The OC to Nashville

[BGialenes]

Advice needed,

My wife and I have driven all over California but this will be our first big trip. We want to celebrate our one year aniverary with a great adventure and we have a lot that we want see. We wanted to make small stops along the way like the Grand Canyon, Roswell, The Alamo and Graceland but we wanted to spend most our time in New Orleans and Nashville. With our "L" shaped route we are looking at 2,500 miles and our plan is to have three or four days to spend in New Orleans and Nashville. We are carving out two weeks for this trip and don't know if we are being too ambitious. Like I said this will be our first long distance trip and we are not sure about drive time, weather, cost, etc. Any advice and suggestions for "kooky" stops and great eats along the way would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
The Newlyweds

[BGialenes]

oops . . . FYI we are leaving in October : )

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Your plan as it stands now is very ambitious, yes. You've got a good nine days of driving required to do the route (I'm assuming that you plan to drive home as well, No?) Add the four days to see Memphis, Nashville, and New Orleans and you have essentially no spare time whatsoever for your 'small' stops at the Grand Canyon, Roswell, the Alamo. anywhere "kooky", or for meals beyond those ordered from a clown's mouth. If this is to be a one-way drive, then you'll have more time, of course, but your costs will skyrocket as you'll have to rent a car (including the one-way drop off fee) and fly yourselves home. Assuming that the two week time frame is a hard and fast constraint, you'll need to cut back on the range of this trip to have the time, resources, and energy to enjoy it. If the southwest and south is the target, then you should be looking at something more like a loop trip that basically turns for home around the Oklahoma City/Dallas/San Antonio longitude. Other worthwhile sites to visit on such a loop would include Monument Valley, Petrified Forest/Painted Desert, Santa Fe, Big Bend, Tucson/Sonora Desert, and Joshua Tree among many, many other venues.

AZBuck

[BGialenes]

Thank you so much for the quick and insightful advice, we appreciate it greatly. We have a few months more of planning and saving to make for a great trip. It will be a one-way trip out with a flight back and we will be renting a mini-van to camp in. We will planning most of the trip in detail over the next couple of days and are always open to suggestions. Thanks again for all of your advice!

[Midwest Michael]

Camping inside a minivan in October is probably an idea you should reconsider.

A van is going to provide basically no insulation, and it will be quite cold overnight on much of your trip. Temperatures below zero are quite likely and really should be expected. You'd still basically need winter camping gear.

And that doesn't even factor in the limited space inside a minivan that really doesn't leave much room for two people to sleep, especially not with luggage and other things.