2013 Lap around the USA

[john.waters]

Hi,
I think its time I start getting this field trip report together before I start planning another trip.

Well the trip is done and dusted and I have been back at work for three weeks. Im still day dreaming about the places we visited and the people we met. I still get my daily dose of the USA while editing and culling photos of a night.

We achieved nearly all we had planned although we left a few places out but picked up others. The weather changed our plans a bit and diversions were made for the wildfires in Colorado and the flooding in Canada.

We covered a lot of ground and ticked off 30 states we entered plus two visits into Canada. Spent a lot of long days on the road and a lot of miles and shared the accomodation with truck stops, campgrounds, RV Parks,carparks and service centres and motels plus a few nights with friends as well. You can see the planning thread here.

A few statistics for the trip before I start adding out itinerary details.

Arrive Los Angeles - Friday 10th May 2013
Pick up camper on Saturday 11th May 2013
Drop camper off Tuesday 2nd July 2013
Fly out of Los Angeles Thursday 4th July 2013
55 nights in the USA
18 nights in motels
6 nights in RV parks
13 nights in Campgrounds / National Parks
18 free nights . Friends / Truck Stops / Car parks and Service Centres.
Into 30 States and Canada.
Full length of Route 66 covered. LA to Albuquerque and Chicago to Albuquerque.
Distance covered. 13946 miles.
Total fuel Cost - $2104.00
Fuel. Appx 24.24 mpg over whole trip.

Days actually driving - 45
Average mile per day on driving days - 310 miles

Longest distance covered in one day - 642 mile. Getting out of Canada during the floods and driving to Seattle.
Shortest distance covered in one day - 2 mile. Dropping the Camper off.

I drove 13940 miles
My wife drove 6 miles on Route 66.

Photo count - Me 10,500
My wife - 3500

Well thats a bit of an over view of the trip so now I will try and post a photo of the route we took on a map.

The only thing that concerns me with this report is makes me feel like planning another trip now .But my work leave and bank account says wait two years.

John

[Lifemagician]

Wow John, what a trip. Can't wait to read more, and see the photos.

In a little more than seven weeks you covered more than half the miles I did last year in six months. It must have kept you on the go. What fantastic memories you'll have with 10500 photos. Enjoy reliving the trip as you sort through them.

What did you think of staying at truck stops? I'd like to read your take on them.

Lifey

[Mark Sedenquist]

Wow, those are some impressive stats!

Like Lifey, I can't wait to read the details!

Mark

[davek]

Would love to hear more about your travels...we will be starting a 6 month trip around the US in mid September. I am interested in your comments on truck stops/service centres for short overnight stops. I have been thinking that might occasionally be an option between places we want to visit. How do you find stops that allow RV to stay overnight and is there a charge? Thanks
Dave

[john.waters]

Sorry about the clarity of the after map as I just scanned it out of the atlas I used. By looking at them there is very litlle difference between the two. The main difference was Canada. We were chased out by bad weather.
On the other hand by leaving Canada we got to explore Olympic National Park and some of Columbia River Gorge and a few days in Yosemite. Not disappointed in not seeing Canada. Another reason to go back.

As you can see we done the trip in a figure eight fashion so that we we split route 66 up and got to enjoy it travelling in both directions and didnt get too much for us in one dose. We travelled 66 from Los Angeles to Albuquerque and from Chicago to Albuquerque.
Im glad we did as we would have been in Oklahoma around the time of the Tornado's.

The green line on the maps west is the trip we done in 2011. That was five and a half weeks.

John

[john.waters]

I spent quite a few months planning, reading and researching what we wanted to do before I finally had a plan.
People looked and said it was too ambitous but it all came together in the end.
I started by listing out what we wanted to do and what we wanted to see and planned from there. I marked all the places on a map and joined the dots.

Most of my planning ideas and suggested routes came from members of RTA . I kept adding and adding but soon realised it would have been impossible to see all on the list.
Without this forum I think I would be still planning. Thanks everyone.

