Loneliest Road

Dear Jamie

My husband and I are planning a trip across America using the Loneliest Road route which we both prefer. We were wondering if you could let us know roughly the time scale it would take to travel and the best month to go. We were planning it for our 40th Birthdays which is the end of September. We have a few years yet and we are enjoying planning the trip. Im sure we will have lots of other questions and need more help nearer the time. Also which of your books cover that route?

Thank you

Jo & Ken



=========>>>>>

Dear Jo & Ken --

Many thanks for writing in to Road Trip USA, and sorry it took me a while to get back to you.

You couldn't have chosen a better route to cross America than the "Loneliest Road" -- it is a fantastic journey. It has a little of everything -- scenery, history, culture -- and is also a lot of fun to drive. I cover the Loneliest Road at the heart of my big book, Road Trip USA, and am pleased to hear you'll be taking it as a birthday celebration.

So, here's an early "Happy Birthday to You"!...

The end of September is actually a pretty good time of year to travel the Loneliest Road, so you are in luck. The high mountain areas of the Sierra Nevada (around Lake Tahoe in California), and across the Rockies in Colorado, will be clear of snow and perhaps lined by "autumn colors" of aspen trees, and you'll get even more stunning foliage in the Appalachian section further east (across rural West Virginia in particular). There will still be some baseball games (an all-American pastime), but things in general will be less crowded than at the peak of summer, because kids will be back in school.

July and August sometimes have more festivals etc (the 4th of July for one is a big deal), and the weather generally stays good thru October, and anytime from May onwards should make for a good trip.

To do the whole shebang I'd recommend giving yourselves about 10 days (plus jet-lag recovery time, and however much time you want to spend in cities along the route, like San Francisco or Washington DC). The more time you have, the more fun you'll have, for sure.

Hope you get a chance to look at my book (which has a lot more info and ideas and pictures than I've fit onto the website), and that you manage to make this great trip.

Please do feel free to write again with any questions. For now,

Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA