summer road trip Fl to San Francisco

[CassChip]

Hi! What a great site this is! I have gotten tons of info so far and I'm hoping I will get lots more! My 18 yr old daughter and I are planning a roadtrip from Fl to San Francisco June 5th-21st 2009. We have already seen the southeastern states, so our plan is to leave on the afternoon of the 5th and drive most of the night. We were thinking about heading north to Chicago, seeing some friends in Green Bay, WI then maybe taking Route 66 west? Some things we would like to see on this journey...Mount Rushmore, Grand Canyon, the giant redwoods, Las Vegas, Seattle, The Arch in St Louis, as many of the National Parks as possible. We want to spend two days in San Francisco before flying home, so we have 14 days for traveling time. My daughter would like to fit in some of the silly things..ie: biggest ball of string type stuff, hehe, kids! We are in the early planning stages, so nothing is set in stone. We are planning to camp some, use hotels/hostels some and we aren't opposed to spending a night in the truck! We are driving out and shipping our truck back and flying home, so if ayone has any info on shipping vehicles that would be welcome also! Would it be smarter to end the trip in Seattle? Not sure about all this so I'm open to any any and all suggestions!
thanks for your input!

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

I know that efficiency is not a word one generally associates with RoadTrips, but when they are litteraly 'all over the map' such as yours is it's a word that youe need to consider. So what's the most efficient itinerary to get to all the places you've listed? Well, for starters, you should see St. Louis and the Arch on your way north to Wisconsin. Also, since US-66 hasn't technically existed for over 20 years and is very far from anything else on your list, I'd suggest that you forget that and concentrate on what is available. If you really feel the beed to drive parts of what used to be Route 66 then do so between St. Louis and Chicago in Illinois. From Green Bay you'd head west to western South Dakota (Where there's far more to do than just Mt. Rushmore.) and on to Yellowstone (Which didn't make your list!) and Seattle. Then down the coast to San Francisco with a stop at the giant redwoods parks in northern California. Finally, if you have the time, you can make the trek to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon and back to San Francisco in 3-4 days at the end of your trip.

And there's the rub. To do all this would require driving around 8,000 miles. That is quite a lot to do in only two weeks. I'm not saying that it's impossible, only that it will require nearly constant movement with precious little time to actually enjoy the places you'll have worked so hard to get to. Still it will be an adventure with your daughter, and that may be your main objective at any rate.

As far as shipping your car back from the west coast, what you want to be looking at are what are called 'drive away' companies. These do not physically put your car on a truck or train, but match people looking to get from point A to point B with cars that need to make the same journey. They will line up someone to drive your car back to Florida. I have used this service once and was generally happy with it except that whoever drove my car from New York to Arizona was a smoker. and it took a while to get the smell out of the car. Still the car arrived on time and in otherwise good shape. Sorry, but I can't remember the name of the particular company we used.

AZBuck

[Midwest Michael]

I'm very much in agreement with Buck that the things you've listed are some of the most amazing things to see in the US, but they are all over the map geographically speaking. I don't see anyway that you could hit all of them in 2 weeks, unless maybe you stopped at them for maybe an hour and then continued on your way. I also think it would be hard to fit in any random, spontanious, roadside stops that are important to your daughter without "blowing up" your schedule. You don't have to spend days at every location, but I think striking more of a balance will make for a much more enjoyable trip.

I was thinking that renting a car might make more sense than trying to ship your own car back home. The cost would probably be similar, and you wouldn't have to worry about repairs on the road or putting the wear and tear on your own car. But I guess with your daughter's age, she probably wouldn't be able to help you with the driving if you went that route.