May 2011 - OK to KCMO the long way

[Pfemm]

I recently discovered RTA so I'm new here. Hello All :)

My husband (35) and I (28) are planning to move from our hometown to Kansas City next May and we decided that there would never be a better time in our lives to take a cross-country road trip than when we are "homeless" and transitioning and have no kids. We just want to take our time, relax, and soak in the country and the Trip and the roads.

So the planning has begun. We've got a basic trip mapped out and it goes something like this

Home --> Nashville, TN --> Jacksonville, FL --> Florida Panhandle (Friend) --> Baton Rouge, LA --> Dallas, TX (Friend) --> OKC --> Albuquerque, NM --> Phoenix, AZ (Friend) --> Grand Canyon --> Las Vegas, NV (Friend) --> Death Valley, CA --> Hwy 1 California Coast --> San Francisco, CA --> Scenic 101 --> Portland, OR (Friend) --> Olympic National Park/Seattle, WA --> Missoula, MT -->Going-to-the-sun Road, MT --> Yellowstone, WY --> UT --> Pike's Peak, CO --> KCMO


I know there's a lot going on...

We're pretty open on what we want to do at all those places... and to be honest the places are more "general direction" than anything... Except for the "Friend" parts.

We've never gone on a trip like this and part of what started it is that my husband has an '05 Subaru Impreza STI (for any rally car people here) and we're interested in fun roads to drive on...

There's the Devil's Tail (I think that’s what it’s called) in TN and the highways up the west coast and the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana that we want to drive...

Also we’re interesting in going rafting... I found a place in Missoula, MT that seemed good... 10,000 Waves.
For food, we intend to have a propane stove/grill so we can do most of our own cooking.

We plan to stay in motels/hotels, camp, and stay with friends.

I've done a very rough mapping out of the days to get an idea of how many days we may be doing what to get an idea on lodging and the general length of the trip...

I figured:

Departure: Mid-May

Total trip: 48 - 55ish days

Miles: 8500 - 9000ish

Gas: $1000 - $1500

Hotels: 17 - 20 days

Friends: 10 - 12 days

Camping: 21 - 23 days


Before I started planning, I randomly decided that $6000 is my budget goal.


Here are my questions:

Is $6000 even enough? We don’t plan on purchasing too many souvenirs, if any. So we don’t need much set aside for “things”. Just Food, Shelter, and Fun. Oh, and gas but that’s the easy part.

How much is average for hotels?

How much for Camping?

How much should be budgeted for sustenance?

Would it be a good idea to join AAA?

Do you know of any really Awesome things to do/see along this path? If it helps, we’re both nerdy art kids who enjoy nature and don’t like huge crowds.

Also, my husband is a tattooist and wouldn’t mind doing guest spots along the way, but I don’t know if anyone here would be familiar with that. Just throwing it out there :)



Oh and feel free to answer questions I haven’t thought to ask ;)