The advice of having 6-hour driving days: Again, depending on your goals, but I’d toss that out the window at least for some portions of the trip. I assume both the boys are old enough to drive - and that would let you get past some “flyover” bits of the trip in fewer days.
When we were planning, we wanted to see Glacier National Park, but ultimately had to cut that from the list in favor of spending time in Grand Teton (with day trips up to Yellowstone). We did get there a year or so later - flew into Seattle and drove. It’s off the beaten track - approachable by US highways vs interstate. If you do the trip by train, there are stops there.
We also had to skip Crater Lake in Oregon (though we have NOT managed to see that yet).
If you’re doing a squared off route, you won’t see St. Louis and the Gateway Arch. Coming from NC, we got to see it - it’s pretty visible as you’re heading west in southern IL. In eastern Colorado, we could see the snow-capped Rockies for several hours before we got to anything remotely hilly.
If you are having a less-intense driving day (6-8 hours) and there’s a non-interstate option, take that - you’ll see more interesting stuff.
Use Yelp or similar to find local restaurants. If you eat at McDonalds, shame on you! :D. Aside from days where you just need to refuel yourself and get on the road soonest, of course. Even I agree that sometimes you just need to grab a meal at a known establishment, for expediency. If you are driving and have room in the car for the cooler, you may find you can have breakfast AND lunch nearly every day without visiting a restaurant - big cost savings there, with the tradeoff of needing to find a grocery store periodically.
When picking your “stay for a few days” location: consider what is within a couple hours drive, that you might want to see. On the long-ago trip, for example, we hunkered down in Colorado for a few days; one day in Colorado Springs to go up Pike’s Peak, then stayed with a friend in Fort Collins and did day trips (including to Rocky Mountain National Park).
At Grand Teton, we went up to Yellowstone twice and into Jackson a couple of times.
In Berkeley, we went to San Francisco and Napa Valley.
A few years back, we went to the southwest - and on the advice of some Dopers, based on the parks we wanted to visit, we stayed in Kanab, UT and did day trips to Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Canyon’s North Rim. 2 hours to each of them, 2 hours back, and a LOT less hassle with loading / unloading luggage.
What maps did you use to get 150 hours? Google Maps, which I’ve found to be pretty accurate, gives me about 110 hours from LA-Jacksonville-New York-Seattle-LA.
That route puts you close to DC, Chicago, Minneapolis, Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Devils Tower, Yellowstone, and some others all with a few extra hours of driving. Granted that’s a lot of highway driving, but out west you can easily do 70mph for a long time.
I’d say a month is a good amount of time to see a lot of things. You will not be able to spend says there, but at least get a good look at what’s there and figure out where you’d like to go later on for longer.
I disagree about some of the ‘flyover’ states being boring, there are some really nice places out there. Near the Mississippi in Iowa was nice, so are parts of Nebraska. You want boring, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia get really boring after a couple of hours on 95 or 81. It all starts looking the same there too.
I’d do it, hell I have done it a couple of times, and I’d like to do it again. Pick some places you’d like to see and go for it.
Note that some rental car companies will not offer unlimited mileage for a trip of this nature. Enterprise, for instance, says that mileage is typically unlimited within the state where the car was rented and its bordering states.
Slightly on the topic, I know two people who’ve “lapped America” by driving the entire perimeter, as much as roads would allow. One did it on a motorcycle, and the other in a Stinson airplane. Both claim it’s something well worth the effort and one of their most memorable times.
For high school graduation, I bought both kids new Corollas. My son took part of the summer to drive his the entire length of US1 (Key West to Maine). I thought that was the best use of a summer break, ever.
To the OP: I have no advice, just encouragement. I hope you get to do this! Please come back and tell us about it.
We once did a Southwest Indian ruins tour that was fun. Started at Alibates near Amarillo, then Bandelier, Petrogylph, Chaco Culture, Canyon de Chelly, Wupatki, Canyonlands, Canyon of the Ancients and ended with Mesa Verde. We got a bit 'ruin’ed out by the end although Mesa Verde was awesome, so kinda helped end on a high note.
A follow-up question.
Any opinions on the relative merits of travelling the north bound leg to Washingto/New York along the seaboad eg Jacksonville vs an inland route e.g. via Chattanooga
Unless you all really love driving, this sounds like it would be exhausting in a number of ways. And quite bad for tailbones and lumbar nerves.
(I’m kind of car-phobic though so just my 2 cents YMMV.)
Depends on whether you like beaches or mountains and how much time you have. The beach route takes you through Savannah and Charleston which are both exquisite towns and well-worth your time. Then, assuming you’re taking 95 it’s pretty blah until Petersburg. Of course, if you’re meandering along the coast, you have the Outer Banks and Virginia Beach. Norfolk has a few things to see and the whole Yorktown Peninsula is a complete vacation unto itself with tons to do if you’re a history buff.
The inland route has its own appeal. You can still see Savannah before you cut in. You go through Atlanta(which I still think is a hole, but to each their own.) Chattanooga has a couple of battlefields, but I don’t get the love for it. It’s not a bad town and it has a few things to do, but I wouldn’t think of it as a destination or anything. Anyway, you get to run the backbone of the Appalachians which can be pretty driving after Chattanooga. Great Smoky’s is a must stop and there’s more tourist stuff in that area than you can shake a stick at. Asheville is a very cool little town. From there, it’s mostly scenery until you get to Charlottesville where you can see Monticello and you’re close to Montpelier and Shenandoah NP.
I don’t know if I have an opinion on which is better. You get Savannah either way. Great Smoky’s is a great park; at the same time, Williamsburg and Jamestown are great stops and Charleston is awesome. If you’re in the Outer Banks, assuming the hurricane hasn’t destroyed it, it’s a very pretty and relaxing stop. Personally, we’d probably do the coastal route because I live in West Virginia and I live mountain culture and I’m staring at a mountain as I type this, so mountain sights to me aren’t particularly thrilling or special, while the coast is a bit different so feels more vacation-y.
Also, one can fly into Kalispell, which is how my wife and I have gotten there the last two times I was there.
Yeah, I meant to spend a night or two in Glacier, then head down to Yellowstone/Tetons. But Glacier had me the moment I saw the mountains behind Lake MacDonald as I drove in from the west. And if that wasn’t enough, later that week I found myself in the middle of a flock of bighorn sheep.
My heavens, if you’re doing I-10 from San Antonio to Jacksonville and just blow past New Orleans it had better be because all of y’all have been there before!
Seaboard route, definitely. I’ve done a fuckton of driving from Jax-Atlanta-Knoxville-Harrisburg-DC and that ATL-DC leg is pretty damned boring, especially I-81.
Now if you’re interested in showing your kids some of the shitholes of Appalachia, I-81 is your best bet, but I don’t feel that’s what you have in mind.
Or it could be because some of us wouldn’t cross the street to be in New Orleans.
YMMV, which is why the OP needs a lot of different opinions. The wider the data set, the more likely they will be able to derive a workable travel plan. I, for example, regard Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Ohio, Iowa, Idaho, Arkansas, West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Michigan, North Dakota and Rhode Island as “completely skippable, don’t even bother stopping for gas if you can help it” states. There will now follow a horde of people who are certain that this opinion is the wrong one, and who will elaborate on same, along with whether or not my parents were married.
The OP should definitely plan some time around things Oz doesn’t have, like mountains.
My route would go LA - Las Vegas - Grand Canyon, Zion - Antelope Canyon- Dallas- New Orleans - Savannah -Charleston - Williamsburg - Charlottesville- Shenandoah- DC -Philly- NYC- Boston- Niagra Falls- Chicago- Minneapolis-Yellowstone-Glacier- Seattle-Portland-San Fran- Sequoia -LA.
You want to plan stuff around mountains and you’re skipping both West Virginia and Idaho? The ‘Mountain State’ and the ‘Gem of the Mountains’? You’re talking at cross purposes friend. West Virginia is the archetype of the Appalachians. It’s the only state that is completely within them (Actually the only state completely within any mountain range in the US) and River of No Return in Idaho is the largest contiguous wilderness area in the country outside of Alaska. You’re also skipping Arkansas which typifies the Ozarks and contains the Boston range.
