4 week Cross country camping trip Detroit-San Diego

[michigancamper]

So glad I found this site, seems like a ton of great information as we start planning our 4 week camping adventure. With a final destination of San Diego, and hitting some of the important stops along the way, there and back, - Mt. Rushmore, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, San Francisco, four corners, Just looking for any extra thoughts of must see places along the way. family of four, incl. 2 girls, 12 and almost 14. Also, anything that has worked well to keep kids engaged and having fun? It was something we did as a family many times when I was young so I've been all over the US and Canada and now want my wife and kids to experience some parts they haven't seen.

thoughts? suggestions? One thing I've noticed in checking on travel trailer rentals is not all places will let you take it past the rockies. Anyone else rent and drive to the coast?

We will driving in our 2008 Yukon, pulling the rented travel trailer.

thanks!!

[Mark Sedenquist]

Welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum, this is the first time I've ever heard of a limitation for travel trailers being the Rockies. That's really odd... Are you sure you've read the conditions correctly?

Sounds like a great trip -- I've got to leave for a few minutes -- but I'll get back in a hour or so.

Mark

[michigancamper]

so far it was only one location that said that. I worked at a car rental place when I was college (local place) and we had a similar policy. curious how common it is...

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to RTA.

The first thing I would recommend is getting a good map of the USA and sitting down with the family and get the Kid's involved in the planning. Family road trips are always more fun when everyone has a vested interest, knowing where you are going and understanding what you are doing. You have a list of stops that are important to you, so I would start to put dots on the map, marking those places. Once you have done that you can start to work out how best to join them up with the 'bits inbetween.

Other places I find interesting [and think you might based on what you have told us] are the Southern Utah NP's of Arches, Canyonlands, Zion and Bryce canyon plus the wonderful Sierra Nevada in California, home to Yosemite and Sequoia National parks. Alcatraz in San Fran and Monument Valley in AZ are 2 more favourites.

There will of course, be thousands of options open to you and I would recommend you search around the forums [check out the 'Field reports' section] the planning resources in the tool bars above where you will find Lot's of ideas.

National Parks >> If you plan to visit more than 4 major parks, it will be cheaper to purchase the annual pass for $80. [Does not include Ferry to Alcatraz or parking at Mt Rushmore]. > Join the Kid's up into the Junior Ranger programs where they can take part in activities and collect badges. > There are limited numbers of RV/Trailer sites in NP campgrounds and would need to be booked up asap for summer travel. Check out all the NP's here.

Once the trip starts to take on a pattern we can help to offer alternatives and/or help to 'Fine tune' what you have.

As for the Travel Trailer, I would keep looking. I doubt you will have any trouble renting one for your trip, and to be honest, I have never heard of a car not being able to be taken west of the Rockies either. I think it's your experience of working in a small local company that may have you think that. A quick search for TT rentals showed plenty of results and I checked this one out at random and there seemed to be no issues about heading West. [I have had no dealings with them and therefor is not a recommendation.]

[michigancamper]

Thanks for the great info Dave - great idea about sitting on the floor with the map. We have been talking with the girls about where to go but sitting down together with a map is a great idea. I'll have my wife hunt down a USA map. the Rental place is one that I have received a quote from already. I did get one from the west side of the state that's about $200 less a week, which quite a difference. So far they have been the lowest - the only challenge/red flag is they cant tell you which TT you will get till closer to the date as it all depends on which rental units have been sold etc.... off to work!

[Mark Sedenquist]

In addition to looking at a large map, here are a few more tips that can make family road trips exciting and fun for all:

An overview article I penned on Family road trips.

A nice list of in-car games penned by Jeff Sechler

And it sounds like you're an experienced RVer, so this checklist will merely serve as a reminder -- it was written for motorhomes -- but the same basic principles apply to travel trailers too.

Mark

[michigancamper]

you can never stop learning Mark! A lot of experience with pop ups n tent camping,but we did rent an RV a few summers ago - what a blast that was! but, still have lots to learn. thanks for the link. Ton of information on this site, just need to keep going through it. Was messing around with the map features the other night.

Tap of the beer bottle to the creator of this site - great job!

[DonnaR57]

If you are already a AAA member, go down to your local office and get a good USA map for free. If you're not a member, this is a good time to go get one. (No, I don't get paid for this endorsement, I'm just a happy customer at the moment.) Otherwise, a good atlas can be found here on RTA for sale, or go to your local bookstore or Wal-Mart and get one.

Sitting down with the kids is essential, at one point in the planning. At 12 and 14, they will enjoy the trip more if they had something to do with the planning. Also ask them their "druthers" about overnights, if you don't know. For ours, a pool was essential if the weather was going to cooperate enough. Otherwise, when we packed our rig, they had to bring things that they would enjoy -- a stash of books, a couple of movies (we had a TV-VCR in our rig back when our kids were that age), and some family board games.


Donna

[michigancamper]

If you are already a AAA member, go down to your local office and get a good USA map for free. If you're not a member, this is a good time to go get one. (No, I don't get paid for this endorsement, I'm just a happy customer at the moment.) Otherwise, a good atlas can be found here on RTA for sale, or go to your local bookstore or Wal-Mart and get one.

Sitting down with the kids is essential, at one point in the planning. At 12 and 14, they will enjoy the trip more if they had something to do with the planning. Also ask them their "druthers" about overnights, if you don't know. For ours, a pool was essential if the weather was going to cooperate enough. Otherwise, when we packed our rig, they had to bring things that they would enjoy -- a stash of books, a couple of movies (we had a TV-VCR in our rig back when our kids were that age), and some family board games.


Donna

thanks Donna for the tips! AAA travel was our destination this week to get a map and sit down and talk with the kids to get their input. The one challenge is they only know the places to go that we've talked about. Other than pulling top ten lists for them to view, any way to get their input without it being biased?

great idea on the board games - never know what mother nature could bring. We do have a DVD player in the truck that they'll have access to part of the trip, but not the entire trip. they need to at least be electronics free for part of it...

[Lifemagician]

The one challenge is they only know the places to go that we've talked about. Other than pulling top ten lists for them to view, any way to get their input without it being biased?

Encourage your daughters to research each place through which your route(s) may take you. Not just the big cities. Look on the map, on the internet, in magazines, etc. and put the names of the places into their favourite search engine. These could be towns, national or state parks, historical sites, or just a name on the map, and no one knows what that word stands for.

Furthermore, when you are watching television, or reading books, magazine or the daily papers, and a place name is mentioned, ANYPLACE! ANYWHERE! search to see where it is, what is there, etc. Make sure you have a good sized note book, and write down what you find out about each place... even if you think you may not be interested. Just write down everything you find - one place to a page. If nothing else, it expands the whole family's general knowledge base.

When our children were young, we used to have a map of the city where we live on the wall, and a map of the State in which we live as well as a map of the whole country. Along side of all of those were maps of Western Europe (my place of birth and father's frequent destination for work) and a map of the world.

At any time the children came across a place name, be it in a book, magazine, newspaper or heard it mentioned on telly, which they did not know where it was, we would search to find where it was. And this was long before the days of computers and search engines. Consequently the children all grew up with a good knowledge of where places are... all over the world.

My motto always was.... children learn nothing from nice clean walls. (And it saved on painting! lol)

Lifey