USA road trips

[RonBoyd]

[QUOTE=grasshopper;1246213]Summer of 1974 in a 53 Hp VW split-window Bus.QUOTE]

That must have been fantastic! Things were so much different in 1974 than they are now. I hope you (someone) took some photographs of this.

Coincidentally, 1974 was the year of our first "real" adventure of this sort -- we visited Devils Tower, Yellowstone, and Dinosaur on the way to Denver for our first family trip to Hawaii.

I do have one question though. Did you return by the same route or was this some kind of "relocation"?

[shortstop14]

Planning a trip to follow the Lewis and Clark trail next year, taking our kayaks to take some day trips on the water along the way.

Back in the late 70s, we took a trip from Rochester NY south through the Florida Keys, then west to New Orleans, though Texas and New Mexico and Arizona, up to Las Vegas, down to San Diego and up the coastal highways to Portland, and then back to Rochester. Two months in a Chevy Chevette with a cheap leaky tent and barely enough cash for gas and food. Great trip, might need to do that again.

[grasshopper]

[QUOTE=RonBoyd;1246220]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grasshopper Summer of 1974 in a 53 Hp VW split-window Bus.QUOTE] That must have been fantastic! Things were so much different in 1974 than they are now. I hope you (someone) took some photographs of this. Coincidentally, 1974 was the year of our first "real" adventure of this sort -- we visited Devils Tower, Yellowstone, and Dinosaur on the way to Denver for our first family trip to Hawaii. I do have one question though. Did you return by the same route or was this some kind of "relocation"?

It was a return trip back East after several years of college. I actually hitchhiked out.

[RonBoyd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shortstop14 Planning a trip to follow the Lewis and Clark trail next year, taking our kayaks to take some day trips on the water along the way. Two months in a Chevy Chevette with a cheap leaky tent and barely enough cash for gas and food. Great trip, might need to do that again.

I am a descendant of the oldest member of the Corps of Discovery, John Shields, (Well, he was my 6th great grandfather's brother). You will be amazed at what they were able to do in 1804.

The trip I mentioned earlier was just as Spartan. Brenda and I slept on the ground outside the 10-year old Buick in really cheap sleeping bags while our two children slept in the car. Everything we had was spent on our trip to Hawaii -- I had lost my job (I quit) two weeks earlier and had no idea what I was going to do when we returned.

I would love to do it again.

[kumquat]

Depending on what you like to see, you might want to try the Top of the World Highway. Then to other Alaskan places. It got on my list after a trip for the full length of the Dempster Highway. Not a 3-4 day trip, however.

[BellBarbara]

We just did a 18 day road trip from Boston, through the Smokies, down to Nashville, and back. We used our Prius. :-) We camped a few nights, but ended up staying in motels which are cheap in the south. We set a budget for food each day of $60. We tended to eat two meals and share food. We made our own coffee on the camp stove and instant oatmeal.

Motels were $45 - 65 or so. I recommend the Microtel chain - clean and cheap.

We LOVED this trip and will be doing more of this in the spring.

[tkopel]

For our honeymoon my hubby and I took a 10 day road trip from LA to Seattle via the coastal highways. Had our 1960 Cadillac towing a camper. Had no plan, stopped when we felt like it and saw some amazing things. Highlights were: Sea Lion caves in Oregon, drive thru tree in California, Tillamook Cheese Factory in Oregon Monterey Aquarium in California. Our dream is to retire an be RVers, America has too much cool stuff to see!

[ohyes]

Getting some great ideas for road trips, especially since we want to head west next time.

We just returned from two week road trip to Portland, ME and back. When the kids were young, we always took interstates to save time and money. This trip, just the two of us, we did take interstates to Maine, but the fun was the trip back.

We drove Route 1 until just north of Baltimore. It was time for rush hour traffic, so we headed west. From N-S Virginia, we took Route 11 and loved it. At some point, we got lost and ended up on a winding Buffalo Road which ran along Buffalo Creek. It was beautiful, but the GPS acted confused. We saw a huge Confederate flag flying and a sign on a worn metal building which said "A**hole's Garage". We decided to claw our way back to where the GPS would pick us up again...and thankfully did just that.

From West Memphis to North Little Rock, we drove Hwy 70 (along I-40). Almost my entire life has been spent in AR and i do not remember travelling that stretch.

We would leave hotel each morning between 9-10 and drive until 5-7PM. It was so much more interesting than those Interstate trips. Took a couple days longer, but so worth it.

[Badger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grasshopper Summer of 1974 in a 53 Hp VW split-window Bus. Attachment 15382

I did similar trips each summer in the 70's for a month at a time. We either headed west from Florida or north to Maritime Provences in Canada. We had a 72 then a 70 VW Baywindow bus that I outfitted for sleeping and camping. Even with a limited budget of about $400 that had to pay for everything including gas we saw a lot of national and state parks and some real interesting country. Sure would like to do it again but I no longer have the VW and a Roadtrek is out of our budget. I'm getting too creaky for sleeping on the ground so I suppose I would have to risk inexpensive motels.

Cheers!

[Birchwood]

My plan is to use the vehicles we have for a while, to experience some shorter trips. We plan to stay at cheaper motels, motel 6, super 8 and microtels.

If we like the lifestyle, we'll use my truck to drive to Alaska with a camper cap.
We'll trade the two cars to a minivan, so I can fold the rear seats and lie down to rest in those longer trips.

I didn't realize how expensive those roadtreks vans! I don't know if my wife would like the camper's lifestyle.

[Ronnieboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ohyes Getting some great ideas for road trips, especially since we want to head west next time. We just returned from two week road trip to Portland, ME and back. When the kids were young, we always took interstates to save time and money. This trip, just the two of us, we did take interstates to Maine, but the fun was the trip back. We drove Route 1 until just north of Baltimore. It was time for rush hour traffic, so we headed west. From N-S Virginia, we took Route 11 and loved it. At some point, we got lost and ended up on a winding Buffalo Road which ran along Buffalo Creek. It was beautiful, but the GPS acted confused. We saw a huge Confederate flag flying and a sign on a worn metal building which said "A**hole's Garage". We decided to claw our way back to where the GPS would pick us up again...and thankfully did just that. From West Memphis to North Little Rock, we drove Hwy 70 (along I-40). Almost my entire life has been spent in AR and i do not remember travelling that stretch. We would leave hotel each morning between 9-10 and drive until 5-7PM. It was so much more interesting than those Interstate trips. Took a couple days longer, but so worth it.

Sounds like a great trip.