Traveling Across the Country

SiverMike

SiverMike

Active member
So I recently decided to take some time off of school, and after thinking about what I'm going to do this summer, I've come to the realization that I need to hit the road.
I still have no idea what exactly I am going to do or where I am going to go, but I live near Boston and I'm hopefully going to end up in Northern California or Oregon. I need to decide what routes to take, and whether I'll be driving, hopping trains, or hitchhiking. I need to know how much money I need to save to be able to last for a few months living as cheaply as possible.
So my question to all of you is, do you have any advice? similar experiences? any websites or forums that discuss traveling, life on the road and guides to living cheaply? any ideas or nice people out there who may want to offer a fellow skiier a place to crash out west for a few days? im a pretty nice kid, deadhead at heart,
anyways any and all help is much appreciated.
 
i was going to drive down from ct to florida last summer with some friends. we got to north carolina and just ended up staying there for a week. driving long distances can be fun, but it can kinda suck. we found a sick place to chill and just made it last. a real good tip would be that if you drive, wal-mart allows you to park and sleep in their parking lots legally. i.e. camping in their lots is straight with the law. hope that helps at all. and hope the gas prices stay this cheap haha
 
your gonna want atleast 1500 for gas period, i would factor in annother grand for food and play money. and 500 emergency. i drove from ohio to so cal last summer, stopped in estes park, co for a week. and then stopped in moab for a week and off roaded and saw all the arches and whatnot, then stayed in vegas for 3 days. cali for 4 weeks, and drove back home, visited my aunt in kansas on the way back. i had a bit more money to play with though, i camped in moab, and two nights in colorado, the rest i stayed in best westerns since i got a discount with AAA.

my advice to you is to camp as much as possible, and stay in a decent hotel to get a good nights rest in a bed when you really need it, or to shower or do w/e you need to do. its a pretty fun drive once you get past the flat states. have you considered driving the northern route there, and driving down the coast of cali then coming back from the south and cutting up the east coast? thats what we did, it was pretty fun.
 
i spent under 225 to drive from CT to CO and my car gets 14mpg on the highway, i think you over estimated that one a little.
my advice for driving is to find a friend to drive with, if not get a couple good books on tape. Also find a lot of adderal/concerta popping a couple of those can make driving long distances a lot more bearable and interesting.
 
borrow a van/suv from someone you know. install foam padding/sheets/pillow, radio w/ipod hookup, apple spice air fresheners, food, drink, skis, cash ($1500+), friend(s), skis, gas, clothes, and perhaps a dvd player in the van/suv wouldnt hurt. when you have all this, find a gps, set it for mt. hood oregon, start the van/suv, then slam on the gas.

you will be on I 90 for a VERY long time, then I 80 for a VERY long time, then I 84 for a VERY long time. approx. time from fenway park to mt. hood: 1 day 22 hours, passing through 11 states. i have no idea why i just went through all that haha. but mt. hood is sick you should def check it out. but ive always wanted to go to tahoe... it would cut 3 hours off your trip if you went to tahoe haha
 
hey thanks for the suggestions/help

but im still not sure whether driving is the way to go. If anyone knows of any forums or websites that cover the topic of being on the road/ experiences on the road that would be super helpful.
 
what are you looking for as far as being on the road?

best advise i can give is like someone above me said, get a van.. sips the gas, and you have plenty of room.

the farthest i have gone non stop is UT, FL, and TN... just be sure to get multiple drivers.
 
thats tops 1700 miles. the estimated distance from ct to co just into mapquest is 1990 miles. that doesn't include the way back.
 
sorry, forgot about the way back, and our trip was just over 2100 miles, and we filled 8 tanks of gas, even if his trip was 6000 miles, roughly the distance of across the country and back, and he got as shitty gas millage as my car, he would need to fill his car about 20 times, with gas prices the way they are now, you can fill your tank for about 27 bucks, thats only $540 needed for gas, say gas prices go up, which they are doing, and it costs him 40 bucks to fill his tank, thats still only $800 needed for gas. so yes, $1500 was a little bit of an over estimation
 
i have a 00 pathfinder that for one is severally under powered, and getting pretty old now, and i bet the massive thule box doesn't help. I used to get about 10mpg on the highway ha, then i put some fuel injector cleaner in and it got bumped up to 14-15...and to think i was about to get an f250 but then i thought i would get butt raped on gas
 
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