There is so much in between the highlight we chose but to do the trip we focused on those destinations.
The scenery was beautiful and with the summer long days it was easy to start of early in the morning and cruise along stopping when we wanted to have a break and explore the area.

The idea of having the little van was that we wouldnt be tied down to a destination or a motel each day and we got better value out of a day being able to travel to sunset and find a Truck Stop or rest area for the night or an earlier stop if we wanted to stay at a motel or campground.

Our budget was spot on and we came home with some cash left over even after we had to buy two extra suitecases to get our goodies home.


John

[DonnaR57]

I am looking forward to your trip report, should you decide to write a more detailed one! I enjoyed reading the statistics.


Donna

[john.waters]

I am looking forward to your trip report, should you decide to write a more detailed one! I enjoyed reading the statistics.


Donna

I thought I would put the statistics in to get me motivated and start the report. I made up an itinerary day book to keep records and gave it to my wife to fill in, so I have a record of what we done each day.
I didnt write down all the numbers and names of the highways we took but it should be easy to see where we went.

I hope to be able to add a few phots as I go along. The reason I took so may phots was that my favorite lens was plaing up and I had to keep reshooting to get an exposure I liked. I think I will be deleting quite a few.

John

[john.waters]

Wow John, what a trip. Can't wait to read more, and see the photos.

In a little more than seven weeks you covered more than half the miles I did last year in six months. It must have kept you on the go. What fantastic memories you'll have with 10500 photos. Enjoy reliving the trip as you sort through them.

What did you think of staying at truck stops? I'd like to read your take on them.

Lifey

Hi Lifey

This trip I realised we would not be able to cover the distances we wanted by staying off the interstates and going all back roads.
To be honest I really enjoyed the interstates, the Flying J,Pilot and Loves Travel Plazas as well as the lovely Dennys breakfasts.

We first came across Truck Stop / Rest Areas after turning off Route 66 and heading into Texas. They were well lit places with rest areas for truck drivers to sit and watch TV. Some were a base for the Highway Patrol so we felt rater safe there.

Because of the long distances between stops in Texas, we were usually in late and gone early.
I didnt stay in the rest areas / Truck stops in dark / remote areas or just outside major cities, like Chicago. St Louis or Cleveland. We even spent the night in a Bank carpark after asking someone where we could stay the night.

We usually looked for a Pilot or Flying J.Pay for our fuel, have someting to eat and then ask if we can park for the night. Never had a refusal doing it this way, even at some small town gas stations.

[john.waters]

Day 1 Friday 10th May 2013 - Arrive Los Angeles

After a long flight from Sydney we decided that this time we would get a motel and not start the road trip as soon as we arrived.
Last trip we picked the van up and hit the road. It wasnt a pleasant experience trying to find my way, driving on a different side of the road in heavy traffic.

We took a later flight which got us into LA at 10 am. Customs seemed a bit quicker without the early flight rush.A taxi to the motel and we were tucked up in bed by 1 pm and managed to sleep until 5 am on Saturday morning.We never seem to sleep much on the flight over and we normally watch movies.
I watched Lincoln and Derango unchained. Derango was a real experience, especially when we pulled up at Oak Alley in Louisianna. I could almost feel myself being on the set of that movie.
Its good to get a feel for what you are about to experience on a road trip.
(Im hoping to write the field trip during the day and add photos of a night as I edit them.)




1 Our vegimite ready to be packed.
Our supply of vegemite was tested on as many locals we could find but it also meant us tasting a few their favorite foods as well. Some were intersting to say.




2 Jet lag coffee. Forgot to take the cups out of the bags.



3 Our luggage we arrived with.
I thought I would add a photo of our luggage as it grew quite cinsiderably over the eight weeks we were in the USA.

(Editing on the posts is greenlighted -- as per Editor)