM, then drive to Coure D'alene, ID, stay the night
Day 19: drive to Lynnwood, Wa to stay with family
Day 20: drive to Orting, WA to stay with family
Day 21: arrive back to Eugene, OR

Let me know what you think about this. There are some days that have quite a bit of driving (7, 8, or 9 hours) which seems like a lot to me but I suppose that is normal for a road trip? I was trying to keep it to around 5 or 6 hours of driving a day but that didn't quite work out for all the days. I don't want to feel super rushed during the trip and I'd really like to be able to enjoy things instead of feeling like we have to keep on the move constantly.

If you know of any great places/sights that I have skipped over please let me know, this is just a rough draft and is open to changes and what not.

Thanks so much!