I’ll agree that some of your list sucks. It’s hard to find much to love about Iowa, Nebraska or Kansas - (although the upper Platte Valley near the Wyoming border is pretty and Tallgrass is worth a stop if you’re in the area. Iowa is just Iowa, not much to recommend it. Sorry Iowans.) Oklahoma can be rough too unless you’re into Native American culture. You’ve missed the boat on Mississippi and Alabama. They are full of culture. Natchez and Vicksburg are great cities. Alabama IS the Civil Rights movement. A trip to Birmingham should be required for every high school student. Mobile and Gulf Shores are nice stops as well. Ohio is the most mediocre state in the country. The only thing that I can recommend there is the Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati. It’s seriously worth your time especially if you have kids-although the exhibits on sex trafficking can be tough on them. Rhode Island is really just for rich people, but Touro Synagogue is worth a stop. The first synagogue in the US (Trinity Church is worth a stop if you’ve already dealt with the freaking parking anyway.) and here’s something that will get me in trouble from Mainers, but I’m going to say it anyway-The Easton Beach Snackbar in Newport has the best lobster rolls in the country. They are perfect in every way.
Southern Michigan is rough, but Sleeping Bear Dunes and Mackinac Island are both very nice trips. Mackinac is cool just because of the ban on all motorized vehicles. It’s neat to be in a place where it’s walking, biking or horseback only. It’s pretty as well, but it too has its share of rich people (True story - we were walking past the Governor’s Mansion on the back road around to the Grand and some dillweed doesn’t yell fore and plunks me with a golf ball. This probably would have been 94 or so, so I was likely wearing grunge clothes and I know that at least one of my cousins was with me. We’re like, “What the heck, man?” and he starts laughing at us and tells us we should have gotten out of the way. So we charge at him and it turns into a shoving and shouting match between these four golfers and us. Anyway, we eventually cooled off and no one ended up hurt, but fun times.)
North Dakota is mostly blah last time I was there (Another fun story, we were on our way south from Estevan, Sask - no idea why we were there. Maybe to see the site of the riots, seems like something we would have wanted to see, anyway- we’re driving south from Williston to Medora and we get on the west route between Alexander and Beach. We’re getting hungry and on the map there’s this town called Trotters - this musthave been pre-2001 because we ran the border near Ambrose and nowadays that would get you shot, but back then some guy just came out of the shed and shook his fist at us. We stopped and turned around and said we were Americans and he said “Fine, but stop next time.” and waved us on. - anyway, back to Trotters. There were no google maps or street views, so we figured there had to be something there. We were driving for 45 minutes with nothing on the road at all, like literally nothing. No houses, no barns, just nothing and we’re all looking forward to getting something to eat in freaking Trotters. Anyway, we drive through it and it’s literally a church, a house and a barn. The whole town and it’s the only thing for 45 miles on either side of it.
Anyway, back to North Dakota. It has my favorite National Park. Theodore Roosevelt in Medora. Back in the 90s, it was completely unsung and amazing. The south unit had very few people. You might see three other cars on the loop road if you were driving it and the North Unit you had completely to yourself. It was one of the few parks that I’ve been to where you felt like ‘This must have been what it was like back in the day.’ Just isolated prairie cut with ravine and large bison herds with hundreds of individuals and wild horses. Last time I was there, the Bakken boom brought probably twice as many tourists, so it’s not quite the gem it used to be, but the north unit is still isolated enough that you can get that feel. I’ve been to 31 of the 60 National Parks and Teddy Roosevelt is my favorite.
Agree on this one. Most US cities have just become cookie cutter towns with the same vague areas and same vague architecture and same vague culture. They all have a hipster area and a Whole Foods and the same music scene that sounds like every other music scene and a museum district with the exact same museums and shopping areas with the exact same stores and an ethnic area that has some sort of ethnic specialty that is always vaguely disappointing and the same types of restaurants with whatever the ‘in’ thing to have is. I think it was Conor Friedersdorf from the Atlantic that wrote about how America for all of its diversity has managed to cultivate a shared sense of ‘sameness’ from one end of the country to the other. Anyway, New Orleans has some of those features and the French Quarter is just adult Disneyland, but in many ways, it is its own place that has managed to fight the ravages of homogeneity that has grabbed so many other cities. It’s a must see.
